The Prelude

In its earliest few weeks, Occupy Oakland adopted the general goal of occupying empty or foreclosed buildings to provide homes for families, preserve the homes of those facing foreclosure, and establish community spaces. There have been various ongoing efforts to accomplish these goals, with mixed success. The most controversial previous attempt was on the night of the General Strike, when an autonomous Black Bloc group briefly occupied the empty Travelers Aid building downtown and claimed it as a new community center.

This action resulted in a clash with OPD that led to many injuries and arrests and threatened the main Occupy Oakland encampment. There was quite a bit of discussion and criticism of the Travelers Aid occupation afterward, and in the course of it one of Occupy Oakland’s respected elders said (as best I can remember): “If you want to occupy a building, don’t break into it in the middle of the night wearing masks. Do it in broad daylight; announce it to the press beforehand; and go with thousands of people and music and families and a locksmith to open the door”. Many people expressed support for this suggestion, myself included.

The Proposal

Quite some time passed after the General Strike, during which the encampment was evicted from the plaza a second time, attempted to re-encamp at another location, and was evicted from there as well. When re-establishing an outdoor camp before winter no longer seemed feasible, a proposal was passed to attempt another building occupation along the lines of what had been suggested after the General Strike. The building location was kept secret by the proposers, but it was described as a vacant city- or bank-owned building with enough space for assemblies, committee meetings, a kitchen, medical station, and other potential community services. The occupation would take place as part of a two-day festival, and those not wishing to trespass would wait outside the building until it was clear how the city and OPD would respond to the occupation.

At the time, Occupy Oakland had recently been evicted from two locations without a violent confrontation with OPD. The police tactic in dealing with Occupy Oakland at that point was to avoid interfering with large crowds, waiting to move until our numbers had dwindled to the point where mass resistance was no longer possible and we would voluntarily back down. So the main obstacle to occupying a building seemed to be, not reaching or entering it, but keeping a sufficient number of people in it afterward that OPD would leave it alone. In the meantime, many other building occupations were taking place at other Occupies: Occupy Santa Cruz occupied an abandoned bank; Occupy SF occupied an abandoned hotel; Occupy Cal occupied a library facing closure; and so on. So our proposed action was not a unique or extreme one within the movement, and did not seem especially likely to generate a violent confrontation.

The Buildup

In the month and a half between the proposal and “Move-In Day” itself, however, OPD’s approach toward the Occupy movement changed drastically. Occupy Oakland, for its part, refrained from potentially-provocative actions following the port shutdown on December 12—our biggest action was a nonviolent flash mob-style demonstration during Black Friday. At the same time, some members of Occupy Oakland obtained a permit from the city to hold a peaceful vigil in the plaza at the site of our former encampment.

I won’t go into the details of OPD’s reaction to the vigil—but if you’re not already familiar with them, I’d urge you to read this article by Susie Cagle. As a result of that change in police tactics, many within the movement concluded that OPD’s new goal was not merely to enforce the law, or to restrict the behavior of Occupy Oakland, but to eliminate the movement altogether—and that they were using arbitrary arrests and beatings to punish people for participating in the movement even if their actions were completely lawful.

This new OPD tactic made the need for a safe meeting space that much more urgent—but it also meant our initial assumptions about OPD’s reaction to an occupation attempt looked less and less realistic. The idea of OPD attacking thousands of people during a parade had seemed unlikely when the proposal passed, but by January it seemed like a distinct possibility. However, changing a proposal requires 90% approval of the general assembly—so the original plan was pretty much set in stone. So the planners continued to prepare for the festival and for the organizational and maintenance needs of the building occupation, while taking measures to physically (and non-violently) protect participants from OPD in the event of a confrontation.

Move-In Day

I won’t describe the events of the day itself in detail, since that’s already been done extensively elsewhere. But there are a few points I want to emphasize. First: yes, our intent to trespass was grounds for declaring an unlawful assembly (even if we failed to carry out those intentions). But participating in an unlawful assembly is not a crime in itself—it only becomes a crime if a legitimate order to disperse is given and participants fail to do so. Giving the dispersal order on inaudible equipment after surrounding a crowd expressly to prevent it from dispersing is making a deliberate mockery of the law.

Second: the original objective of the second march was the Travelers Aid building, but that plan was abandoned at the request of painters when marchers were unable to enter the building. After that point (which occurred within ten minutes of the beginning of the march) the second march became a simple protest march which never trespassed or engaged in provocative behavior before being subjected to kettling, tear gas, and mass arrest. It certainly was not attempting to occupy the YMCA: the doors of the YMCA were opened by those inside to allow people trapped by OPD to exit through the building.

Third: the only vandalism that occurred on Move-In Day—the incident at City Hall—was committed at the end of the day by a handful of protesters who had escaped from the mass arrest in front of the YMCA. It was not the cause of the mass arrests or any of OPD’s earlier actions. It was not a pre-planned action, or one that was approved by Occupy Oakland. It was an impetuous act by people who had just experienced hours of tear gas, grenades, and rubber bullets, and who were trying to respond to the arrest and beating of hundreds of their fellow protesters which was then in progress a few blocks away.

I’ve seen a lot of online criticism regarding the planning, purpose, and execution of Move-In Day—and while some of it is valid, more of it is based on misconceptions caused by looking at the events of the day in isolation. Hopefully this will clear up some of those misconceptions and allow for more constructive criticism going forward.