After removing urine, feces, graffiti, needles, and trash, the City of Oakland reopened Frank Ogawa Plaza at noon yesterday. This is the same plaza that Oakland Police used tear gas to defend from Occupy Oakland rioters the night before.
About 1,000 people quickly filled the plaza, and later in the day Occupy Oakland held a General Assembly where a resolution to stage a General Strike next week was adopted. According to The Oakland Tribune the general strike will include “taking students out of schools, shutting down businesses and mobilizing demonstrators in the city center.”
As night fell the Occupy Oakland crowd grew to over 2,000, but with no park to retake, they couldn’t really figure out what to do. First, they tried to enter the 12th Street BART station to take a train over to Occupy San Francisco, but they couldn’t get in. Then they walked up Broadway to the 19th Street station, but authorities blocked that entrance too. Even if they had gotten inside the station, BART officials had stopped running trains through downtown Oakland. A smaller crowd, now down to about 1,000, then returned to Ogawa Plaza. Despite OPD promises not to allow any camping, at least two tents were allowed to stay overnight.
Across the Bay in San Francisco, more than 1,000 Occupy San Francisco protesters waited all night for a police raid that never materialized. Busloads of police left their Treasure Island staging area at 2:40 AM, but they never materialized at the Justin Herman Plaza site of the Occupy San Francisco encampment.
On Tuesday, San Francisco’s Department of Public Health posted a warning calling the Occupy San Francisco camp an “imminent public health hazard … Evidence of excrement, urine, and vomit were observed throughout the park and surrounding areas. Fecal material was observed on stairs and grass. A container of human waste was observed along the Embarcadero side of the park.”
But don’t expect Mayor Ed Lee to order a raid on the park anytime soon. Lee is up for reelction this November 8th. His opponent, state Sen. Leland Yee, was with the protesters till at least 1:30 AM last night.
