An Open Letter to Occupy Oakland from the Oakland Police Officers’ Association

[boston bean]

On behalf of the 645 Oakland police officers we represent, this letter comes to you out of duty to protect the Oakland community and its citizens.

Oakland police officers are the 99% and we understand and sympathize with your message. We respect your right to peaceful protest.

We are also sworn to protect the citizens of Oakland. Right now, Oakland is in a state of emergency.

Our police officers are the 99% struggling in Oakland neighborhoods every day to contain the 1% who rob, steal, rape and murder our law-abiding citizens. The Occupy Oakland protest, now 30 days old, is taking our police officers out of Oakland neighborhoods and away from protecting the citizens of Oakland.

In an average city in California, this might not be of emergency proportions for its citizens. Oakland is not an “average” city – we have the highest violent crime rate in California. We are the 5th most violent city in the United States – with more shootings and homicides than any city west of the Mississippi.

Last night’s murder, right in the epicenter of Occupy Oakland, is unacceptable. So is the violence being promoted by “renegade” protesters who are lighting firebombs, destroying property and attacking police.

What is even more tragic is that homicides are a frequent occurrence in Oakland. This is the real emergency: Yesterday’s murder was Oakland’s 101st homicide of 2011. It is time for us to stop directing all of our efforts at policing the small enclave of “Occupy Oakland” and get back to our job of protecting the citizens of Oakland in the neighborhoods where our residents live.

The events of recent weeks have shown that many occupiers at Frank Ogawa Plaza are citizens of other communities with limited interest in preserving the greater good and safety of our City.

Please, we ask you: Leave Frank Ogawa Plaza peacefully and immediately so Oakland Police can get back to work fighting the devastating crime that’s occurring in our neighborhoods.

You have sent the world a strong message; now it is time to go home. Your leaving today, peacefully, of your own free will, on the 30th day, will send a message to Oakland that you care about our citizens and respect our city.

With last night’s homicide, in broad daylight, in the middle of rush hour, Frank Ogawa Plaza is no longer safe. Please leave peacefully, with your heads held high, so we can get police officers back to work fighting crime in Oakland neighborhoods.

Thank you.

http://www.opoa.org/uncategorized/an-open-letter-to-occupy-oakland-from-the-oakland-police-officers%E2%80%99-association/

Unbelievable....

[gateley]

1. Well, it helps to understand their perspective, and they do

have some vaild points, but the solution is -- STOP POLICING Occupy Oakland!

[uppityperson]

17. Seriously. Oakland Police get back to work fighting the devastating crime that’s occurring in your

neighborhoods.

[MADem]

2. There's a church for lease in Oakland.

Might be a safe place for a HQ...

http://www.loopnet.com/xNet/MainSite/Listing/Profile/Profile.aspx?LID=17366867&SRID=2174824063&StepID=101

[sibelian]

3. You wanna go catch criminals, cops?

Fantastic! Go catch criminals! I think that's a great idea!

[sabrina 1]

4. That tragic murder had nothing to do with OO and their

plea would have more credibility if they were make that clear. Instead, they attempt to tie a murder to OO using the usual deceptive language. There were several murders in Oakland this week, why have they not tied THEM to nearby buildings, businesses etc.?

To use a sad event like what happened there for political purposes is simply despicable.

They can solve their problem by not beating up citizens exercising their 1st Amendment rights and putting them in the hospital.

If anyone needs to leave, considering the brutality and rioting of the OPD over the past several weeks, and still no accountability for the near murder of Scott Olsen and others, no one even named as suspects, they have little credibility at this point.

Right no there is a war on OWS all over this country and in other parts of the world with police in riot gear attacking Occupiers from Denver to Paris to Sydney Australia.

We get it, the police are working for the 1% and against the people. If they are serious, they can refuse to take those orders and stand up for what is right.

Just looks like another deceptive attempt to make themselves look reasonable before they go in and nearly kill some more Citizens exercising their Constitutional Rights, shamefully using one of many tragedies that occurred in that city this week, as cover.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

28. +1000

[truedelphi]

38. The videos I saw of the Denver police hoisting up

Demonstrators and then slamming them to the ground, in a way that could break a hip, or collapse a spinal column, made me ill.

What a twisted group of people we have inside our nation's police forces.

[tblue]

5. Occupy Oakland is not taking police out of Oakland neighborhoods

The police do not HAVE TO be there. They can be out in the neighborhoods where the criminals are. Or, hell, maybe they need to turn their crime-fighting efforts on white collar criminals for a change. The murder near the protest had nothing to do with Occupy anyway. It's not the protesters' fault.

Open letter to Oakland police: YOU made YOUR point. Now YOU leave.

See, the thing about civil disobedience is it's DISobedience. It's supposed to bug people who otherwise don't care if protesters have a grievance. It's working, Occupy. Don't stop now.

[Mojeoux]

6. Wow. "last NIGHT'S homicide, in broad DAY light....."

Placed here is a "Smilie" that dosent't exist yet....wait...... maybe.....


:dilemma: :cry: :donut: :wtf: :wtf: :crazy: :crazy:

[Fire Walk With Me]

7. Remember: They got their best writer to do this release.

[Fumesucker]

13. +1

[tblue]

9. Good catch. It's almost like they wrote that before it happened.

But they didn't edit it carefully.

Hmmm.... It's a silly letter anyway. The protesters are not there to make a point and leave it at that.

[NYC_SKP]

8. Oh I see what they did there...

..

"Our police officers are the 99% struggling in Oakland neighborhoods every day to contain the 1% who rob, steal, rape and murder our law-abiding citizens."


umkay.

Thanks for nothin'

x(

[gateley]

31. Yeah - clever. nt

[Fumesucker]

10. Are all Oakland cops citizens of Oakland?

Question in response to this sentence.. The events of recent weeks have shown that many occupiers at Frank Ogawa Plaza are citizens of other communities with limited interest in preserving the greater good and safety of our City.

[sabrina 1]

11. Don't know, but they are NOT working for Berkeley yet

they had time away from all this crime they are supposed to be taking care of, to go to Berkeley a couple of nights ago to help beat up the students there. Someone must have called off those attacks right before they were scheduled to begin, as announced. And the Oakland PD left when it became clear there was not, despite the official announcement, going to be any more brutality by Police that night.

So, who asked them to go to Berkeley? Shouldn't they have been in Oakland which is where they claim they have so much to do?

[socialist_n_TN]

23. I mentioned that myself the other night sabrina

If they were so concerned about policing Oakland, what the FUCK were they doing harassing students at Berkeley?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

15. Some cities have tried to make residence a requriement

Not sure if it held up in court for employees or not.

[TorchTheWitch]

16. the two aren't comparable

No, the members of a police force do not have to be a citizen of the jurisdiction of that police force, but unlike citizens from other communities coming in to join the protest their JOB is to protect the jurisdiction for which they work. They have a point with that sentence.

[Fumesucker]

21. That's not necessarily so..

Some communities do have a residency requirement for police..

Also, if their job is protecting the jurisdiction where they work they're doing a shitty job.

[sabrina 1]

30. Tourists, visitors, people attending meetings, people

exercising their Constitutional Rights from out of town, none of these people are criminals. Is that a hard concept for people to grasp, or is their propaganda so convincing that people are buying it?

They are not protecting people, they forget, we have the footage to prove it, THEY are the criminals.

On Oct 25th tens of thousands of American Citizens, in protest against the near killing of an Iraq/Afghanistan Veteran peacefully exercising his rights as US Citizens by the OPD, marched through the streets of Oakland, they were joined in their call for a general strike, by many Oakland Businesses. They marched, with little or no police presence, to the Port, shutting it down as promised.

During all those hours, with all those people, there was not a single violent or illegal act recorded.

Hours later, when most of those people had left, chaos erupted AFTER the police arrived, once again. Another Iraq/Afghanistan veteran was beaten, by as yet, unidentified police thugs, arrested, denied treatment for 18 hours and eventually hospitalized for a ruptured spleen. He is also a Businessman btw. He was committing the 'crime' of trying to go home when stopped and beaten by the OPD. Another thug using his automobile as a deadly weapon, plowed into the crowd of peaceful protesters, sending two more people to the hospital. He was no arrested and has not yet been ID'd or charged.

Most of the violence in Oakland has been caused by the police, yet no one has done anything about it. Crimes were committed by them, serious crimes, but not a word has been said by the City Council or the Police Chief or anyone else in authority there.

If the police would do the job they are paid to do, they would be PROTECTING American citizens exercising their constitutional rights, NOT brutally attacking them.

If they think they are going to make people forget the horrific, violent images of them committing crimes of assault and what looks like attempted murder, they are mistaken and no one wants to hear them whining and lying until they start arresting those responsible for those crimes.

[demosincebirth]

19. Don't have to.

[H2O Man]

12. Thanks for this.

Either they really don't get it, or they are purposely ignoring the reality of the situation. And either way, it's a shame.

Recommended. Again, thanks for providing us with important information to consider.

[stillwaiting]

37. It's just propaganda attempting to take the momentum out of the movement.

It's very Fox Newsish in its attempt to manipulate and deceive.

[Fire Walk With Me]

14. Leave #Occupy alone. Serve and protect them like you'd protect anyone else in Oakland. Why the

prejudice? HMmmm??

[demosincebirth]

18. I don't think that an average salary of 125,000 a year + OT puts them in the 99%.

[madamesilverspurs]

20. ...

[SomethingFishy]

22. Leave or we'll stop fighting crime....

and fight the First Amendment.

Whatever.

[Ian David]

24. Tell them to "Quitcherbitchin."

Cop Rock - Quitcherbitchin'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWXUA9vyKEg

[TheKentuckian]

25. The pigs insist on being a part of the problem and protectors of the establishment

They oppose the 99%

[Gregorian]

26. Translation- If you don't stop exercising your 1st Amendment right, we'll become violent again.

If OWS was just "sending a message", they could have just faxed the president.

This isn't about sending a message. This is about making a change.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

27. How's about you go back to your job ...

... and leave the occupiers alone, you fucking fascists!

[Dragonbreathp9d]

29. I can understand that- but-

If the OPD had tried to work with the occupation from day one instead of gassing them this wouldn't be a problem. If the police hadn't shown up in such force there may have even been less black bloc problems.

[gateley]

32. I hold the Mayor and CIty Council responsible for issuing those orders, too. nt

[Fire Walk With Me]

33. This whining was forseen:

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2268864#2268870

2. Yeah but power is predictable
In how it responds. And the question is how long until police batons are replaced with (attempts at silver-tongued) conversation?




Parenthesis are mine...

[Fire Walk With Me]

34. OPD: You know what's DANGEROUS? You know what's CRIME?

That asshole in the Mercedes who rammed a protester then hit another, WHO YOU LET GO.

Fuck you, OPD.

[AntiFascist]

35. Oakland PD has their own idea of the 1% they need to focus on..

at least the local criminals have a police force going after them. The wealthy Wall Street criminals do not, and that is the whole purpose of the protest! By attacking peaceful protestors, they are in essence siding with and protecting those wealthier criminals.

[Fire Walk With Me]

36. Who is calling the shots to Quan and the cops? Here they are:

In a letter addressed to Oakland’s Mayor Jean Quan on Nov. 8, two little-known entities, the Lake Merritt/Uptown District Association (LMUDA) and Downtown Oakland Association (DOA) implored Mayor Quan to “step up and provide cohesive, common sense leadership.” Cohesive leadership, according to these two organizations, means giving the Oakland Police Department a green light to eradicate the now month-old Occupy encampment. “It’s time for Frank Ogawa Plaza to be given back to the people of Oakland,” they conclude.

Who are the LMUDA and DOA? What gives them the authority to make such demands? Further, who are the “people of Oakland” referred to in their letter? If those occupying the plaza do not constitute the people of Oakland, then who are the rightful owners of this contested public space?

===

The LMUDA and DOA districts are administered by nonprofit management corporations under contract with the City of Oakland. Each corporation is governed by a board of directors. The acting presidents, J.C. Wallace and Deborah Boyer, are employees of San Francisco-based real estate investment and management companies SKS Investments and the Swig Company, respectively. Both have speculated on properties in Oakland and stand to profit from increased rents generated by gentrification.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2291452