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"We are Confused" | Oakland Police Officer's Association Open Letter to the Citizens of Oakland
This is NOT an Onion piece. The letter below is actually coming out of Oakland Police Officer’s Association…
An Open Letter to the Citizens of Oakland from the Oakland Police Officer’s Association
1 November 2011 – Oakland, Ca.
We represent the 645 police officers who work hard every day to protect the citizens of Oakland. We, too, are the 99% fighting for better working conditions, fair treatment and the ability to provide a living for our children and families. We are severely understaffed with many City beats remaining unprotected by police during the day and evening hours.
As your police officers, we are confused.
On Tuesday, October 25th, we were ordered by Mayor Quan to clear out the encampments at Frank Ogawa Plaza and to keep protesters out of the Plaza. We performed the job that the Mayor’s Administration asked us to do, being fully aware that past protests in Oakland have resulted in rioting, violence and destruction of property.
Then, on Wednesday, October 26th, the Mayor allowed protesters back in – to camp out at the very place they were evacuated from the day before.
To add to the confusion, the Administration issued a memo on Friday, October 28th to all City workers in support of the “Stop Work” strike scheduled for Wednesday, giving all employees, except for police officers, permission to take the day off.
That’s hundreds of City workers encouraged to take off work to participate in the protest against “the establishment.”
But aren’t the Mayor and her Administration part of the establishment they are paying City employees to protest? Is it the City’s intention to have City employees on both sides of a skirmish line?
It is all very confusing to us.
Meanwhile, a message has been sent to all police officers: Everyone, including those who have the day off, must show up for work on Wednesday. This is also being paid for by Oakland taxpayers. Last week’s events alone cost Oakland taxpayers over $1 million.
The Mayor and her Administration are beefing up police presence for Wednesday’s work strike they are encouraging and even “staffing,” spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for additional police presence – at a time when the Mayor is also asking Oakland residents to vote on an $80 parcel tax to bail out the City’s failing finances.
All of these mixed messages are confusing.
We love Oakland and just want to do our jobs to protect Oakland residents. We respectfully ask the citizens of Oakland to join us in demanding that our City officials, including Mayor Quan, make sound decisions and take responsibility for these decisions. Oakland is struggling – we need real leaders NOW who will step up and lead – not send mixed messages. Thank you for listening.
SOURCE: Oakland Police Officer’s Association
www.4closureFraud.org
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NO this is not quite right. Forget Left/Right that is simply bank kabuki theatre.
It should read:
If your confused or upset you didn't get a day off work like everyone else don't take it out on us by shooting us in the face please.
Go shoot a dog.
Go shoot a pig.
Go shoot a sheep.
"Skirmish line"?
Language like this sets the tone. If OWS does not get co-opted (and derailed) or fizzle out, it seems it is just a matter of time before something truly stupid happens. Police are walking a thin line here.
Are “unknown police officers” simply agent provocateurs attempting to foment riots at OWS protests in order to justify implementation of martial law?
Read an article yesterday on beforeitsnews.com (sorry – cannot find it now – if someone does, please post link) reporting that “unknown” police officers joined the “skirmish line” just prior to Scott Olsen being struck in the head by a projectile.
As has been well-documented, an unidentified police officer subsequently threw a flash-bang grenade at protesters attempting to pull Scott Olsen to safety so medical treatment could be rendered.
The article went on to say that the SF Sheriff’s department denied the involvement of their officers, and reported that none of them had fired any “non-lethal” rounds nor had they had possession of any flashbangs.
Oakland has not, to my knowledge, issued a similar denial… however… if neither Oakland nor SF police officers committed the act...
...<Loading ammo and stocking food>…
In general, no protest works unless 1, it is hurting someone monetarily or 2, violence breaks out and people / structures are destroyed. Peaceful protests are a waste of time in our society. Politicians don't give a damn and neither does wall street. Fire some weapons, kill a few people, burn some cities and something may get done.
So true, the Rodney King riots did bring about some positive change for Los Angeles. It was over 18 years ago, time for an extended riot that reaches coast to coast.
Stop protecting the criminals and committing felonies and people might stop hating your guts.
FUCK OAKLAND PIGS!
They want a War! LET THEM HAVE IT!
Spoken like a true anarchist
Waiting for Fla. Communist to head for Oakland and join the street-mob......still waiting.
OPOA.....fuck off.
Only 645 useful idiots? That seems very thin. An armed militia take over should be a cinch.
Have you seen this --> http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/13115
Federal Judge Threatens Oakland Police Department With Court Takeover Over Ongoing Abuses
@Delonglaw...
Thank you for this linc..
Years ago, it took the sitting President to send in the FBI to straighten out the Rodney King mess..
Which the Local Police tried to cover up..
More cameras now.. Hopefully more accountability...!!
We'll see about that accountability. If the victim had been somebody they valued--anybody from a cop to a banker to a politician--there would be a nationwide manhunt under way. The thug's picture would be as ubiquitous as OBL's.
There are plenty of pictures. You can see many protestors pointing phone cameras directly at the perp. Not to mention that cops always have their own video people covering these kinds of "interventions." If they had no video, there would be a massively publicized appeal to the public for video.
If they don't find him, it's because they don't want to.
And if they were trying, it would be no secret.
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
Due to past law enforcement abuses, the Oakland Police Department (OPD) has been operating under the monitoring of a federal judge overseeing a consent decree since 2003.
Although it is difficult to set aside the deplorable record of the OPD in dealing with protesters for a moment - including Occupy Oakland advocates last Tuesday - it has a history of using excessive force on a daily basis. This includes the unnecessary drawing of guns, extortion and framing arrested individuals that is so egregious that the department may be put into receivership by the federal courts.
According to a September 11, 2011 article in the Bay Citizen, just a little over a month prior to the infamous Tuesday assault on Occupy Oakland, the federal judge overseeing the police department lambasted their conduct:
Shortly prior to the assault on Occupy Oakland, the superintendent of the OPD resigned - after the scathing report by the federal judge - and Howard Jordan was appointed as interim chief of police. What was Jordan's prior role as assistant chief of the OPD? According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Jordan:
Jordan, as interim superintendent, oversaw and directed the police action against Occupy Oakland supporters.
This federal consent decree is separate from the accord that the OPD was compelled to reach in 2004, which prohibits the use of potentially lethal and harmful suppression techniques against peaceful crowds, which BuzzFlash at Truthout pointed out they violated last week.
There's a thin blue line in law enforcement between enforcing the law and breaking the law. It's clear to US District Court Judge Henderson that the OPD keeps crossing that line
(510) 777-3333 - Oakland PD non emergency.
Please call and report the crime of felonous assault on Scott Olsen. Remind them that if charges are not brought against this police officer, the US Marine Corps, US Navy, and US Army members and veterans will consider it a sanctioned action. If that is the case, there will be a response. Any response that occurs will be a direct result of OPD's failure to uphold the law. The response(s) will be serious in effect.
There won't be any response.
SHEEP DON'T 'RESPONSE.'
This stupidity is unbearable.
BAAH BAAH BAAH (there. that was your only response)
(510) 777-3333 - Oakland PD non emergency.
I called and reported the crime of assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury. I demanded a return call by Internal Affairs.
Scott Olsen, the Marine, you say... http://web.archive.org/web/20100507023132/http://www.ihatethemarinecorps.com/
Oh, another one of you fair-weather allies.
"Free Speech and the Constitution are cool but don't say anything we don't like or you're an asshole who deserves to be shot."
In other words: fuck the Constitution.
I'm basically in agreement, by the way, but not because I don't like the concept of a right to free speech. It's because I realized we'd lost ours during some protests going on about a decade ago.
The Constitution's dead, because the folks who are supposed to be protecting it are too busy trying to keep the banks from failing.
Priorities, people. The economic system trumps any delusion of "rights" or "freedoms."
It has already been proven that this information has been recently changed. Its bullshit.
And even if it was not (and it is bullshit), it does not matter, as Scott is a Marine, a veteran, and enjoys the same RIGHTs as anyone else, including the right to register a ihatethemarinecorps.com website.
And the right to peacefully assemble, and the right to free speech, and the right to not get shot in the head by thugs.
You should know a Government Plant.. or Tea Party Koch Brothers dick licker! when you see one!
"We love Oakland..."
well, there's the real problem....the city provided weapons to morons....
TO OAKLAND COPS: Throwing pyrotechnic projectiles at and injuring peacefull protesters was that so fucking confusing too? Fuck you assholes!
OH Please. String up the MF that shot Scott in the head. Time for a little wild west justice out there cowpolks.
Very dangerous to pi$$ off the Marines. Semper Fi
Are you referring to the Ihatethemarines.com Scott Olsen? It is the same guy.
This is a fair question if he is correct- is it truly the same person? It really does look like the same guy which drastically undercuts the spin coming from OWS on this.
Any OWS types care to confirm it is indeed the same person...or do you know for certain it is not?
Good Dysfunctional Behaviour: Attack/Discredit the Victim..
Your sh*t won't garner any respect here..
Get a life..Or get help...
Yes, Scott Olsen is the ex-marine that got shot in the head.
I remember you calling me and my family fools because we had served in the military. What do you have against veterans?
Oh, I remember...you only like veterans that agree with you. If we aren't right-wing wackjobs you don't like us.
Let me ask you this, Mark, let's say you are an elected city council member and your phone is ringing off the hook with complaints from your constituents about rowdy protesters interfering with THEIR rights to conduct business and freely move about on their taxpayer funded public thoroughfares, what do you tell them? I bet you open your ordinance book and read. I bet you get together with your colleagues, city attorney, and chief of police and decide on a legal course of action. I get frustrated reading all the anonymous bravado on these threads because there is always two sides to every disagreement. I will pray for your epiphany, brother.
I have nothing whatsoever against veterans, but where do you stand today with knowing that you went off to shoot folks in order to support banksters' and the oligarchy through the disguise of threats to Americans?
I have nothing whatsoever against veterans, but where do you stand today with knowing that you went off to shoot folks in order to support banksters' and the oligarchy through the disguise of threats to Americans?
Don't forget the High Plain Drifters.
Occupy Oakland is a fraud. Shoot to kill, including that sailor faggot.
The country wishes they would. Every single city/town hall I have been in, is flamable and the front (or back) door has a 'by the lowest bidder' lock on it.
Dear Oakland Police - Consider it notice that the idiot mayor will throw you under the bus first chance she gets.
I do however doubt she said - "Please go shoot some vet in the head and laugh like a hyena about it for the cameras. At least you didn't high five each other and slap butts in public for the 'score'.
Did anyone - one single officer tell the shooter he was an asshole and making trouble for all of you? Or did he just get a - Good shooting bo'
How long are you going to stay on the job when cops go on patrol and they just vanish in the night without a hundred friends in riot gear at their elbows to protect them? When it gets too dangerous to stop for lunch because that's the perfect time to get ambushed remember I warned you - Shoot people they shoot back.
Not OWS, but it has happened
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3Pv2D_HMXQ
Especially well trained military personnel, (not just Marines) ;-)
Sleep well.
Reads like a letter from a pack of poorly trained dogs.
Unable to know their true purpose, they try to follow the
conflicting commands of the truly clueless owner, at all times
their innate savagery on no check at all.
Good thing they are all neutered.
My wife always shrugs when people say we need more women leaders. She contends that power corrupts no matter which equipment you have below the waist. She also adds that its worth debating whether you want decisive female leaders (often labelled "bitches") or thoughtful female leaders (often labelled "indecisive").
Either way it goes I say they're elected officials and almost always narcissists.
Ms Quan doesn't seem to contradict any of these observations at the end of the day.
I'm glad to see the police reaching out. I know of many communities in which the police have a personal and friendly relationship with their people. They don't have shake down quota's. Once bureaucracy gets rooted, it spreads like a disease, takes over, soon the courts are full, the representatives and keepers of the peace become as soulless as the state.
Besides, I wouldn't want to be a local or state cop, they are next on the list and they know it. FED Agencies are limiting non-FED authority power and keeping locals in the dark in their own communities. NYC intelligence is run by the same psychic CIA Agent that set up camp just before the 9/11 incident, after the dust settled he went to Afghanistan / Pakistan earning him the prestigious title of "Human Rights Violator". I bet all of NYC is happy to welcome him back, especially Major Bloomberg. Major Bloomberg doesn't like whinny New Yorker's who don't know how to work, he prefers how patient and obedient and hardworking the Chinese are, they can sit in the same line for days and still no complaining.
I agree that it is a positive sign the police are reaching out. Maybe part of it is covering their asses but not all cops are bad and for a union to put out a letter like this publicly ... may indicate a bit of a sea change.
Dear Police,
Join the revolution.
Handcuff all the crony politicians and crooked bankers and corporate fascists on the left and the right who speak out of both sides of their mouths while raising fees and taxes and taking bribes and bonuses for warming a seat or breathing.
You have to choose; are you part of the problem or part of the solution?
The status quo, the way things have been, more of the same, is part of the problem.
If the Olsen assault is not pursued, then it is sanctioned.
All of these police officers are being equally screwed ovr by the non-Federal non-Reserve.