Police staging Orwellian theater in Oakland. Live stream ...

[T S Justly]

http://www.livestream.com/occupyoakland

[Cali_Democrat]

1. For a long time now I always thought of the LAPD as the worst police department in the country

It appears that the Oakland police are trying to give them a run for their money.

[joshcryer]

3. LAPD has been freaking saintly in comparison, imo.

NYPD and OPD have been far more draconian (though granted, OWS NYC and Occupy Oakland have been marginally more active, but only marginally so).

[Cali_Democrat]

6. For Occupy, yes...I've been impressed with the LAPD.

But when I refer to the LAPD as being "the worst", I'm talking about the many scandals that have plagued the department not related to occupy.

[XemaSab]

4. Oakland has been a war zone for decades

The cops finally have a "real" enemy that they can engage.

[provis99]

7. LAPD the worst? they're boyscouts compared to the New Orleans cops.

every year they arrest more New Orleans cops for murder and working for drug dealers.

[gopiscrap]

2. Given enough rope

all police departments are like this! We have all heard thousands of accounts of cops roughing people up for no reason, scene footage of rampant police brutality etc...in fact the chief of police in Tacoma shot his wife with his service revolver in a grocery store parking lot in front of their children....the rest of the department didn't give a shit...still gave him a heros funeral. Almost every cop I have ever seen or interacted with is a raging psycho ready to explode.

[Electric Monk]

5. Some protesters got into the City Hall building?

That's what the guy just said.

I just tuned in.

[JDPriestly]

8. The LAPD and Los Angeles have a good relationship now thanks

to the work of several of our police chiefs in recent years.

The beginning was a movement in which police officers visited communities by actually attending Neighborhood Watch meetings in citizen's homes. Familiarity does not always breed contempt. In the case of the LAPD, it built some respect on both sides and more trust.

The job of the police is always difficult. But the mission of Occupy Wall Street as I see it is not to oppose the local police department but to bring the economic corruption in our country to the attention of citizens.

The Occupy movements are fairly independent. While Occupy groups communicate with
each other, there isn't an official organizational structure that imposes rules or structure from a national headquarters or a national committee.

So, the Occupy Oakland group decides its own course just as other Occupy groups do. I visited the Occupy LA site. The commitment to nonviolence was moving. When I was there, religious leaders and artists were performing and holding everyone together in nonviolence -- not particularly in some sort of dogmatic religious way but in commitment to nonviolence. I saw this sort of commitment in the videos from Irvine and from St. Louis and elsewhere.

I am not so sure about the commitment of the Oakland Occupy Movement to nonviolence. It is a very active group. They were able to shut down their port. They are clearly committed to spreading consciousness about economic injustice. But if a local group is not utterly sincere and dedicated to nonviolence and acting and reacting to police repression in an utterly nonviolent way, they hurt the whole movement.

So I am asking the question of people involved in the Oakland Occupy movement and those who know a lot about the movement, to what extent is it really, really seriously nonviolent? How can we verify that the Oakland Occupiers are remaining nonviolent?

[T S Justly]

9. Oakland cops provided all the violence. Glad you're in a happy place where ...

people love cops.