Man Shot, Killed Near Occupy Oakland Protest Camp

[midnight]

Source: Associated Press

Police are investigating a fatal shooting just outside the Occupy Oakland encampment that is further straining relations between local officials and anti-Wall Street protesters.

A preliminary investigation into the gunfire Thursday that left a man dead suggests it resulted from a fight between two groups of men at or near the camp on a plaza in front of Oakland's City Hall, police Chief Howard Jordan said.

Investigators do not yet know if the men in the fight were associated with Occupy Oakland, but they are looking into reports that some protest participants tried to break up the altercation, Jordan said.

With opinions about the ongoing demonstration and its effect on the city becoming more divided in recent days, supporters and opponents immediately reacted to the homicide — the city's 101st this year.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/man-shot-killed-occupy-oakland-protest-camp-14930225#.Trzp5GAW9zw

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Camp denies related to their activities while death being cited as proof that that camp is a bad element and drain on law enforcement...

[Kurmudgeon]

1. It's ok to be against Wall St.. but this kind of thing will end any sympathy real quick.

[StarsInHerHair]

2. not necessarily

[FreeBillClinton]

3. Those darn protesters getting shot at in Oakland!

Seriously, how exactly does being the victim of violence end your sympathy for the protesters?

[barbtries]

6. see reply number 5

it shouldn't.

[backscatter712]

7. This incident was by people not related to the Occupy movement there.

The only thing OccupyOakland had to do with this incident is that one of their medics was first on the scene treating the guy that got shot.

[EFerrari]

13. You think there were no homicides in Oakland before the occupation?

Think again.

[newfie11]

4. Is this the ONLY murder done in Oakland?

I am sure they will try like hell to link this to the protesters Oakland. Check the numbers for violent crimes in Oakland and see this is not unusual.
http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ca/oakland/crime/

[barbtries]

5. murders will happen in Oakland

this was the 101st murder this year. sadly, murder is not unique in Oakland; about one every three days this year. this murder took place not in the encampment but outside the encampment. i doubt it is related in any way to the occupy movement. but, kind of like how the bushies used 911 to take the nation to the wars they wanted to have, this incident will probably be used to renew efforts to shut down the occupy movement in Oakland.

[backscatter712]

8. Yep. Quisling Quan is having her cops roiding up already... n/t

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. Welcome to Oakland. The only tie to OWS was locality

[barbtries]

10. that's what i mean.

i'm from LA. too much murdering going on all over, but it's not the doing of the Occupiers.

[KamaAina]

11. Those damn protesters! Why, there were never any murders in Oakland before this!

:sarcasm:

http://www.insidebayarea.com/top-stories/ci_19314945

Oh, and it does not appear that this was in any way related to Occupy:

Mike Tarmo, 31, a native of Sierra Leone, said he also saw the shooting. Tarmo claimed that the group of outsiders simply walked up to a man standing on the steps of the plaza and started beating and punching him. The occupiers tried to step in, Tarmo said. "There were 20 Occupy guys going to help him, saying, "Stop! Stop!" Tarmo said the victim of that physical assault was the same person who got shot.

Jenkins, the other eyewitness, said the victim was an innocent bystander. Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan said at a news conference that the victim may not have been involved in the dispute that broke out in the camp earlier....

Other longtime camp residents say the shooting was unrelated to the tent campers. "The only Occupy Oakland relationship here is that our medics were the first to arrive on the scene," said Verucha Peller, an activist who has been around the camp since the beginning.

I am reminded of the punch line to one of Aesop's fables: "Any excuse will serve a tyrant." :grr:

[EFerrari]

12. All the homicides in Oakland happen near the Oakland Police

which proves it's a bad element