| 2011 Oakland general strike | ||
|---|---|---|
| Part of Occupy Oakland | ||
 The front of a marching crowd carrying a large banner. The banner reads "General Strike!" | ||
| Date | November 2, 2011 | |
| Location | Oakland, California, United States. | |
| Methods | Protests, rallies, marches, and teach-ins | |
| Resulted in |
| |
| Parties | ||
The 2011 Oakland general strike was a demonstration held in Oakland, California on November 2, 2011 as part of the larger Occupy Oakland movement.
Thousands of protesters gathered at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza to participate in rallies, marches, and teach-ins designed to empower citizens and to draw attention to what they regard as problems with economic inequity and corporate greed. [1] [2] Several local unions expressed support for the demonstration, including Service Employees International Union Local 1021, Oakland Education Association, International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10, and United Brotherhood of Carpenters. While none of the unions were officially on strike, several urged their members to take a personal day, vacation day or to participate after work. [3]
A flatbed truck with a sound system was parked in the middle of the intersection of 14th Street and Broadway and used as a makeshift stage. The morning's rally began at 9 am and a range of people addressed the audience including the scholar/activist Angela Davis and musician Boots Riley. [4]
While most of the day-time activities were peaceful, Oakland Police chief Howard Jordan reported that a small group of "anarchists" vandalized a Whole Foods storefront, and broke windows and ATMs of Bank of America and Wells Fargo banks in the afternoon. [5] [6] Many buildings were vandalized, including some businesses that displayed signs of support for the protest. After the incidents of vandalism, members of Occupy Oakland guarded local businesses, boarded up broken windows, and cleaned graffiti caused by the small group of protesters utilizing black bloc tactics. Oakland mayor Jean Quan described these protesters as "a small and isolated group" that "shouldn't mar the overall impact of the demonstration and the fact that people in the 99 percent movement demonstrated peacefully and, for the most part, were productive and very peaceful."
Thousands of protesters marched from Frank Ogawa Plaza to the Port of Oakland, the fifth busiest port in the United States, in two separate groups leaving the plaza at 4:00 pm and 5:00 pm. The number of protesters marching to the port has not been confirmed. While police estimate 7,000 people marched, local organizers [7] and participants [8] put the number somewhere between 20,000 and 100,000. As protesters completely filled Middle Harbor Road, the main road leading to the port, all truck traffic entering or exiting the port was halted. Port operations were "effectively shut down" a couple hours later. The Port of Oakland reportedly lost $4 million as a result of the strike. [9]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 "Protesters struck by vehicle" During march to port, Nov. 2 |
During the evening march to the port, Jan Dylan Carrigg, the driver of a silver Mercedes-Benz, was headed south on 11th Street when he encountered a stream of protesters walking along Broadway. Cell phone videofootage shows the Mercedes attempting to drive through the intersection honking at a protester to move. Lance Laverdure then responded by stopping in front of the Mercedes and began hitting it on the hood. [10] Carrigg hit the gas and both Laverdure and a nearby protester, Margaret So, were hit by the car and sustained leg and ankle injuries. Nearby witnesses then surrounded the car as emergency personnel attended to the protesters. During this time, Carrigg switched seats with the passenger, Sara Abu-Nasser, but switched back before police arrived.[ citation needed ] Carrigg was questioned by BART police and released, angering witnesses who called for Carrigg's arrest. [11] The two protesters suffered leg and ankle injuries and were taken to Highland Hospital. On November 11, the two victims held a press conference alleging that the incident was a criminal act and questioned why the Oakland Police Department had not prosecuted Carrigg. Victims said that nine days after the incident, they still had not been contacted by police. Lance Laverdure told press that, "We want this person arrested for the attempted murder of myself and Margaret". [10]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
| "1am on Nov 3, Fire on Telegraph and Broadway" | |
| "CA Violence: RT footage from 'occupied' Oakland" Night of Nov. 2 |
Later in the evening, a group of protesters took over a vacant building that once served as the headquarters of the Traveler's Aid Society, a non-profit organization that provided services to the local homeless population. Police soon arrived to break up the protesters gathered outside of the building. Some protesters fled while others set a barricade on fire. [12] Just after midnight, police ordered the crowd to disperse for unlawful assembly. Soon, one officer on Broadway was struck on his face shield by a bottle, disorienting him. Within a minute, officers launched flash-bang grenades and tear-gas canisters, beginning a series of late-night clashes between the demonstrators and police. [13] [14]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
| "Shot by police with rubber bullet at Occupy Oakland" Filmed by Oakland resident Scott Campbell, moments before being shot by an Oakland Police officer. |
Shortly before 1 am, Scott Campbell was shot by police using a less-lethal round while he was filming a stationary line of police in riot gear. The apparently unprovoked shooting was documented by the resulting point-of-view video from Campbell's own camera. University of South Carolina criminal justice professor Geoffrey Alpert said that unless something occurred off-camera to provoke the officer, the shooting was "one of the most outrageous uses of a firearm" he'd ever seen. "Unless there's a threat that you can't see in the video, that just looks like absolute punishment, which is the worst type of excessive force," Alpert told the Oakland Tribune. [15]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
| "Iraq war veteran Kayvan Sabehgi beaten by a police officer" |
On the evening of November 2, Kayvan Sabeghi was hit numerous times by a police officer with a baton then arrested. [16] Sabeghi was charged with resisting arrest and remaining at the scene of a riot. While in police custody, Sabeghi complained of severe pain and asked for medical treatment. Eighteen hours after his arrest, he was transferred to Highland Hospital, where he was treated in the intensive care unit [17] for a lacerated spleen. [16]
Although she was wearing a press pass, journalist Susie Cagle was arrested in the early hours of November 3 and spent 14 hours at 2 different jails. [18] She was charged with failure to leave the scene of a riot. Cagle is one of several journalists covering the Occupy movement that have been arrested. [19] Additionally, Cagle reported having been subject to and witness to mistreatment of protestors during her imprisonment. [20]
The Port of Oakland is a major container ship facility located in Oakland, California, in the San Francisco Bay. It was the first major port on the Pacific Coast of the United States to build terminals for container ships. As of 2019 it was the sixth busiest container port in the United States, behind Long Beach, Los Angeles, Newark, Port of Seattle-Tacoma, and Savannah,. Development of an intermodal container handling system in 2002 after over a decade of planning and construction positions the Port of Oakland for further expansion of the West Coast freight market share. In 2019 it ranked 8th in the United States in the category of containers.
The BART Police (BARTPD), officially the Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Department, is the transit police agency of the BART rail system in the U.S. state of California. The department has approximately three hundred police personnel, including over two hundred sworn peace officers. The chief, Kevin Franklin commands the agency's law enforcement, parking, and community relations services. BART Police participates in a mutual aid agreement with other Bay Area law enforcement agencies. In 2011 and 2012 the department came under national scrutiny due to several officers involved in fatalities of the rail system's patrons.
Daniel Mark Siegel is a civil-rights attorney at the Oakland-based law firm Siegel, Yee, Brunner & Mehta, former legal adviser to Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, and candidate in the 2014 Oakland mayoral race. He specializes in employment and labor law.
Oscar Grant III was a 22-year-old African-American man who was killed in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009 by BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle in Oakland, California. Responding to reports of a fight on a crowded Bay Area Rapid Transit train returning from San Francisco, BART Police officers detained Grant and several other passengers on the platform at the Fruitvale BART Station. BART officer Anthony Pirone kneed Grant in the head and forced Grant to lie face down on the platform. Mehserle drew his pistol and shot Grant. Grant was rushed to Highland Hospital in Oakland and pronounced dead later that day. The events were captured on bystanders’ mobile phones. Owners disseminated their footage to media outlets and to various websites where it went viral. Both protests and riots took place in the following days.
Lai Jean Quan is an American politician that served as the 49th mayor of Oakland, California from 2011 to 2015. She previously served as City Council member for Oakland's 4th District. Upon inauguration on January 3, 2011, she became Oakland's first female mayor. Quan ran an unsuccessful campaign for reelection in 2014, losing the mayoral race to Libby Schaaf, a member of the Oakland City Council.
Occupy Portland was a collaboration that began on October 6, 2011 in downtown Portland, Oregon as a protest and demonstration against economic inequality worldwide. It is inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York City on September 17, 2011.
Occupy Seattle was a series of demonstrations in Seattle, Washington, United States in 2011 and 2012, that formed part of the wider Occupy movement taking place in numerous U.S. and world cities at that time. The demonstrations were particularly focused on the city's downtown area including Westlake Park and Seattle City Hall; their stated aim was to oppose wealth inequality, perceived corporate greed, and corruption in the banking and economic systems of the United States.
The Occupy movement was an international populist socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of "real democracy" around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and economic justice and different forms of democracy. The movement has had many different scopes, since local groups often had different focuses, but its prime concerns included how large corporations control the world in a way that disproportionately benefits a minority, undermines democracy and causes instability.
Occupy Oakland refers to a collaboration and series of demonstrations in Oakland, California, that started in October 2011. As part of the Occupy movement, protestors have staged occupations, most notably at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall.
Occupy San Francisco was a collaboration that began with a demonstration event located at Justin Herman Plaza in the Embarcadero and in front of the Federal Reserve building on Market Street in the Financial District in San Francisco, California. It is based on the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York City on September 17, 2011 and is one of several "Occupy" protest sites in the San Francisco Bay Area; other sites include Occupy Oakland and Occupy San Jose.
The Occupy movement began in the United States initially with the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City, but spread to many other cities, both in the United States and worldwide. This list article is an alphabetical, non-chronological summary of Occupy events that have occurred in cities in the United States.
The following is a timeline of Occupy Oakland which began on Monday, October 10, 2011, as an occupation of Frank H. Ogawa Plaza located in front of Oakland City Hall in downtown Oakland, and is an ongoing demonstration. It is allied with Occupy Wall Street, which began in New York City on September 17, 2011, and is one of several "Occupy" protest sites in the San Francisco Bay Area. Other sites include Occupy San Francisco and Occupy San Jose.
Occupy Cal included a series of demonstrations that began on November 9, 2011, on the University of California, Berkeley campus in Berkeley, California. It was allied with the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City, San Francisco Bay Area Occupy groups such as Occupy Oakland, Occupy Berkeley, and Occupy San Francisco, and other public California universities. "Cal" in the name "Occupy Cal" is the nickname of the Berkeley campus and generally refers specifically to UC Berkeley.
The UC Davis pepper spray incident occurred on November 18, 2011, during an Occupy movement demonstration at the University of California, Davis. After asking the protesters to leave several times, university police pepper sprayed a group of student demonstrators as they were seated on a paved path in the campus quad. The video of UC Davis police officer Lt. John Pike pepper-spraying demonstrators spread around the world as a viral video and the photograph became an Internet meme. Officer Alex Lee also pepper sprayed demonstrators at Pike's direction.
Susie Cagle is an American journalist and editorial cartoonist whose work has appeared in The American Prospect, AlterNet, The Awl, GOOD, and others. Cagle is based in Oakland, California.
Timothy Scott Campbell, et al. v. City of Oakland, et al. is an ongoing civil rights lawsuit in the US District Court of Northern California.
The Occupy movement has been met with a variety of responses from local police departments since its beginning in 2011. According to documents obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, the FBI, state and local law enforcement officials treated the movement as a potential criminal and terrorist threat and used fusion centers and counterterrorism agents to investigate and monitor the Occupy movement.
The history of Oakland, a city in the county of Alameda, California, can be traced back to the founding of a settlement by Horace Carpentier, Edson Adams, and Andrew Moon in the 19th century. The area now known as Oakland had seen human occupation for thousands of years, but significant growth in the settlements that are now incorporated into the city did not occur until the Industrial Revolution. Oakland was first incorporated as a town in 1852.
The 2014 Oakland riots were a series of riots and civil disturbances that took place in Oakland, California and surrounding areas in November and December 2014. On November 24, 2014, following the decision of a Grand Jury in St. Louis to not charge Darren Wilson in the shooting death of black teenager Michael Brown, protests and rioting broke out in Oakland and later spread to other Bay Area cities. For more than two weeks, the Bay Area was the site of civil unrest as protesters clashed with police and damaged public and private property.
This is a list of protests that took place in the San Francisco Bay Area following the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, while in police custody.
| Protests |
| ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Events | |||||||||||||
| Groups | |||||||||||||
| Media | |||||||||||||
| Related | |||||||||||||
