Oakland CA Police Dept. spies on and beats protesters

[pinboy3niner]

Source: San Francisco Bay Guardian

Public records show monitoring, use of force

03.13.12 - 4:35 pm | Yael Chanoff


Oakland Police Department's internal communications about the Occupy Oakland movement — which the Guardian obtained through the California Public Records Act — confirm what many protesters already know: plainclothes officers frequent meetings, police monitor Occupy Oakland's online communications, anarchists are feared, and police use of force that injures protesters, often brutally, is common practice.


The documents include meeting notes and activity logs from Oct. 25, when officers from Oakland and nearby cities infamously tried to dismantle the tents in front of City Hall. In a confrontation lasting more than 24 hours, officers deployed tear gas, rubber bullets, flash bang grenades and pepper bombs, injuring dozens, including Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old veteran who had served two tours in Iraq.


Logs from Nov. 2-3 — during Oakland's general strike, first port shutdown, and occupation of the Travelers Aid Society building — also detail the use of tear gas and other "less than lethal" weaponry and injuries. In total, the reports on arrests and use of force, as well as complaints filed with the OPD, spanning from Oct. 25, 2011 to Feb. 11, 2012, paint the picture of an agency engaged in something akin to urban warfare against a feared enemy.


"Surveillance teams will consist of undercover officers supervised by a sergeant. They will operate from elevated positions or walk within the crowd and report threat information to the MFF commander via the surveillance team leader," read an Oct. 24 operations memo. Throughout the day on Oct. 25, officers make note of constantly checking Occupy Oakland's website, Facebook, Twitter, and Livestream to anticipate protesters actions.

...


Much more at link:
http://www.sfbg.com/2012/03/13/opd-spies-and-beats-protesters?page=0%2C0

[mdmc]

1. yup

sho'nough

[freshwest]

2. This is quite a scoop.

[msongs]

3. police are the new terrorists nt

[Mopar151]

4. Nothing new about it

The perpetrators of the first Columbine Massacre were not disenfranchised outcasts, lunatics or outlaws of any description – but rather state rangers and national guardsmen, under the orders of the governor of Colorado, who attacked 500 unarmed striking coal miners and their families with tear gas, automatic rifles and machine guns. The Columbine miners had been striking peaceably for five weeks; the owner of the mining company had even served the picketers coffee and doughnuts on some mornings. But with winter fast approaching, the governor of Colorado feared a state-wide coal shortage and resolved to quash the strike. He ordered his rangers to dress in civilian clothing so as not to alert the strikers, and positioned them on the Columbine mine tipple. In the ensuing bloodbath, six working men were killed and dozens more injured, but – despite scores of impartial witnesses – the authorities denied the use of machine guns, the press covered up all evidence to the contrary and, with typical authoritarian shamelessness, the strike leaders were arrested and charged with the responsibility for the deaths.

http://www.onthisdeity.com/21st-november-1927-%E2%80%93-the-first-columbine-massacre/

[TBF]

5. Nothing new from the Oakland police -

Just one blog entry I pulled up - doing a search for Oakland police and police brutality brings up over a million hits ...

Oakland is a city that has suffered from considerable urban blight, gang problems and drug issues. It is a historic centre of black American culture and radical black politics, having given birth to the Black Panther movement in the 1960s. There have been persistent reports of police criminality and abuse, especially aimed at the city's black population, where community activists say low-level police harassment is a fact of life. Latest census figures show black people make up the biggest single ethnic group in Oakland at 27.3%, with white people at 25.9% and Hispanics at 25.4%.

Despite having almost the same size populations in the city, however, white people account for only 16% of OPD vehicle stops, and 6.7% of motorists searched. Black people in Oakland, by contrast, account for a whopping 48% of vehicle stops, and 65.8% of motorists searched.

http://www.poormojo.org/pmjadaily/archives/036201.php

[backscatter712]

6. I've dealt with a few police departments.

Some of them, from my old stomping grounds, were decently professional most of the time.

The Denver cops, that I've seen at Occupy Denver, were some of the most nasty, unprofessional, scumbags I've personally seen wearing a badge.

But it seems they don't hold a candle to Oakland's gang of badged criminal thugs.

[joshcryer]

7. Goes without saying. It's why I felt the Oakland slanders were PSYOPS.

Trying to slander them over flag burning and other unconventional, non-violent tactics.

Thank you so much for this. Move-in-Day was chastised greatly here.