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A personal account of the anti-war protest gone sour at the port of Oakland
Hey friends,
I would like to tell you about my day today. You may know that I explicitly and vigorously oppose the present invasion of Iraq by US forces. Wars occur for a number of reasons, among them that certain wealthy people and corporations benefit. Today there was a planned nonviolent direct action against two shipping companies at the Oakland docks that profit from war. (For background, see http://www.actagainstwar.org/downloads/APLSSA1.pdf)
The plan was to peacefully picket in front of a total of four entrances to the two companies. I arrived at 7:30 AM, and all four were blocked by people marching in circles, holding signs, much like a strike. The union had met and decided not to cross the picket line - their rules say to not cross any such lines. (It certainly helps how Bush treated them during their recent lock-out by the dock companies...)
I immediately received word that police had cleared the first gate using tear gas and sonic grenades, which explode with a loud noise. Sure enough, I then see the police marching up and clearing the second gate (I was at the third gate). The protesters were running, and I saw that the police were shooting (what I hoped were) rubber bullets. When they arrived at our intersection, we had already cleared. A few dozen people remained marching at the gate, but most (a couple hundred) had already crossed the intersection to the the road that led away.
Without verbal warning, the police proceeded to push us down the road using the sonic grenades, rubber bullets, and wooden pellets, as well as charging at us on their row of motorcycles. As we dispersed down the road, with some degree of speed, they continued to shoot us in the backs. I saw an older woman shot in the leg, and a man on his face, with wooden pellets. I look a glancing blow off my back. I saw a sonic grenade explode right by a woman's head. I saw an office lurch forward on his motor cycle and strike a man on a bicycle. I later learned that nine dock workers were stuck by the projectiles as well, simply caught in the crossfire. A worker trying to get to work was dragged from his car, thrown to the ground, and arrested. I also later learned that the wooden pellets are to be fired below the waist, but several people were hit above the waist, and the police aimed their weapons high.
 Yes, they claim that some bolts, rocks, and bottles were thrown at them. It may have happened, but not in my group. And the woman pictured below was part of a group using yoga for peace. I doubt she threw a rock. Besides, we were running away...
Regardless of your views of the war, or even of your views of protesting during wartime, I urge you to ponder this situation. Our nation, and world, has a long and positive history of civil disobedience. Think of the lunch counter sit-ins for civil rights, or Gandhi making salt at the ocean. Yet the police arrived at the scene with their gas masks already on!- obviously with an agenda in mind. I have been to many protests of varying degrees of confrontation, and I have never witnessed police so quickly resorting to such an excessive degree.
Without warning, they proceeded to side with the corporate war profiteers, and use violence to suppress nonviolent free speech. In the long run, this may deter people from attending even the peaceful rallies. The same logic that drives the current aggression in the Mideast is fueling this - those with the money, guns, and power will bully the masses. And they will write a blank check for the invasion, but starve schools, health care, and even veteran's services to maintain a virtual domestic peasantry.
Your thoughts are appreciated.
Best wishes-
Jesse
Some More Pictures
This seems to be a disturbingly more & more frequent trend eh? |
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