Occupy Oakland: The Vultures are Descending. Update.

They've been waiting and circling, ever since Scott Olsen took center stage. Knowing that at some point the bunch of people known as #OccupyOakland, a group with widely differing perspectives and goals, would commit an unforced error.

And so it was that in the early hours of Thursday morning, after most of the watching world and the marchers had gone to sleep content in the knowledge that they had achieved something significant, the event took place which the vultures were waiting for. You know of what I speak.

And once it happened, the floodgates opened.

The media and the pundits again began to strafe the #Occupy movement, unleashing on the public videos of fires in the street instead of the 10,000 people peacefully marching to the Port of Oakland.

A member of the Oakland City Council could see his way through to tell the protesters to "Go to Houston!" (as in, that's where the big corporations are, so LEAVE US ALONE!) without fear of reproach.

The local Chamber of Commerce could feel secure enough to once again condemn #OccupyOakland, claiming it was "bad for business" and that the encampment "be shutdown."

The Oakland police chief could feel comfortable enough in his job again that he could blatantly lie in front of the City Council, the public and the cameras, saying

"My officers showed great restraint."

(In the context of last Tuesday night, when they nearly killed Scott Olsen).

Jean Quan, the Mayor of Oakland and student of the Mitt Romney school of flipflopflipflopflipflipflop, could now start threatening the encampment again. She could once again bemoan the "cost" of #OccupyOakland without fear of anyone pointing out to her the irony that she made the decisions that were responsible for the vast majority of that cost.  Now she could claim, in all seriousness, that because she ordered such a vast police action, making Oakland the focus of the #Occupy movement, the city could no longer afford to deal with the movement. That because of decisions she herself was responsible for, which could result in huge legal settlements to the city, the city could no longer afford to have peaceful protests.

Have no doubts whatsoever. The possibility that the City will move against the encampment has grown exponentially. The vultures are no longer circling. They are starting to descend. But their prey is not dead and will likely neither give up its territory nor it's flesh without a battle that cannot but turn violent.

If you want to stop the Mayor and the City of Oakland from a repeat performance, this time with deaths likely written into the plot, there is still time to tell them to stop. Whether they will listen is anyone's guess.  But at least they will be reminded, yet again, that

The Whole World Is Watching

Oakland Mayor

Jean Quan
510-238-3141
Contact form

Oakland City Council

Jane Brunner
District 1
510-238-7001  
[e-mail]
Chief of Staff: Zac Wald
238-7013
[e-mail]

Pat Kernighan
District 2
510-238-7002
[e-mail]
Chief of Staff: Jennie Gerard
510-238-7023
[e-mail]

Nancy Nadel
District 3
510-238-7003
[e-mail]
Admin. Asst.: Teresa Jackson
510-238-7245
[e-mail]

Libby Schaaf
District 4
510-238-7004
[e-mail]

Ignatio De La Fuente
District 5
510-238-7005
[e-mail]
Staff:
  Claudia Jimenez 510-238-7051
  Lisa Ruhland 510 238-7247

Desley Brooks
District 6
510-238-7006
[e-mail]
Aide: Teron McGrew, 510-777-8427  
  [e-mail]

Larry Reid, Council President
District 7
510-238-7007
[e-mail]

Rebecca Kaplan
At Large
510-238-7008
[e-mail]
Media contact:
  Jason Overman
  510-238-7082  
  [e-mail]
Chief of Staff:
  Andre Jones
  510-238-7081  
  [e-mail]
Twitter: @Kaplan4Oakland

3:59 PM PT: Check out this excellent letter from a veteran to the Oakland City Council:

http://www.dailykos.com/...