Early this morning in Oakland, California, some 300-500 police brought weapons including flash-bang grenades, tear gas, rubber bullets, and shotguns to break up and arrest a large encampment of "Occupy" protesters. There are reports of many injuries among demonstrators. Extensive photos here.

  • Souse

    [Gabe] Meyers added, “The cops are the 99 percent, but they’re doing the work
    of the 1 percent. Wall Street is proud of them every time they clear out
    an encampment.”

    Welcome to our new Thugocracy — our motto, “I’m just doing my job.”

    • capnmarrrrk

      It’s been seen time and time again: Wherever the people show discontent, there’s always someone there waiting to put the boot in their faces. The think PKD was right: The Empire never ended.

    • ernunnos

      Why not? Works for the guy in the White House.

  • Jellybit

    Baltimore set a deadline of tonight for Occupy Baltimore.  I don’t know what’s going to happen.

    http://occupybmore.org/users/admin/blog/city-sets-deadline-occupy-baltimore-dispersal

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1128324543 Ken Ballweg

    This only happens when the “silent majority” allows it. The top simply controls the media that gives the impression that “this is not the way we do things” and then the police are allowed to “clean it up.” So it was in the 70′s until the size of the protests, the actual marches, against Viet Nam started to include the middle and undecided voters.

    People may sympathize, but until they actually march it will be The Money, not The Man who decides where these demonstrations are confronted with force. And The Money will do it by control of propaganda coloring the view of the protest. 

    It’s ironic that Oakland, with it’s closeness to Berkley would be the first to react. How the East Bay OWS responds will tell you a lot about whether this is a protest with legs. 

  • ahwoo

    This movementprotest is reaching the ‘shit or get off the pot’ moment. The cops are too restrained to ‘shoot’ a protester yet and the protesters are not quite angry enough to fight back.

  • Guest

    This police brutality is noteworthy and all, but what is the man behind the curtan up to?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1128324543 Ken Ballweg

    Ahwoo,
    The big lesson from the 70′s was Gandhi all the way. If by “fight” you mean act out like the anarchist demonstrations in Seattle and other places, or the radical environmentalists burning SUVs in Oregon, then the movement will deliver the “not the way we do things” message loud and clear, and then you will see a very big force with clubs beat the shite out of a much smaller force. And it won’t come off like Tahrir Square.

    Until a clear majority much like all those who went to Washington D.C. for the Stewart/Colbert moment march and rally in major cities, OWS will be much like the Tea Party, a marginal group more useful to the far right to rally it’s base than it is able to influence “middle America.”

    Fight with numbers or it’s lost.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jon.munger Jon Munger

    Oakland PD acting like a bunch of psychotic paramilitary asshats? I find that hard to believe. /sarcasm.

  • ChicagoD

    Was the character of Occupy Oakland really different from some of the other groups nationwide? I mean, in Chicago there were arrests for trying to occupy part of a public park, but by all accounts the actual arrests were civil, and the police asked people point-blank (so to speak) if they wanted to be arrested. Now, there is some grumbling about how long detention was etc., but rubber bullets and shotguns? What the hell, Oaktown?

  • Øyvind

    For every week that goes by, and every news story like this, I’m reminded of Bill Hicks:

    “Go back to bed, America, your
    government has figured out how it all transpired. Go back to bed
    America, your government is in control. Here, here’s American
    Gladiators. Watch this, shut up, go back to bed America, here is
    American Gladiators, here is 56 channels of it! Watch these pituitary
    retards bang their fucking skulls together and congratulate you on the
    living in the land of freedom. Here you go America – you are free to do
    what well tell you! You are free to do what we tell you!”

    not to mention this one:

    ‘Cuz I’ll tell you who the threat to freedom… no, no, not to freedom. I’ll tell you who the threat to the status quo is in this country: it’s us. That’s why they show you shows like fuckin’ COPS. So you know that state power will win and we’ll bust your house down and we’ll fuckin’ bust you anytime we want. That’s the message.”

  • http://twitter.com/james4765 Jim Nelson

    Fucking flash-bang grenades and tear gas? Who in the hell decided that that was necessary? Against people camping in a public park?

    I’ve heard of problems with the Oakland PD before, but this is Cops Gone Wild – getting their motherfucking gun off for no good reason, other than that they’re hippies or commies or something – don’t matter, we’re gonna thump ‘em!

    And I’m pretty sure the city budget won’t like the lawsuits they’ll get hit with, either.

  • EH

    Saddam Hussein gassed his people.

  • http://twitter.com/ssavitzky Steve Savitzky

    I remember the protests at Stanford in the early ’70s — they brought in the Oakland police when they wanted thugs.  Seems some things don’t change.