It looks like Oakland mayor and incessant flip-flopper Jean Quan is once again about to try to oust the dirty hippies from her front yard, and we can promise you this isn't gonna be pretty. Matier & Ross at the S.F. Chronicle cite an anonymous source in the Oakland Police Department who says that they've canceled all training exercises for next week, "which is a 'pretty good indication' that the cops are making plans once again to clear out the Occupy camp outside City Hall."
It seems that despite a tsunami of bad press and widespread calls for her resignation, Quan is once again fed up with the unhygienic and occasionally rough nature of the campers in Frank Ogawa Plaza, and she's preparing for a replay of the week of the first Battle of Oaktown on October 25th which was followed by her allowing the campers back onto the Plaza on October 28th, and last week's general strike which of course ended in the second Battle of Oaktown and the arrests of 100 assorted anarchists and demonstrators.
Quan is basically desperate to clear this mess off her plate, with business owners around downtown all complaining of lost business (we'd like to note here that Frank Ogawa Plaza has never been a hotbed of foot-traffic, and certainly isn't a destination... it only sees a moderate lunchtime crowd from city workers, but we digress). She says "neighborhoods are hurting because city services already stretched" and she can't keep sending the troops downtown to deal with an increasingly "unsanitary" and violent collection of tents.
What Quan and the cops don't seem to understand is that they're only going to keep trading one "public safety hazard" (the porta-potty-stinky and slightly anarchic encampment) for another public safety hazard that is way more chaotic and dangerous. The city's actions, no matter how justified they seem in the face of property destruction, only incite more rage from the black-clad factions who take great pleasure in turning downtown Oakland into Tripoli. They may not be the heart and soul of this movement, but like it or not they are now its honor guard in the East Bay, playing the role of Hells Angels/Sons of Anarchy because the cops can't be trusted. All the city has to do is hold out for a few weeks, let everyone settle down and get rained upon a few times, and that camp will dwindle fast.
After several kids, including two Iraq war vets, walked away injured from scuffles with baton- and tear-gas-wielding police in the last two weeks, let's hope no one ends up dead this time, huh?
[Chron]
[NBC Bay Area]
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