Northbay Uprising - Information for the liberated zones of the San Pablo Bay

2011-12-20 "Oakland council acts to sink Occupy port blockades" by Kevin Fagan and Matthai Kuruvila from "San Francisco Chronicle"
[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/19/MNB51MEFHQ.DTL&type=newsbayarea]
If Oakland police are ordered to stop any future port blockades by Occupy activists, they are probably capable of doing it. It would go over badly with core activists, however, and the two sides already have a history of violent confrontations.
But after last week's Occupy protests resulted in a port shutdown that police did little to prevent, several City Council members have concluded that the economic consequences of blockades outweigh the risks of confrontation. The council will consider a resolution tonight directing City Administrator Deanna Santana, who oversees the Police Department, to "use whatever lawful tools we have ... to prevent future shutdowns or disruptions."
The resolution would be a mandate that Mayor Jean Quan could have handed down unilaterally. But council members Ignacio De La Fuente and Libby Schaaf, the measure's co-sponsors, believe Quan has failed to do so.
The council's four-member Rules Committee backed the measure unanimously last week. A full house is expected tonight when the council takes up the idea, which port and shipping officials support and Occupy activists strongly oppose.
In between all the shouting, however, lies the question of whether police can prevent a blockade without breaking out the tear gas and batons. On that count, law enforcement experts give an emphatic yes - if the right tactics are used.

Planning helps -
"It's really not that complicated," said Keith Lavery, a former police chief in Ohio who conducts law enforcement courses in crowd control. "You identify that small handful of troublemakers found in almost every crowd, then quickly arrest them and get them out of there.
"Most people are really there just to protest," Lavery said, "and when they see that you have taken out the problem people, the problem goes away."
He also said it helps if police monitor Twitter, Facebook and other social-media sites that protesters use to communicate with each other - not just to anticipate movements, but to knock down unfounded rumors.
"Typically, in every crowd you will have a small handful of rabble rousers who are intentionally spreading false information," Lavery said. "You need to counteract that."

$4 million lost -
Last week, shippers at the port decided not to call in a shift of longshore workers as 3,000 Occupy protesters marched toward the gates. Scores of truckers also were idled, and port officials say waterfront operations lost about $4 million.
Throughout the Dec. 12-13 protests, police officers mostly kept a distance, letting the nonviolent crowd have its way at the port terminals and arresting just two people.
The tactic prevented clashes such as those that erupted Oct. 25 after police cleared Occupy Oakland's encampment outside City Hall, and Nov. 2 following Occupy's first port blockade. In both of those incidents, rocks and other makeshift missiles rained down on police, and protesters were injured by police projectiles and subjected to tear gas.
Schaaf said she doesn't want any more violence. But the councilwoman says she has fielded a swarm of complaints about workers losing wages because of the port demonstration, "and the city needs to move forward, not backward."

Enforcing laws -
"I think the citizens of Oakland are growing fatigued by the impact of these actions on working people," Schaaf said. "This resolution is not introducing new law. It's simply sending a directive to the administration that we want them to take a more aggressive stand to make sure people aren't prevented from earning their wages."
There are indeed several state and local laws police can invoke in heading off an attempted blockade, as well as federal statutes because the port involves interstate and international commerce. The issue is always about when and how to enforce them, Schaaf said.
Occupy activists say they have no immediate plans to try another port blockade. But they also say they don't intend to make it easy for police to thwart protests.
"We have a right to manifest and to picket in public," said Omar Yassin, an Occupy organizer who was at last week's port blockade. "The idea that free speech is too costly for the public won't fly.
"I'm not exactly sure what they mean with this resolution, but we plan to be there to find out. A lot of us want to be in on the conversation."

May be dicey -
Quan was initially supportive of Occupy Oakland, but has increasingly asked activists to refrain from certain actions. Last week she emphatically asked Occupy not to shut down port operations.
She was ignored. Her spokeswoman said the mayor is supportive of the resolution, saying "it's very important" - but added that Quan was concerned that a blanket directive might become difficult to enforce if more big demonstrations drain city coffers.
The city has spent more than $2.4 million, much of it in police overtime, reacting to Occupy actions since they began two months ago.
"It is a resource issue," said Sue Piper, spokeswoman for Quan. "When we have big demonstrations, we have to bring in mutual aid. We can't afford to keep on doing that."
 She said one reason police hung back at last week's shutdown was a lack of resources, but De La Fuente vehemently disagreed with that assessment.
"They were basically told to stand down, period," the councilman said. "They got dressed up for nothing. The mayor is speaking out of both sides of her mouth, which is why I introduced the resolution."