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Oakland Mayor Jean Quan (photo: Ella Baker Center)
Embattled Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, speaking in an interview with the BBC (excerpted on The Takeaway radio program–audio of Quan starts at the 5:30 mark), casually mentioned that she was on a conference call with leaders of 18 US cities shortly before a wave of raids broke up Occupy Wall Street encampments across the country. “I was recently on a conference call with 18 cities across the country who had the same situation. . . .”
Mayor Quan then rambles about how she “spoke with protestors in my city” who professed an interest in “separating from anarchists,” implying that her police action was helping this somehow.
Interestingly, Quan then essentially advocates that occupiers move to private spaces, and specifically cites Zuccotti Park as an example:
In New York City, it’s interesting that the Wall Street movement is actually on a private park, so they’re not, again, in the public domain, and they’re not infringing on the public’s right to use a public park.
Many witnesses to the wave of government crackdowns on numerous #occupy encampments have been wondering aloud if the rapid succession was more than a coincidence; Jean Quan’s casual remark seems to imply clearly that it was.
Might it also be more than a coincidence that this succession of police raids started after President Obama left the US for an extended tour of the Pacific Rim?
75 Comments
Interesting, Gregg. Thanks for the report. I had seen a mention last week of some coordination among big city mayors. This remark by Quan seems to confirm it.
Probably they want to clear away the sites before Thanksgiving and the holiday shopping season starts. They want people shopping on Saturdays, not marching in the streets waving signs.
Starting the ads already as well. I refuse to comply. Making all my gifts this year, or buying from next door starving artists!
As a local merchant noted (A month ago) in a blast email: “If you really want to Occupy Wall Street, do your holiday shopping at an independent local merchant.”
Sound advice.
No doubt.
Meanwhile in New York City, NYPD Chief Ray Kelly and his $20-billion puppet mayor Michael Bloomberg blatantly defied a judge’s order when they cleared out Occupy Wall Street in the wee hours this morning:
Bloomberg, obviously aware that the entire world knows he’s Ray Kelly’s puppet, and perhaps as a way to get out in front of the long-suspected rumors that the various assaults on the Occupy protests nationwide were coordinated, tried to proclaim that the decision was “mine and mine alone”. Heh.
Yes!
As Mario Savio might say, hearing supposed longtime activist Jean Quan say these things makes me sick at heart. It is scary and tragic and infuriating to watch as elected official after elected official gets fully assimilated into the borg while simultaneously insisting that we should keep voting and working through existing channels. What is most chilling is that they seem to believe the things they are saying.
Aaaand her deputy mayor bailed on her, too:
http://phoenixwoman.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/oaklands-deputy-mayor-resigns-in-wake-of-disastrous-occupy-oakland-raid/
The rats are abandoning that sinking ship. Unfortunately there will be rattier rats to take their place.
In Detroit the occupiers are along the Thanksgiving parade route so they will probably not get their permit extended.
Was the mayor of Zurich also in on the call?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2011/nov/15/global-occupy-movement-evictions-in-pictures#/?picture=381856859&index=7
So, exactly who coordinated this 18-mayor conference call, the Koch brothers?
Superb “catch”, Gregg, thank you.
The political class is worried … and as “they” rachet “up” the clicks, to please their Masters … they little realize that they seal, for all to witness, their own sorry fates …
DW
Pretty scary thinking that even the local officals are borg. As far as Obalhblah leaving it just affirms to me that he’s a coward.
DHS would have the means.
How long before the internet kill switch is pulled?
That’s an understatement describing someone whose weapon of choice is an unmanned drone.
I believe this has the most to do with the results of last Tuesday’s elections. That’s when the ‘powers-that-be’ decided that these Occupy protests were having an effect on the people and perhaps, waking a lot of people up to the fact that ‘Main Street’ got screwed, along with 99% of the people in this country.
So, Occupy protesters had to go. It is too much of a coincidence that they were cleared out (with unnecessary force) at the same time, all across the country. (Can’t have those 99% thinking those progressive ideas, now can we)?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/nov/15/occupy-wall-street-police-action-live#block-72
The New York public advocate, Bill de Blasio, an elected official who acts as a sort of watchdog for the city of New York, has issued a strongly worded statement condemning the actions of mayor Michael Bloomberg in evicting Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park. He said:
Protecting public safety and quality of life for downtown residents, and guaranteeing free expression are not exclusive of one another. Mayor Bloomberg made a needlessly provocative and legally questionable decision to clear Zuccotti Park in the dead of night. That some media and observers were prevented from monitoring the action is deeply troubling.
I know of no one – protesters included – who desires a permanent occupation of lower Manhattan. But provocations under cover of darkness only escalate tensions in a situation that calls for mediation and dialogue. I call on the Mayor to find a sustainable resolution –as other cities have done – that allows for the exercise of free speech and assembly, with respect for the rights of all New Yorkers to peaceful enjoyment of our great city
(H/T “Jill” in commetns at Turley blog. http://jonathanturley.org/2011/11/15/chicago-journalism-professor-accused-chicago-police-department-of-deleting-film-of-arrest/ )
On a scale of historical importance, last night’s raid on Zuccotti Park ranks with 9/11. The entire political scene has changed as the police state has publicly revealed itself.
It’s not secret that mayors have been colluding.
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/07/142102081/occupy-presents-big-problems-for-big-city-mayors
Everything changed with OWS, caleb. Zucotti Park merely proves the premise of OWS. However, the raid is a clear message and the entire world has seen and heard …
DW
Coordinated crackdown on OWS? Of course it was. We live in a fascist police state. I know most of you think, “no this couldn’t happen here.” But it has. I’m tired of all the “intellectual” comments. Fuck the united states and their leader who is a fraud.
It appears our ‘leaders’ are becoming increasingly irrelevant.
One wonders, dm, at the “impact” when cities “host” economic “summits”, ” … on transportation, city services and costs.”
DW
I’m thinking of the scene in The Lord of the Rings where Sauron, who has been building his evil strength in secret, publicly declares himself. That is what happened at 2 A.M. last night.
Re Oakland. I have been reading that the City cut $2 million from the school budget for lack of money BUT was able to spend >>$1 million for police overtime. Me thinks her political career is over.
OT–Greg, What the hell happened to the party line???
Which salient truth, bluefloridia, may well drive the “leaders” to very poorly considered and extremely dangerous and destructive behaviors.
Time will tell.
DW
And all credit to OWS for making this happen!
These transgressions against the right of peaceful assembly are terrible. If, in 2008, we’d elected a democratic president, with big congressional margins, none of this would be happening.
They’re playing a shell game with the money in Oakland. There is a “reserve fund” of $30 million of taxpayer money that is going to pay for the latest $500K episode of Fascism on Parade, since it was “planned” and not an “emergency” that allows them to beg money from the state. I am sure there is some perfectly reasonable explanation of why they couldn’t use the reserve to save the schools.
The other rumor going around is that the “vouchers” to homeless shelters and hotels that the City was supposedly handing out to encourage people to leave weren’t worth the paper they were printed on.
Tanbark wins the internets today.
“I’m tired of all the intellectual comments.”
Don’t blame you a bit, Karen. The most important thing we can do in this election, is to demonstrate to the democratic party and future candidates for president, that if you run as a progressive and then govern as a country club republican, you won’t get a second term.
At this point, the people doing the most damage to a progressive agenda are not republicans; they’re the democrats who are refusing to hold Barack Obama responsible for sustaining and enhancing the corporate 4th Reich that George Bush and Co. inflicted on us.
It is not irony, it is poetry, that 9/11 and OWS have taken place in such close geographic proximity. One will undo the effects of the other.
I thought Gregg’s little zinger about Obama getting out of town just as the crackdown happens, was spot on.
I’ve always thought that 1933 Nurenburg couldn’t happen here. Lately, with Obama presiding over the continued empowering of the Krupp/Farben/Brownshirt faction of amurka, I’m not so sure.
Juan Cole:
http://www.juancole.com/2011/11/nypd-attack-on-ows-and-the-end-of-the-first-amendment.html
“How long before the internet kill switch is pulled?”
Damn good question.
With Obama leading the posse, they’ve managed to bludgeon Julian Assange and Wikileaks practically out of existence…and there’s that little thing of 560 days in a military jail for Bradley Manning, with no trial in sight. That was a favorite strategy of the Gestapo; just put ‘em away and leave ‘em there.
The Occupiers need to have contingency plans for this to happen.
Good link, FF. And Cole is as right as a snake.
Why is there so much fuzziness and uncertainty about the people’s right to free speech and assembly? Shouldn’t the police, for example, clarify the ‘rules of engagement’ with #OWS relative to city and state laws as well as the Constitution of the United States? Everything is in such a fog (except the great intentions of the #Occupiers!)
Quan appears to be a bit of greenhorn in the category of public relations, much less leadership in general. Not that her predecessor, the inept-as-mayor Ron Dellums would have handled it any better…
Lots and lots of money being made on the ‘net by the 1%.
I buy nothing without checking it out on-line.
I think they may try to block twitter or something selective like that, but shut down Amazon?
Well, yet another thing Bush and Big Zero agree on….”just a damn piece of paper”
It may not be class that was broken, last night, tanbark, but a very sacred trust, the First Ammendment, most certainly was assaulted.
Will the raid on Zucotti Park come to be seen and understood as America’s Kristallnacht?
Let the wealthy and powerful consider, very carefully, what they now decide or intend to do. For the consequence of violent repression will resonate in the hearts and minds of “the people” far longer than any election cycle, longer than almost any “term” of office … and far more powerfully than all the money of the “haves” and the “have-mores”, combined…
Let the elite beware.
DW
Problem is that if people stay home, we can’t over power that 15% or better bias the “vote counting” apparatus has built in by the Repugs since 1999.
The only reason 0Bama is in there is he won by a much bigger margin.
That and all the porn the Repugs watch ;)
When our corrupt leaders conspire to defraud the public of their constitutional rights, it is just fascism as usual and the cost is always born by the public domain, but when the American people exercise and then are denied their constitutional rights, the excuse given is always the greater public good.
So what it boils down to is that the people must be denied their constitutional rights for their own protection and that of the public good, which of course is the people.
Freedom is an illusion; democracy has been sold to the highest bidder; and the corrupt have bought the earth.
It beggars the imagination to think that anyone buys this load of bovine excreta.
I can hardly wait for Election Day to watch the lemmings line up to elect, or so they think, the next fascist leader of the Corporate States of America.
So public assembly infringes on the rights of the public to use public space….say what?
Something about the Oakland mayor’s office magnifies everyone’s worst qualities. I think if any of the recent occupants of that chair (Brown, Dellums, Quan) had done that first, they would not have been able to seek other political offices. I am going to be suspicious of anyone who wants succeed Quan, given the hole the City has dug for itself. Just the way we should have been suspicious of Obama.
Hmmm! I don’t think there is any fuzziness….the fact of the matter
you & I have no damn rights,unless you are wealthy.
It’s election time and no doubt you are going to hear from the swines how you have a right to do this & that,just so they can get your vote,once in office you & your rights are quickly forgotten.
It’s America…..where pretension of democracy is ever present.
Nicely put, caleb. The poetic truth is much appreciated. You have caught the essential power of the pregnant moment very well, indeed.
DW
I wonder if the participants in the call and/or the contents might be covered under Open Meeting laws in one or more of the states.
Too bad FOIA requests take so damn long.
Somehow the costs are always blamed on the protesters, rather than on the people the cops et al are actually protecting and serving.
And what percentage of the Occupiers paid more income tax than Bank of America?
Funny isn’t how all these so called leaders can get their act together when it comes to beating people up isn’t it. But not so much when it comes to helping them.
The Tet Offensive comes to mind.
Great idea! I plan to do exactly that.
“Will the raid on Zucotti Park ”
You are the Master, no Doubt, but may i suggest the” Rape of Zucotti Park ‘as the proper descriptive terms in future references ?
I bow to your intellect otherwise.
The next damn thing You’ll want is for the police to protect and serve those gathered to further their Constitutional rights ?
Indeed !
Hello Greg, good catch, wrote a related piece and linked to you here.
http://amovingworld.blogspot.com/2011/11/is-there-any-federal-involvement-in.html
You betcha, so was the mayor of London. A job this big has to be the banks.
Except not the fuckers who enjoined their local Business Alliances to pressure cities to invade Occupy camps.
G E N E R A L S T R I K E N O W!
Stop cooperating.
So, we can add Conspiracy to violate citizens rights to the list of charges against these mayors.
Someone donated a building for Occupy Detroit. They will be moving in today or tomorrow. The space will be used for warehouses and housing, and Occupy Detroit says they have an excellent working arrangement with the Detroit police.
http://michiganmessenger.com/53981/occupy-detroit-prepares-office-space-hotel-warehouse
Looking @ the comments on the link I just posted; maybe not. I saw this item this morning on another site and when I Googled it I picked the MI Messenger w/ comments.
Also, who knows what’s up with OD.
We need to start deciding who our write in candidate for President will be.
Which liberal blogger do we trust the most?
I am not joking. If elections are truly about the will of the people then let’s see how far a write-in candidate can get.
I will not vote for Barack Obama or any of the GOP candidates.
Smear Campaigns Fuel Shutdowns of Occupations Across Country
http://www.truth-out.org/smear-campaigns-fuel-shutdowns-occupations-across-country/1321386431
It’s the office where political careers fade (the once-great Dellums) or stall out (Brown, who left a path of failure somehow resurrected himself). Tough city to govern.
Here is another piece by reporter Rick Ellis out of Minneapolis.
Update: ‘Occupy’ crackdowns coordinated with federal law enforcement officials
>>>According to this official, in several recent conference calls and briefings, local police agencies were advised to seek a legal reason to evict residents of tent cities, focusing on zoning laws and existing curfew rules. Agencies were also advised to demonstrate a massive show of police force, including large numbers in riot gear. In particular, the FBI reportedly advised on press relations, with one presentation suggesting that any moves to evict protesters be coordinated for a time when the press was the least likely to be present.
Continue reading on Examiner.com Update: ‘Occupy’ crackdowns coordinated with federal law enforcement officials – Minneapolis Top News | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/top-news-in-minneapolis/were-occupy-crackdowns-aided-by-federal-law-enforcement-agencies#ixzz1dorXCwDE
Of course this is coordinated. Did anyone here really think otherwise? The ptb (parasites that be) of our society are getting a little worried. Not much, yet, but they know this can spin out of control. So, press blackout and coordinated removal and see if it dies down with winter coming.
..yeah.
You say it so well. ‘The Borg’…
I have not heard this word “borg” so far but I think from the way it’s being used that I know what it means….and if so, then I say:
Local officials are always the channel to the greater borg…if I’m getting it right…local occupy movements need to identify the borg infesting their scene and clean that skeege to kingdom come already.
I don’t know. Quan seems to be just plain clueless. She doesn’t seem to know wtf is going on, or why, even.
The voting machines can and will be hacked. It will be another cheery day. Not Lemmings…nothing as dramatic as rushing headlong off a cliff into the ocean…what you will see is the trudge of good ants along approved routes for civic gesture, multiple choice….this is what…democracy..loo..k…s..liiik.ee……. …not..
I’ll grant you that. in a league of her own.