Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

After roe, women are no longer free.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Come on, man.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Infrastructure week. at last.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

The willow is too close to the house.

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102Comments

  4. 4.

    Spaghetti Lee

    I wonder how many of the principled libertarians in the Teabag Party will be outraged about this abuse of government power? Yeah, thought so. The only thing that scares a libertarian more than the government are people exercising the rights the government gave them.

  5. 5.

    Loneoak

    Check out this video from Tea Party Television (this is one case where it is safe to get out of the boat). As my friend on FB said: “What happens when the Tea Party makes anti-Occupy propaganda? They end up making . . . pro-LEFTIST propaganda! That is some dialectical shit!” Basically, it’s people telling the truth and the teabaggers putting scary violins over it.

  6. 6.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @Loneoak:

    I suppose that’s what happens when your entire ideology goes through the looking glass, then shoves the looking glass up its ass.

  7. 7.

    scav

    @Judas Escargot: So many actors, so few white hats.

    I think I read elsewhere that teargassing in Oakland was accompanied by the police telling reporters to stop filming / photographing so that’s why those neurons fired.

  9. 9.

    Bubblegum Tate

    I’m swelling with Oakland pride over here. Mostly, I’m glad I don’t live near the combat zone.

  10. 10.

    piratedan

    Olbermann had an entire segment indicating that he’s been to OWS and is acutely aware that they don’t want to be co-opted. Then showed that Letterman is on board with it as well and his noting how awkward he would feel amongst those folks considering his salary.

    http://current.com/shows/countdown/videos/occupy-together-keith-olbermann-david-letterman-support-of-the-movement-part-1

    there’s a part two as well plus over at the site, Marcos from the GOS also speaking how the R’s are attempting to use Warren’s sympathy to OWS against her.

  12. 12.

    Cat

    Man the ABC station is taking a beating on twitter for cutting out the livefeed as the police put on gasmasks.

    Of course taking a beating on twitter is like having to sit in the Comfy Chair until lunch time with only one cup of tea.

  14. 14.

    Shinobi

    There are like 15 people there, was the tear gas really necessary? The police are making OWS’s case for them.

  17. 17.

    Cat

    @Linda Featheringill:

    We all seem to be avoiding commenting on the gas video.

    Its all so depressing as there were so few demonstrators there the police were firing off a tear gas canister for every person. And then the police just milled about! Its like they just wanted to pop off some tear gas. :(

  18. 18.

    Martin

    Enjoying how this is all playing out. My sympathy to those in Oakland on the receiving end, but these are the kinds of events that bring the movement to national attention because they force the media to contrast the police actions with what the groups are trying to achieve. This is unfortunately necessary. Tear gas and rubber bullets to protect the moneyed interests – that’s the kind of narrative you’re trying to build.

  22. 22.

    Loneoak

    I know a few people who are at Occupy Oakland. They are well organized and very persistent. There’s no way the cops are keeping them away—it is likely a more resilient group than OWS itself, at least in terms of physical staying power. Mayor Quan is going to get some serious shit for this; apparently her office’s voicemail is already full from people calling in complaints and the non-emergency police line is getting overwhelmed. They’ve spent millions on police overtime, shut down the BART, committed numerous civil rights violations and yet never cited anyone for a crime other than unlawful assembly and camping. Apparently, Oakland City Hall thinks the way to protect health and safety of its citizens requires spraying them indiscriminately with rubber bullets (which can be lethal) and chemical weapons.

    And here’s a picture of a woman in a wheelchair getting tear gassed.

  24. 24.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Cat:

    And then the police just milled about! Its like they just wanted to pop off some tear gas. :(

    They did, because they bought it, and now they can use it and explain during next year’s budget process that they need that line item because look it came in handy!

    Meanwhile, kids starve.

  28. 28.

    handsmile

    In the past several days, OWS movement protesters in Chicago and Oakland have been subjected to increasingly aggressive police enforcement of civic ordinances. On Sunday morning, an OWS encampment in Portland (ME) was attacked by a chemical bomb.

    This is an ominous development, with potentially grave consequences for the movement’s popularity should protesters respond with acts of violent demonstration or resistance. Thus far, OWS has distinguished itself by its admirable restraint to police provocation. I hope other BJ front-pagers will follow Dougerhead’s lead in posting on this apparently escalating and alarming trend.

    Related to “Occupy Wall Street” in New York, the Guardian is reporting tonight that the Manhattan District Attorney has offered to dismiss the cases of about half of those who were arrested during the Brooklyn Bridge march several weeks ago. Civil rights lawyers from the National Lawyers Guild who are representing the protesters have responded warily to the offer.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/25/occupy-wall-street-cases-dismissed

    Thanks to Scav for his/her comment and link above (#2). This is a truly important and chilling story also from the Guardian. For the first time ever, Google has released actual figures on how many times the US government has demanded private information about its users.

  31. 31.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Ira-NY:

    I’m starting off dubious about your extreme concern for the well-being of OWS, that somehow translates into you attacking America’s solidarity with OWS, perhaps you should go tell the Kochs about your concerns while the American people fix their country

  32. 32.

    Cacti

    Isn’t Oakland where the cop shot the guy in the back who was handcuffed and lying face down on the ground?

  33. 33.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Loneoak:

    Here’s a video of cops tossing flashbangs into the crowd.

    This video is a necessary supplement to the above because it demonstrates even more clearly that there was no real reason to use bullets and bombs on these Americans (the local news ‘talent’ try their best to come up with one and fail).

    I can’t imagine that a lot of these cops felt great about what they were being ordered to do.

  34. 34.

    Loneoak

    @Cacti:

    Yeah, it was Oscar Grant. The Occupy people have renamed the square they took over Oscar Grant Plaza. But, fwiw, he was shot by BART (regional rail transport) police, not the Oakland PD.

  35. 35.

    AT

    @Cacti – to be fair he was just reaching for his taser and grabbed his pistol by mistake, hoccadonode!

  36. 36.

    Ira-NY

    @AA+ Bonds: Extreme concern? I expressed nothing of the sort.

    Solidarity with OWS can take many forms. I am simply beginning to question if establishing satellite occupations is the best means of showing solidity and/or moving forward.

  38. 38.

    tc

    And now people are saying police will shut down Occupy Baltimore tonight. Is this a nationally coordinated containment effort?

    /puts on tinfoil hat…

  40. 40.

    srv

    I have to agree with Loneoak and add that the Oakland (and assume there’s a big Berkeley contingent there) crowd have adopted a new strategy – roust us and we’ll just run through the streets all night. They’re taking an intersection, getting gassed, and then bolting to another one. Cops can’t keep up.

    The city is going to have to give up and give them a campground.

    Keep it up guys, will be over this weekend.

  41. 41.

    Short Bus Bully

    I’m looking to find footage of Tea Party rallies getting tear gassed. I can’t find any. Weird? I dunno…

  42. 42.

    AA+ Bonds

    @PeakVT:

    My main distaste is for the BART thugs who seem to invite open hatred from other police by stepping on everyone; I think the non-uniformed civvie leadership in Oakland is probably at least as much to blame for this bullet/bomb incident as the desk-bound brass

  43. 43.

    AA+ Bonds

    It’s a really big screw-up to shoot unarmed demonstrators in a democratic society, a really, really big screw-up

  45. 45.

    AA+ Bonds

    @tc:

    It’s no conspiracy. Big city police departments have been sharing information and coordinating tactics in order to stymie grassroots demonstrations since at least 1999 (at least the left-wing ones). There were a number of articles on this in the mainstream when all that shit went down in Miami a few years back.

    Certainly a coordinated effort began here, and the kickoff was Bloomberg promising OWS that after whining about how he hated them, he totally had their backs and would definitely allow them their First Amendment rights if they played nice

  47. 47.

    boss bitch

    @AA+ Bonds:

    Knock it off. Can anyone ask a simple question about OWS w/o being bashed over the head with the “with us or against us” argument? Pretty sure OWS doesn’t want to project THAT image now do they?

  49. 49.

    jwb

    Apparently, the mayor’s been in Washington DC for the past couple of days and is only rushing back to Oakland tonight. The police chief quit a couple of days ago, and the police are being run by an interim head. I’ve also read reports that there are about 15 different law enforcement agencies involved. Who the heck is coordinating everything and issuing the orders is not at all clear. But, among other things, this whole thing looks like a total administrative clusterfuck.

  50. 50.

    ruemara

    Uh, there’s an OWS movement in my tiny town. I think they’re 15% worthwhile, 85% random people who are giving the time they normally spend in the park an alternative title. If you think this means I’m supporting the Koch bros, blow me. That being said, I think these assholes in Oakland and Chicago city govs are in for a world of hurt. I’m more interested in voter registration and I’d be down there getting my ass into trouble in solidarity. Fuck them. We don’t die, we multiply. Not only will OWS Oakland be back, we’re going to be all up on their backs in bigger numbers.

  52. 52.

    Suffern ACE

    @jwb: This is where a few more of those satellite occupations would be useful. If police force X has been called away to Oakland, it would helpful if a new occupation took place while their riot police were otherwise occupied in Oakland and perhaps get those police called back home.

  54. 54.

    Carl Nyberg

    What is the legal basis of this use of force by the police?

    It seems to me a special prosecutor should be appointed and the perpetrators of the violence (city officials, police, etc.) should be prosecuted. Or the U.S. Attorney should prosecute for violating the civil rights of the citizens.

  55. 55.

    tc

    @GregB:

    From the article:

    “Authorities are denying reports that they used flash bang canisters to help break up the crowd, saying the loud noises came from large firecrackers thrown at police by protesters.”

    The AP knows the police behaved properly because the police told them so.

  56. 56.

    Martin

    @Ira-NY:

    Do the satellite occupations move things forward?

    I didn’t think they were achieving all that much until now. Now that they’re on the receiving end of riot gear, I think they’re moving things forward considerably.

  57. 57.

    Carl Nyberg

    Oakland officials were making specious arguments about rats to justify the removal of the encampment.

    If the original case for removing the encampment included lies, I’m skeptical about the claims of throwing rocks at police.

    With video cameras being ubiquitous, the claim about rock throwing is going to seem like a fabrication if the Oakland PD can’t produce video evidence of the rock throwing.

  58. 58.

    GregB

    @tc:

    Large firecrackers fired from tear gas guns held by protesters dressed exactly like the police.

    There will be a death soon. Sad to say it.

    The mask is slipping from the plutocrats faces.

  61. 61.

    L. Ron Obama

    @joeyess: Not confirmed yet that there are rubber bullets (have not seen any pics of a bullet itself). May be beanbags (have seen a picture of one) or other projectiles.

  65. 65.

    goblue72

    OPD have long been considered an occupying army by the flatlanders in Oakland (i.e. the poor and working class communities of color) – this is the police department that 9 years later still hasn’t finished complying with federal court orders to clean-up the department in the wake of the “Riders” corruption scandal. Our latest police chief (Anthony Batts) quit recently before the Mayor could fire him for failure to clean up the department (despite his B.S. proclamations at having made progress, the federal court recently had indicated it was getting fed up with OPD).

  66. 66.

    scav

    I’m not even sure the whole idea of “satellite” protests is entirely a valid one. Are there satellite elections? Are the opinions of a few places so much more important than the others? I mean, it’s not as though any particular park, even one in New York City is actually magic and everything is suddenly fixed if we get a tent on it for long enough. But, given enough tents in enough parks, well, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and
    walking out? They may thinks it’s a movement. @Ira-NY does seem to be adopting a rather command and control or authoritarian view of what’s going on. Weird old ubiquitous self-assembling acephalous movements, how is it they work again?

  68. 68.

    Donald G

    Albuquerque police moved in tonight to break up (Un)Occupy protest at UNM, moving protesters out of Yale Park. Organizer claims 30-40 arrested…mostly peaceful as these things go, not like in Oakland. Estimated 300 protesters lining Centraal Avenue/Old Route 66. KOB reporter Gadi Schwartz tweets that police will begin clearing street any minute.

  69. 69.

    Carl Nyberg

    BTW, are the police videotaping their clash?

    If not, why not?

    If they are, I’ll bet a bunch of media outlets file FOIA requests.

    The Oakland leadership are fools.

  70. 70.

    Calouste

    @AA+ Bonds:

    It’s a really big screw-up to shoot unarmed demonstrators in a democratic society, a really, really big screw-up

    Nothing to worry about in the U.S.A. then. Places like Egypt on the other hand…

  71. 71.

    Donald G

    KOB reporter Gadi Schwartz now tweets that there are rumors that tear gas is about to be used against Occupy Albuquerque.

  72. 72.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @Lancelot Link:

    The Oakland PD used rubber bullets against Iraq war protestors in 2003, too.

    And against union protesters at the Port of Oakland a few years ago, as well. They seem to think they’re the RUC.

  74. 74.

    edo

    We fired a lot of police out here in Oakland because we had no money to pay them on a regular basis. The tear gas was already paid for.

  76. 76.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @edo: Isn’t it interesting that they supposedly don’t have the manpower to suppress routine crime, but they sure as hell have it to crack skulls on Occupy Oakland?

  77. 77.

    Donald G

    Things seemed to have settled down in Albuquerque after some excitement earlier after a male was chased down by police and grabbed, a crowd gathered and was maced, and a few people hit with batons. Crowd now reported to be thinning out drastically and groups of cops reportedly leaving.

  78. 78.

    bjacques

    Somewhat on-topic (it’s OWS-*related* footage)…

    Remember that stupid photo of OWS protesters with all the arrows pointing to commercial products they wore or used, somehow “proving” their hypocrisy at being “anti-capitalist?”

    Well, last week, UK Conservative MP Louise Mensch, who had so promisingly grilled the Murdochs this summer over the phone-tapping scandals, was on BBC’s Have I Got News For You. She Went There. And gas wha hoppen?

    (Disclosure: I’ve been reading Private Eye, whose chief editor Ian Hislop is on HIGNFY, since the Murdoch scandal broke. PE combine investigative journalism with snark, and I’ve found it as addictive as chocolate-frosted crack with a chewy caramel center.)

  79. 79.

    SFPoet

    @GregB:
    If anyone is still reading the comments on this thread, raw footage of the event shows that the tear gas was not deployed because “protesters were throwing rocks.”
    The police announced to the crowd (estimated:1000 by local CBS news), that they were declaring the gathering an illegal assembly, and if the protesters didn’t disperse “chemical agents would be used.”
    The raw footage also clearly shows flash bang grenades being thrown directly at protesters, including a group trying to help an injured person on the ground.
    Tonight was the worst case of police brutality yet, against OWS.

    Raw footage from KTVU TV news

    Coverage from CBS San Francisco

  81. 81.

    AlladinsLamp

    Atlanta’s Mayor Reed had Woodruff Park cleared of OWS last night.

    Reed said the decision to clear the park was made after spotting a protestor carrying an AK47.

    He also claims the protest has cost the city $300K, and more will be needed to repair the damage to the park.

  82. 82.

    Mino

    @srv: Awesome! Nimble tactics for the win.

    Why are these mostly Democratic mayors/gov carrying water for Wall Street??? Is this gonna be 1968?

  84. 84.

    Feudalism Now!

    What will be interesting is when the Oakland teargassing is conflated with all the other OWS removals. The images of riot geared police firing teargas into a crowd is so much more sexy than the Atlanta dispersal. You know who is the most thankful for the OPD, Tony Bologna. Pepperspray is sooooo September. Teargas, flash bangs, and rubber bullets are the new hotness. Royal Ulster Constabulary indeed. Pricks.

  85. 85.

    singfoom

    This is just sickening. Why exactly did the OPD decide to use flashbangs, rubber bullets, teargas and an LRAD to remove the protesters? Were they violent? Did they pose a threat to the officers?

    I thought those items in the policing toolbox for dangerous and unruly crowds. Now, I guess they’re just for people peaceably assembling to air their grievances, which I thought was a right.

    Backlash is gonna be a bitch…

  86. 86.

    Feudalism Now!

    If OPD is using this now, what are they going to use if the Raiders make the playoffs?

  87. 87.

    Xenos

    @Feudalism Now!:
    RUC? I am more worried of them turning into the SPG.

    For anyone riding while young, male, and black on BART, I suppose they already may as well be the SPG.

    We could use a new version of LKJ about now. Even an early UB40 might be nice.

  88. 88.

    RossInDetroit

    @Spaghetti Lee:

    The only thing that scares a libertarian more than the government are people exercising the rights the government gave them.

    Good point but one quibble. The rights are inherent in humanity and are not Government’s to confer or deny.

    “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed“

  89. 89.

    RossInDetroit

    @singfoom:

    I thought those items in the policing toolbox for dangerous and unruly crowds. Now, I guess they’re just for people peaceably assembling to air their grievances, which I thought was a right.

    IIRC, only a couple dozen cops were there. They were very badly outnumbered. 200 cops probably would have settled it without any ordnance being employed. The worse the odds, the more likely the police are to use extreme measures.

  90. 90.

    singfoom

    @RossInDetroit: Having watched several videos in addition to this one, I think that you’re undercounting the amount of police that were there.

    In addition, I thought that police forces were supposed to use the least amount of force to accomplish their objectives. Are you supporting the actions they took here?

    This was incredibly heavy handed and will end up just getting more people on the side of Occupy.

    I will say I laughed when I saw the teargas canister accidentally land among the police because of a bad shot.

    Shame on the OPD.

    BTW, OO is reporting 500 cops: http://www.occupyoakland.org/2011/10/police-brutalize-dismantle-occupy-oakland-camp/

    Now, the truth is somewhere between 12 and 500. From what I saw, there were at least 100 officers. I’ll grab some more video links…

  91. 91.

    handsmile

    As disgusting as this police aggression may be to many of us, media representations of the incident will be determinative.

    This morning the well-compensated news readers at CNN stated that Oakland police fired teargas (no mention of other weapons) at protesters in response to being pelted by rocks and paint “bombs”. (There was a repeated image of one cop whose helmet did appear to have been splattered.) Moreover, they reported that police forces had assembled in order to disperse unruly demonstrators who had returned to public sites earlier in the evening. A CNN reporter on site noted that a small contingent of police remained in the area “to watch out for more violence.”

    It would be instructive if other commenters here could write about news reports they saw or read on the Oakland incident. I fear this and the Chicago police actions on Sunday herald a far more aggressive, intentionally provocative, and coordinated approach by security forces nation-wide to the OWS movement.

  92. 92.

    RossInDetroit

    @singfoom:

    No, I don’t support using rubber bullets, flashbangs and tear gas against the protesters. I was just pointing out that when cops are at a large numerical disadvantage they tend to use more extreme means.
    More info would definitely be helpful. The situation seems unclear at this point and there are a lot of unsupported anecdotal reports.
    I certainly hope that the police response can be shown to be unjustified.

  93. 93.

    henrythefifth

    America, f*ck yeah! Teargassing the crap outta unarmed protesters!

    That is some industrial grade armament they are dropping on those people. But hey, at least on the news they said they DFHs were given a 5 minute warning. So it’s all good.

  94. 94.

    jayjaybear

    It seems very unlikely that if 17 law enforcement agencies were involved in the ouster of OO, that there would only be a couple dozen police there.

  96. 96.

    The Raven

    Feeding corvids, are we?

    What’s striking is that the decision of police to undertake action against OWS seems to bear no relationship to the conduct of the protesters. OWS seems to be a kind of Rorschach blot for local governments: they see what they want in it, and act accordingly.

    California has had over 30 years of tax- and budget-cutting. This has hit poorer neighborhoods, like the Oakland flatlands, especially hard. This probably contributes to the both the radicalism of the protesters and the police response here.

  97. 97.

    Mattminus

    @AA+ Bonds:

    “I can’t imagine that a lot of these cops felt great about what they were being ordered to do.”

    Really?!?!??!!?!? You obviously don’t know many cops.

  98. 98.

    PWL

    So, where are all the rocks and bottles that the Oakland PD said “necessitated” this step “to protect themselves”? Or is that just a pretext–one more example in the fine tradition of government lying?

  99. 99.

    Samara Morgan

    i know you guys will scream blue murder about this, but this is more of what Julian predicted.
    He believes America will turn into a police state on its way to non-linear system collapse.

  100. 100.

    goblue72

    @SFPoet: I live a few blocks from where the Occupy Oakland crackdown occurred. There sure as shite were more than a few dozen cops on the streets. OPD (and whomever else they corralled from the Alameda Sheriff’s office and elsewhere) were out in full force, with their usual occupying army riot gear that OPD loves to get a hard-on for. I didn’t see any rock throwning or paint bombs, but its always possible a random Berkeley anarchist or knucklehead did something stupid, but certainly not enough of it happening to warrant tear gas, rubber bullets and flashbang grenades.

    And OPD pulled the same garbage the always do – they mill about doing nothing in order to lull the crowd & wait till the crowd gets huge and then announce out of the blue on a megaphone that everyone has 5 minutes to disperse before the beatings commence.

    This is a police force that is NINE years into a federal court order following a massive civil rights and corruption scandal (the “Riders”) and they still have failed to clean up their act. Police Chief Batts quit a few weeks ago before the judge had a chance to smack him around.

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