Occupy Oakland is being evicted as of this writing – 75 people arrested and tear gas was used.
This live steam shows gives up to the second reports about the pre-dawn raid that started at 4:30 AM, and is going on now. This blogger, back from Georgia, was wakened by the large sound of helicopters. The last time that sound was so great was during the riots after the murder of Oscar Grant. On that night, Downtown Oakland was a war zone.
This is different.
After giving an eviction notice because conditions were, in the view of the City of Oakland, becoming unsafe, there were rumblings that Oakland police were going to raid Oakland City Hall / Frank Ogawa Plaza, and they’re doing it now.
But the Oakland Police are not acting alone: according to the live stream from a protestor above (and that goes in and out depending on what’s happening in what’s become a no-person’s zone in downtown Oakland) there are police from many different Alameda County city police organizations, and the California Highway Patrol.
Right now, it sounds like bedlam down there.
Given the read I’m taking of the live stream chat I’m reading over at Raw Story, I’m not sure this is a good idea.
People from as far away as France are watching this, and at times the stream has reached over 2,800 viewers at once. Many are saying they will get involved as a result of this raid. Some of the people watching were as far away as France.
Right now, the police cops are here in force; the protestors have blocked the camp. The police are using a SOUND CANNON against the protestors.
UPDATE:
Got this from Oaklander Max Allstadt:
Lots of rumors down there. I was in the Plaza when the cops showed up, watched the entire thing, got out of the way when it got ugly, got back in afterwards to get my bike because I know enough OPD officers to find one who’d let me in.
No sound cannon. People repeatedly mistook a speaker truck for an LRAD sound cannon.
I saw one tear gas grenade go off. There were a few shots from air rifles designed to fire non-lethal ammo. That’s about all I saw of weapons use. The rest was just force of numbers. At least 10 police agencies were there. Cops outnumbered protesters. And they showed up very very fast and quietly before, fully mobilized in 5 minutes, made announcements for 10 minutes, took over the whole plaza in less than 15 minutes.
I was there from 3:30 to 6am.
Police are moving in.