[News] Oakland’s Dirty War

[Anti-Imperialist News]

January 09, 2012
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/09/oakland%E2%80%99s-dirty-war/


Oakland’s Dirty War

by GEORGE CICCARIELLO-MAHER

As winter sets in, the Occupy Movement nationwide 
confronts a new series of challenges. Conspiring 
with the weather, however, is the threat of a 
shifting policing model currently being tested out in Oakland.

Coercive Attrition

The Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci spoke of a 
distinction between “war of position” and “war of 
maneuver,” between those gradual and occasionally 
imperceptible political struggles that occur 
every day and the frontal attack on power toward 
which they eventually build. While this 
distinction is necessary, it should not be 
overstated, and nor can we associate the war of 
position too directly with ideological struggle 
and war of maneuver with direct military attacks 
on and by the coercive apparatus of the state. 
Recent events in Oakland and the strategy of 
coercive attrition directed against the Occupy 
Movement make perfectly clear just how 
insufficient such a correlation would be.

Recent weeks have seen the Occupy Movement 
confronted with a war of attrition nationwide: as 
cold weather sets in, many cities have opted to 
wait out the movement, allowing excitement to 
fade and the movement to devour itself in the 
petty squabbles of disempowerment. Often, though, 
this strategy of passive attrition operates 
alongside a more aggressive approach. In 
Philadelphia, for example, a hands-off approach 
to the now-decamped Occupy Philly operates in 
tandem with ferocity toward those who step out of 
line in a transparent attempt to bully radicals 
into submission (as with the case of two housing 
activists currently facing multiple felonies).

But it is in Oakland more than anywhere else that 
friendly weather and sustained militancy have 
given rise to a different approach, one similarly 
premised on chipping away at the movement through 
attrition and fatigue but doing so in a far more 
repressive manner. One key ingredient to this 
peculiar constellation of forces is the empty 
vessel perched atop the city government: Mayor 
Jean Quan. Quan was discredited long ago and from 
all sides, hated by the left for 
<http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/27/oakland-on-strike/>unleashing 
the near fatal attacks on Occupy Oakland in 
October, and by the right (represented by OPD and 
the City Council) for not taking a harder line. 
Now, having opted to vacillate rather than stand 
on the side of history, she will simply be hoping 
to serve out her term and avoid an embarrassing recall campaign.

This vacillation has been nowhere clearer than on 
the question of the epic Port Shutdowns on 
November 2nd and December 12th, the first of 
which catapulted Occupy Oakland to the forefront 
of the national movement, and the second of which 
demonstrated a capacity for coordinated militancy 
not seen in this country for decades at least. 
Since it was Quan who took the heat for the 
unrestrained actions of police in October, one 
could hardly blame the Mayor for hesitating to 
unleash OPD and other forces against those 
blocking the port. But when Quan suggested that 
the city might not be able to prevent future 
shutdowns of the port, her critics in City 
Council 
<http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/09/oakland%e2%80%99s-dirty-war/articles.sfgate.com/2011-12-28/news/30564010_1_oakland-port-port-closure-oakland-mayor-jean-quan>found 
powerful echo in Governor Jerry Brown. But for 
now at least, OPD’s hands are at least partially 
tied, an the full-on assaults of many an 
officer’s dream go unfulfilled for now.

Blocked from engaging in a brutal war of 
maneuver, OPD’s strategy has been a different 
one, and what remains of Occupy Oakland’s 
presence in Oscar Grant Plaza has seen small 
raids with a handful of arrests several times a 
week. While some interpret this half-heartedness 
by the forces of order as a sign of impotence, 
the frequency, the timing, and the serious 
charges incurred in the raids speak to a more sinister strategy.

“Shit’s Gonna Pop”

I arrived at Oscar Grant Plaza in the immediate 
aftermath of one such raid on Friday, December 
30th, where rebels circulated through the plaza 
denouncing the most recent skirmish. Some still 
carried their belongings in the familiar plastic 
bags, souvenirs from a recent trip to Santa Rita 
County Jail. The rage is palpable and growing, 
with many pronouncing that “shit’s gonna pop” in 
somber tones, and another occupier angrily 
insisting that “they’ll see me in hell before they see me in jail.”

Just an hour earlier, a small OPD contingent had 
swept into the plaza and snatched a selected few 
who were gathered there. Those targeted included 
Brian Glasscock, an Occupy Oakland organizer 
well-known to Oakland Police as the sound 
operator for many Occupy events. It was for this 
reason, rather than any illegal activity, that 
Glasscock was identified by Lieutenant Hamilton, 
who had targeted him previously over sound system 
issues, and arrested for inciting a riot. “I 
think their strategy is to target those they know 
have been around doing things and throw them in 
jail hoping that something will stick,” Glasscock explained to me.

This strategy was perhaps clearest in the case of 
Tiffany Tran, a young occupier who faced felony 
charges under California’s Lynching Law. Just as 
police have recently begun to arrest Copwatchers 
who record their activities under felony 
wiretapping laws originally intended to control 
the police themselves, so too is this so-called 
“lynching” a case of inverting a law’s original 
intention. Originally designed to prevent Black 
Americans from being seized from the hands of 
police by lynch mobs, this law has been deployed 
recently to criminalize the practice of “de-arresting” those in police custody.

With the arrests, a scheduled New Years Eve noise 
demonstration outside the North County lockup 
gained new significance. A rowdy and celebratory 
crowd gathered at Oscar Grant Plaza to bid adieu 
to an epic year in militant style, before 
occupying the intersection of 14th and Broadway, 
ignition point for many a rebellion past. As we 
awaited the arrival of the sound system (that 
Glasscock was supposed to operate), we gulped the 
obligatory champagne from nondescript containers. 
The sound system soon arrived, some faces were 
covered, a massive banner was unfurled that sums 
up the spirit of the night as bluntly as 
possible–“Fuck the Police”–and we were off.

A block from our destination, attention 
inevitably turns to OPD headquarters, where a 
small phalanx of riot police stand guard behind 
closed doors. The scene was striking, as two 
occupying forces faced off against one another: 
one, an occupying army imported from the suburbs 
to oppress, the other, exuberant and brimming 
with the optimism of a new society in the works.

Arriving at the jail, cheers rebounded off the 
thick walls, their echoes doubled as imprisoned 
comrades began to flash lights inside to make it 
clear that we were being seen and heard inside. 
But there was no question of being seen or heard: 
soon, the ground was shaking with M-80 blasts and 
fireworks were launched from the middle of the 
street, exploding directly outside the windows of 
the jail. One previously injured protester 
reclined in a bike-drawn-cart, decadently sipping 
whiskey and enjoying the show. Astonishingly, there was not a cop in sight.

Requiescat in Pace, Habeas Corpus

While the charges thrown at protesters have been 
consistently ridiculous and few have stood up in 
court, Glasscock insists that “if nothing sticks 
then they’ve at least fucked with that person’s 
week.” And in this case, the police strategy was 
to hold those arrested for almost an entire week: 
strategically arresting protesters on a Friday, 
and before a holiday weekend no less, meant that 
the habeas corpus guidelines requiring that 
arrestees be charged within 48 hours of arrest 
were flexible at best. Since this refers to 48 
business hours, neither the weekend nor the 
Monday holiday were included, and anger mounted 
outside the courtroom late Tuesday afternoon as 
it became increasingly clear that the authorities 
would wait until the last possible minute to drop the charges.

Walter Riley, lawyer for those arrested and 
father of rapper Boots Riley, who has played a 
key role in the Occupy organizing around the port 
shutdowns, complained loudly that the actions of 
the police and the District Attorney constituted 
a transparent attack on habeas corpus, and that 
more direct pressure needs to be brought to bear 
to make it clear that we won’t accept such 
strategies. But given the national offensive 
against habeas corpus embodied in the National 
Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), local 
authorities might rightly sense that no federal 
authority will leap to defend the occupiers. It 
was little surprise when, despite this extended 
display of punitive power, the charges against 
all those arrested were later dropped after some 
had spent nearly 5 days behind bars.

But there would be little time for celebration 
when those arrested were released on Wednesday, 
as OPD again swept into the plaza later that 
evening in a repeat performance of the prior 
week. Again, there were a handful of arrests. 
Again, these were highly targeted, with 
eyewitnesses recounting how police broke off to 
arrest occupiers who had crossed the street to 
avoid a conflict. The vocal and militant Tactical 
Action Committee seemed to be the primary target, 
with some of the previous arrestees overhearing 
guards talking about how they wanted to get one 
member in particular. And again, the charges 
would have been laughable were they not a part of 
a broader and overarching strategy of containment.

Targeted Terror

One occupier known as Ali had become a clear 
target for repression due to his visibility, and 
even those arrested on the 30th had overheard 
officers discussing how the hoped to get their 
hands on him. On Wednesday the 4th, OPD seemed 
determined to do just that, chasing Ali across 
the street to arrest him. When they did so, he 
explained to me, officer Phan reached into his 
back pocket before feigning surprise and 
insisting that he was “going away for a long 
time” because they had found him to be in 
possession of ecstasy. Some in the 
Anti-Repression Committee believe that it was 
only the presence of the Livestream camera, and 
the fact that Ali immediately began to shout 
about the attempt to plant drugs, that prevented 
the charges from being successfully fabricated. 
Ali was later charged with misdemeanor obstruction.

A member of the recently-formed Anti-Repression 
and Solidarity Committee (ARC) of Occupy Oakland 
explained to me that the movement has seen in 
recent weeks a broad arc of repression, beginning 
on December 28th with the clearing of a small 
camp established in West Oakland by the Tactical 
Action Committee, followed the next day by the 
raid and arrests at an occupied house on Mandela 
Parkway. The most recent raids were but an upping 
of the stakes, she explained, adding that “I 
think the idea is that if they can bog us down in 
as many legal battles as possible, we won’t be 
able to restart this movement
 Why would they 
come and raid the plaza when it’s just an info 
table and a food tent? They’re afraid if they 
don’t get rid of it it will just get bigger.”

Laleh, also a member of the ARC, feels that 
beyond merely the organizational toll taken by 
the targeting of key committee members, the 
police strategy is one of terror. “The fact that 
they have been chasing particular people and 
ignoring others has had a psychological effect, 
instilling a terror in people that wasn’t there 
before.” If these were isolated cases they could 
be accidental, she argues, but the fact that 
groups have been repeatedly arrested, slapped 
with charges, and held for days only to see the 
charges dismissed “makes the strategy clear.” The 
District Attorney needs to step in and restrain the OPD, she insists.

This strategy also includes both fishing for 
parolees and attempting to provoke prisoners. 
“Everyone who is coming out is reporting 
targeting and segregation while in country jail, 
all kinds of physical abuse, taunting by COs, and 
even sleep deprivation,” Laleh explains, and all 
this in an effort to get a reaction that can lead 
to more charges (this seems to have been at play 
in the case of an occupier named Khali, who is 
being charged with assaulting an officer after 
his psychiatric medication was reportedly withheld for days).

Thankfully, though, not everyone is terrified, 
and an anonymous ARC member sees signs of the 
breakdown of the strategy of attrition both by 
occupiers and by the police themselves: at a 
“Fuck the Police March” called in response to the 
arrests, OPD officers clearly went beyond what 
the city had hoped, knocking a woman off her bike 
and beating her, firing rubber bullets, and 
allegedly breaking another marcher’s arm. More 
importantly still, the OPD’s strategy of 
low-level warfare “isn’t scaring people, it’s only making them angrier.”

When the Philadelphia Police Department wanted to 
destroy the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), 
they did not feel hindered by legal niceties: 
police arrested the RAM membership nearly every 
day on imaginary charges, knowing full well the 
toll taken on movements by even demonstrating the 
falseness of the ridiculous. Now, faced with the 
Occupy Movement, it would seem as though some 
local police agencies are once again taking a 
page from the PPD playbook on coercive attrition. 
Legality and its opposite thus march 
hand-in-hand, as a movement is harassed with impunity.

After Winter, Another Spring Looms

We press toward spring 
<http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/08/12/planet-of-slums-age-of-riots/>in 
this age of riots, closing an annual circuit 
opened in North Africa, but with no end in sight 
to the global cycle of struggle unleashed by 
Mohamed Bouazizi’s literal self-sacrifice. As I 
depart Oakland, this sinister war of position 
continues unabated, but and impending war of 
maneuver looms almost as certainly as the sun sets over the Golden Gate Bridge.

January 1st marked the 3rd anniversary of 
<http://www.counterpunch.org/2009/01/09/oakland-s-not-for-burning/>Oscar 
Grant’s murder by BART officer Johannes Mehserle, 
an event which opened a more localized cycle of 
struggle that in many ways laid the 
organizational foundations for Occupy Oakland’s 
peculiar militancy while teaching those in the 
streets a lesson in their own power. This year, 
organizers, myself included, marked this somber 
day with a march of several hundred between two 
popularly baptized locations: beginning in Oscar 
Grant Plaza, we retraced in reverse the path of 
the 2009 rebellions, covering miles of familiar 
ground before arriving at Oscar Grant Station 
(Fruitvale), where he was killed. Family, 
friends, and activists took to the stage at the 
memorial, remembering Oscar and the struggle 
bearing his name, and promising to keep up the 
fight by establishing an automatic response 
system with demonstrations at 14th and Broadway every time the police kill.

Monday at 5am, the momentum of the Port Shutdown 
will stretch its roots into fertile local soil, 
as Occupy Oakland will staff a “hard picket” of 
the American Licorice Factory in support of 
striking workers. If this uptick in worker 
militancy doesn’t prompt a frontal assault by the 
state, then the planned takeover of a large 
building on January 28th likely will, and if not 
this, then perhaps the impending blockade of the 
Port of Longview in Washington State, or the 
growing anger at ICE’s “silent raids” taking 
their toll on undocumented communities across the Bay Area.

Wandering around Oscar Grant Plaza, one phrase is 
on many lips: “There’s always spring.” But in 
this land of perpetual spring, seasons are but 
metaphors, and as the kindling is stacked ever 
higher, any of these moments could provide the 
spark. Spring looms, heavy with the promise of 
the future, but foreboding in the guarantee that 
its birth will be a violent one.

George Ciccariello-Maher is an exiled Oaklander 
who lives in Philadelphia and teaches political 
theory at Drexel University. He can be reached at gjcm(at)drexel.edu.




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