Dear OPD,

[Are_grits_groceries]

I understand your confusion. How is one to act when on the one hand you are turned loose apparently willy nilly with orders to clear the park by any means necessary, and then on the other hand, those you really did 'clear' were allowed back?

Is 'clear' now another euphemism for using flash bang grenades, rubber bullets, tear gas and LRAD to move people? You and your allies from other areas came in from all entrances and exits. This was a quasi-military action that treated those in the park as if they were armed with Uzis and AK47s and not rocks and bottles. I use the term quasi because it is clear that you need much more training in when and how to use the items you have at hand to repel the Visigoths. You don't toss them around like candy from a float in the Macy's parade. Maybe #occupyMarines could help you.

Just because people don't act as fast as you would like when they are senseless from the barrage is no need to have a tantrum and attack them further. There are other police departments who were able to conduct a mostly peaceful clearing.

I understand that you are saying that the other departments were brought in as backup. Well, your backup was upfront in the thick of things rather than waiting to see if help was really needed. I shudder to think what your backup to the backup was, but then I knew there were snipers. What else was waiting in the wings? Seals? Rangers? The Penguin?

You see OPD, we don't understand. You cleared the park with horrible measures and tactics that match some of the violence I have seen in riots that are condemned by one and all. Do you follow the Geneva Conventions? The Hague might be calling soon.

You are the 99% in terms of your economic position.However, you are also the 1% in terms of apparently unfettered power. Do you realize #occupyOakland was supporting your rights to have unions and to bargain? Do you realize they were asking for an end to the assault on programs such as your police department in terms of funding? In a broad manner, they were supporting you while you were attacking them? The irony meter broke a looooooong time ago.

Please don't tell me you were following orders. Follow your conscience and some of you might come to a different conclusion. When you participated did you job hinge on how many people you traumatized or along the way did you have an option to act more humanely? I wonder what you were told about what you would face and how jacked up your commanders got you. Maybe if you visited the encampment and talked to people there you might learn something. They probably will consider you to be spies, but give it a try.

So OPD, I suggest you don't ask Quan and her cohorts for more consistent orders. They are politicians and you will never get them from that sector. Try to come up with a better solution that doesn't leave an Iraq War veteran with a fractured skull.

Are you the 99% or the 1%?

Sincerely,

The 99%

[Tsiyu]

1. Awesome response

"Do you realize #occupyOakland was supporting your rights to have unions and to bargain? Do you realize they were asking for an end to the assault on programs such as your police department in terms of funding? In a broad manner, they were supporting you while you were attacking them? The irony meter broke a looooooong time ago."



Right on! (to get all seventies on ya')


:applause:

[Are_grits_groceries]

2. I want to expand this message to

all the police departments employing versions of these tactics.
MEH!!!

[myrna minx]

3. Excellent letter. K&R

:applause:

[malaise]

4. Great letter

Rec

[hootinholler]

5. The only thing I have to add is

When you see someone hurt in front of you, you have a duty to render aid. All the officers on that line had a duty to render aid an should be charged. The one who threw the flashbang into the crowd rendering aid should be charged with assault.

[myrna minx]

6. kick