I Occupied Oakland

Well at least for a couple of hours.

All Photos: Zunguzungu

Since I've been talking so much about the different Occupy Wall Street events that are spreading rapidly across the country, I decided it was time for me to go and experience one first hand.

So early Saturday evening we went down to the Oakland City Center to take a look.


I must admit, I was very impressed with the group. The "camp" (that's what they were calling it) is located in Frank Ogawa Plaza. It was surprisingly very organized.

all photos: Zunguzungu

Their were about 170 tents (up from the 20 tents there on Wednesday). They were neatly (but very closely) situated in the middle of the square. There were people of all ages, colors and from all walks of life. There were children, babies and even a few dogs hanging out. The group was orderly and pretty quiet considering the number of people there. There was an announcement made later in the evening about some open areas where people might want to locate their tents.

When we arrived, it was dinner time, (although the camp serves food 24/7). There was a kitchen tent with big pots and trays of food. The savory aroma food and Marijuana (let's keep it real here) enveloped the camp. People were patiently standing in line waiting their turn. The plates I saw were piled high with food.

There were other tents designated for Media, tents for all the different committees, including a Red Cross tent. Sort of like a little city within a city. There was even a tent staffed by a group whose purpose was to mediate for you if you were having trouble with your tent neighbor.  All of this going on right near the steps to City Hall. Amazing!

After dinner, around 7pm everyone gathered for the "general assembly". This event, I found fascinating. They had people randomly line up to speak.  This portion was to last 30 minutes and the topic was "should they or should they not make a list of demands". When it was your turn to speak you went to the middle of the stage area and with a mic, gave your opinion. The crowd would clap and cheer. It seemed that most people were in favor of "no demands". At least for the present.

I thought one of the best opinions came from a lady who simply said, "C'mon, they already know what we want, we have given them a list. And they've said "no". That's why we're here. So why should we give them another list?"  Most people also agreed that the message should be uniform across all the Occupy sites. Their process was to take a vote later in the evening with a 90% majority to approve the decision. Very democratic.  After all the speakers they went through the rest of the events for the evening (which I'm sure would take them way into the night.

But, guess what I didn't see?. There were NO Oakland Police. Not a one. That was a nice feeling. A good many people in Oakland have a long history of friction and mistrust with the OPD. Tonight anyway, the  people of the camp were able to carry on their affairs without the watchful eyes of the law. (Now, of course I don't believe for one second that there weren't some in plain clothes milling about pretending to be protestors. But, they were not conspicuously obvious) and there were no incidents that I know of.

As we were leaving, I noticed a sign on the side of a tent that caught my eye. It read: "We have awakened and we're not going back to sleep"

I hope that's true. Time will tell.

I'm Just Sayin!