Sunday, May 24, 2015

This is Not Going to Turn Out Well (Oakland Destruction Edition)

As I have pointed out before, Oakland, California is one of the most radical protest cities in the United States.

There is a small but very hardcore contingent of leftist-anarchists in the city that are part of the general contingent of lefty protesters. As best as I can tell most of the lefty-anarchists were not born and bred in the city. They really come from all over the country and some from overseas.


Their desire is to see the current structure of society burned to the ground. They expect some kind of new wonderful society to emerge phoenix like from the ashes.

Oakland works for them as ground zero becasue, as I say, there are many other lefty protesters in the area, and assorted troublemakers. With so many protests going on, they have plenty of opportunities to mix in with others and wreak havoc.

With the recent spate of cop shootings of blacks, there have been many opportunities for protesting, with the accompanying destruction by the lefty-anarchists, and general troublemakers joining in.

This is a sample of what went down on May 1:

At the first of the year,  Libby Schaaf  became the new Mayor of the City of Protests, and, responding to pressure, she apparently is going to try new tactics to stop the vandalism accompanying protests.

This is what the San Francisco Chronicle reported yesterday:
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, roundly criticized after vandals damaged multiple businesses during a May Day protest, has apparently had enough and ordered a change to how the city handles after-hours demonstrations.
The first sign of the change came Thursday night, when police ordered about 200 marchers off of the street and onto the sidewalk if they wanted to continue their demonstration after nightfall.
“It was like we’d spray-painted and thrown bottles,” said organizer Cat Brooks, who was surprised by the crackdown. “We’d been singing songs and talking about the beauty of being a black woman.”
The march, which started from Frank Ogawa Plaza at 8 p.m., was an extension of events held nationally throughout the day to denounce police violence against African American women. Police in riot gear were stationed throughout the plaza before the demonstration began, Brooks said. As soon as the sun set, police began herding the crowd off the roadway.
The city’s action prompted criticism by several people on social media, some of whom claimed the city was instituting a curfew or had passed a new ordinance.
Schaaf spokeswoman Erica Derryck released a carefully worded statement saying the city hasn’t approved any new laws or policies, but instead is using existing laws and policies to make sure protests don’t devolve into violence and vandalism. She did not specify what those were.
“This is how we ensure that freedom of expression is not compromised by unlawful activity and demonstrators, bystanders, motorists and property are kept safe,” the statement read. “Better crowd management that gets demonstrators out of the roadways, onto sidewalks and into safe gathering spaces after sunset protects everyone’s safety and supports free speech and assembly.”
It’s become routine in Oakland for protesters to clog the main downtown corridors as they march without permits. According to Police Chief Sean Whent, the city sees 100 such protests per year. Many of them devolve into chaos after dark, with small groups of vandals breaking off to smash windows, set trash cans ablaze and cover buildings in graffiti.

There isn't a single libertarian in any of these groups that protest, but most hate the police and hate the establishment. The attempt to keep them off the streets and on the sidewalks is not going to be viewed positively by them. I'm guessing it will give them another reason to protest and to protest with abandon. Stay tuned.

-RW

UPDATE: Well that didn't take long. The SF Chronicle is reporting tonight:
Protesters successfully marched through Oakland Streets after sunset on Saturday in defiance of Mayor Libby Schaaf’s policy of shutting down unlawful assemblies at night in her effort to protect businesses from protest-related violence and vandalism.
Unlike a demonstration earlier in the week, police did not order the marchers to get off the streets and stay on sidewalks but instead allowed them to walk a few blocks from City Hall to their destination, the Oakland police headquarters.
Police also closely monitored the demonstrators’ every move and repeatedly warned them via loudspeaker that no destruction of property would be tolerated. Having reached their destination, some protesters left and the remaining group began heading to Jack London Square. But at around 9 p.m., police declared the gathering an “unlawful assembly” and threatened to make arrests. The remaining demonstrators, less than 50, refused to budge and sat in the middle of the street, singing.
The tense confrontation underscored the difficult Oakland leaders face in trying to balance the demands of people who wish to freely demonstrate and businesses that want assurances from the city that their properties won’t be damaged... 
There were nearly as many police officers as protesters and they initially attempted to move the demonstrators onto the sidewalks then announced via loudspeaker that the marchers would be allowed to march so long as they did not commit crimes.
At least one protester was arrested after a confrontation with police.

UPDATE 2








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1 comment:

  1. NY CynicMay 24, 2015 at 8:06 AM

    If Libby Schaaf had any kind of intelligence she would call for suspension of California's fascist gun laws and tell Jerry Brown to screw off. Violent leftists would think twice (in theory) about destroying property of armed people, plus we would have a good chance of seeing leftists and coproaches killing each other off.

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