Tuesday, November 15, 2011

On the eve of destruction Before cops broke up Occupy Oakland, the debate over nonviolence was already unraveling the movement By Joan Walsh

Monday, Nov 14, 2011 11:30 AM 13:21:43 PST

On the eve of destruction

Before cops broke up Occupy Oakland, the debate over nonviolence was already unraveling the movement


  • lice in Oakland began clearing out a weeks-old encampment early Monday, after issuing several warnings to Occupy demonstrators. (Credit: AP/Paul Sakuma)
Without tear gas or rubber bullets this time, police broke up the Occupy Oakland encampment in the hours before dawn Monday morning. City officials served a fourth eviction notice Sunday evening, after a murder at the camp’s borders Thursday night validated worries about crime and safety even among some camp supporters. Some Occupy Oakland leaders insisted the victim had nothing to do with the protest, but once police announced Sunday night that the 25-year-old man, Kayode Ola Foster, had been camping there, and so had at least one of the suspects, it seemed it could only be a matter of hours before cops moved in to close the camp. And it was – about seven hours, to be exact. Most of the crowd dispersed peacefully; 32 people were arrested.
I made my first trip to Occupy Oakland midday Sunday, and I wasn’t going to write about it without returning, because the movement is too complicated for a drive-by report. Several people I admire, including Alternet’s Joshua Holland, have been doing day-in, day-out shoe-leather reporting. But now that Foster and at least one murder suspect have been tied to the camp, and now that it’s gone, at least in its present form, I’m going to try to make sense of what I saw.
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Joan Walsh
Joan Walsh is Salon's editor at large. More Joan Walsh

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