OK. I'm sick of being outraged about the disgusting war zone in Oakland. It's time to fight back. Today is a good day to start. If you have LEO friends and relatives in the state, please weigh in. This is a working group and action diary. My perspectives come from the words of advice my own husband, a LEO officer, albeit not from California, has said about these incidents. And a few of my own ideas.
Chime in with your own.
FIRST
It has been reported that many of the "officers" have not been wearing their name tags/badges. If they aren't wearing a name badge or tag they are not working "under color of law". Any LEO has to be able to identify himself as an officer of the law. If it's true that some badges were not displayed, in Florida, this would have been a violation of the requirement of the Department of Law Enforcement and could have prompted a (potential) decertification of the department and the possibility of immediate department shut down until officers came into compliance. I'm not sure what the law is in California. But this is a real problem and one that should be documented immediately by people on scene.
ACTION: People on scene should plan to get up close and personal with the officers. Take a few pictures or take some video while asking them "Where is your badge?" Have a plan to quickly hand off the camera or the video camera to someone who will "get lost" in a crowd quickly. Make sure that the video or pictures contain an entire body shot. Make sure you set up several teams to do this. And expect the "confronter" to be arrested. Immediately forward the picture and video to the Attorney General's Office. In Florida this would go directly to FDLE (Florida Department of Law Enforcement). I'm not sure where it goes in California. But I DO know that no police officer has the right to act under color of law without a displayed badge. And for that matter, it's why even military soldiers have to wear their tags on combat. Otherwise ANYONE could suit up with the same garments and exercise police (or military) actions.
SECOND
The Oakland Police Department is explicitly prohibited from the use of certain non-lethal weaponry as a means of crowd control as a result of a settlement agreement made after 53 people were injured in the 2003 anti-war protests. It's obvious that this department (or whomever is wearing that gear - we don't know who they actually are because they aren't wearing badges. Maybe they're just a bunch of anarchists shipped in from somewhere) is using non-lethal weapons as a means to try to "control a crowd". This is a violation that needs to be taken up with the State Attorney General.
ACTION: Time for those of us NOT in Oakland to get loud about this. Call the Attorney General's Office and/or the National Police Accountability Project.
THIRD
Media. It's time to make sure the RIGHT message is getting to the media on this.
Flooding them with photos, videos and personal accounts is a requirement. Not only should we be targeting local media but places like CNN, AP and others. We need to scan their pages and actively attack when they print erroneous information. As a group we need to let THEM know they had better be damned sure what they write is correct or at least a balanced account before they hit "send". This is going to be as much about perception as anything. The police are obviously very interested in creating a perception of violent protesters. Our media is lazy. We have to make them scared to be lazy honest.
ACTION: Scour the news wires today and rally your friend and other Kossacks to respond forcefully to wrong reports.
CNN
AP
FOURTH
A plan and a discussion needs to be taking place as to how to turn this around on the "department" (or whomever it is out there wearing riot gear and provoking violence. namer badges would be helpful). This is a good thread to have that discussion. The goal need to be to expose any agent provocateur tactics, where ever they are. And also to document the abuse.
Here's one idea I have to get your ideas flowing. Please add others in the comments.
ACTION:
1) I personally favor the idea of a strong military presence from our buddies at Occupy Marines or Occupy Army etc, for starters. Perhaps. So let's rally the troops. If you;'re on facebook, please post to their wall that if they are nearby, their service is needed, in what looks like a freakin' war zone.
2) I also think it would be smart, if possible, to place crews with very powerful cameras (and great lenses) in buildings surrounding the action. The occupiers could move the police toward those locations rather easily. There must me literally tens of thousands of camera operators in central california. Finding a good "protest" spot, surrounded by plenty of buildings (preferably apartments where cameramen can get permission to set up their equipment) would be, IMO, a smart move.
Let's get active. Our brothers and sisters in Oakland are literally under siege and living in a war zone. It's insane. It's time to act.
California Attorney General