Timeline of Occupy Oakland
Encyclopedia
The following is a timeline of Occupy Oakland (sometimes called OO or #OO) which began on Monday, October 10, 2011, as an occupation
of Frank H. Ogawa Plaza
, a plaza located beside Oakland City Hall
in downtown Oakland
, and is an ongoing demonstration. It is allied with Occupy Wall Street
, which began in New York City on September 17, 2011, and is one of several "Occupy" protest sites in the San Francisco Bay Area
. Other sites include Occupy San Francisco
and Occupy San Jose
.
Occupy Oakland was inspired by the Occupy movement
, which in turn was inspired by the Arab Spring
and Greek
, Spanish
, British
, Chilean
, and Israeli protest movements. A precursor in the United States was the 2011 Wisconsin protests
occurring from late winter through the spring. More specific to Oakland, OO was inspired by local protest history, including protests in response to the BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant
in 20092010.
Occupation (protest)
An as an act of protest, is the entry into and holding of a building, space or symbolic site. As such, occupations often combine some of the following elements: a challenge to ownership of the space involved, an effort to gain public attention, the practical use of the facilities occupied, and a...
of Frank H. Ogawa Plaza
Frank H. Ogawa Plaza
Frank H. Ogawa Plaza is a historic location in the heart of downtown Oakland, California.-Location and elements:Frank H. Ogawa Plaza is located where Telegraph and San Pablo Avenues converge with Broadway and 14th Street. The west side of the plaza is the site of Oakland City Hall and Oakland...
, a plaza located beside Oakland City Hall
Oakland City Hall
Oakland City Hall is the seat of government for the city of Oakland, California. The current building was completed in 1914, after its predecessor was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Standing at the height of , it was the first high-rise government building in the United States...
in downtown Oakland
Downtown Oakland
Downtown Oakland is the central business district of Oakland, California; roughly bounded by 6th Street or the Oakland Estuary on the southwest, Interstate 980 on the northwest, Grand Avenue on the northeast, and Lake Merritt on the east....
, and is an ongoing demonstration. It is allied with Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing series of demonstrations initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters which began September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district...
, which began in New York City on September 17, 2011, and is one of several "Occupy" protest sites in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
. Other sites include Occupy San Francisco
Occupy San Francisco
Occupy San Francisco is an ongoing demonstration located at Justin Herman Plaza in the The Embarcadero and in front of the Federal Reserve building on Market Street in the Financial District in San Francisco, California. It is based on the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York City on...
and Occupy San Jose
Occupy San Jose
Occupy San José is a peaceful protest and demonstration in City Hall Plaza in San Jose, CA. The demonstration was inspired by Occupy Wall Street and is part of the larger "Occupy" protest movement....
.
Occupy Oakland was inspired by the Occupy movement
Occupy movement
The Occupy movement is an international protest movement which is primarily directed against economic and social inequality. The first Occupy protest to be widely covered was Occupy Wall Street in New York City, taking place on September 17, 2011...
, which in turn was inspired by the Arab Spring
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...
and Greek
2010–2011 Greek protests
The 2010–2011 Greek protests are an ongoing series of demonstrations and general strikes taking place across Greece. The protests, which began on 5 May 2010, were sparked by plans to cut public spending and raise taxes as austerity measures in exchange for a bail-out, aimed at solving the...
, Spanish
2011 Spanish protests
The 2011 Spanish protests, also referred to as the 15-M Movement and the Indignants movement, are a series of ongoing demonstrations in Spain whose origin can be traced to social networks and Real Democracy NOW among other civilian digital platforms and 200 other small associations...
, British
2011 United Kingdom anti-austerity protests
The 2011 United Kingdom anti-austerity protests were a series of anti-austerity protests that took place in the United Kingdom in early 2011...
, Chilean
2011 Chilean protests
The 2011 Chilean protests,Chilean Winter or Chilean Education Conflict are a series of ongoing student-led protests across Chile, demanding a new framework for education in Chile, including more direct state participation in secondary education and an end to the existence of profit...
, and Israeli protest movements. A precursor in the United States was the 2011 Wisconsin protests
2011 Wisconsin protests
The 2011 Wisconsin protests were a series of demonstrations in the state of Wisconsin in the United States beginning in February involving at its zenith as many as 100,000 protestors opposing the Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill. Subsequently, anti-tax activists and other conservatives, including tea...
occurring from late winter through the spring. More specific to Oakland, OO was inspired by local protest history, including protests in response to the BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant
BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant
Oscar Grant was fatally shot by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle in Oakland, California, United States, in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009. Responding to reports of a fight on a crowded Bay Area Rapid Transit train returning from San Francisco, BART Police officers detained...
in 20092010.
October 2011
- October 10, 2011 – Occupy Oakland began at 4 p.m. with a rally attended by hundreds of supporters, held in tandem with Indigenous People's DayIndigenous People's DayIndigenous People's Day is a holiday celebrated in various localities in the United States, begun as a counter-celebration to Columbus Day. The purpose of the day is to promote Native American culture and commemorate the history of Native American peoples...
, both as a statement of solidarity and an expression that this action firmly situated itself against colonialism and nation states. A couple dozen protesters set up tents that evening.
- October 14, 2011 – Protesters participated in a short march from Frank H. Ogawa Plaza to the Oakland Police headquarters and back.
- October 15, 2011 – Around 2,500 people, including actor Danny GloverDanny GloverDanny Lebern Glover is an American actor, film director, and political activist. Glover is perhaps best known for his role as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise.-Early life:...
, came out for a Saturday march and rally to show their support for Occupy Oakland.
- October 17, 2011 – On October 17, 2011, Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal — the three American hikers recently freed from an Iranian prison — made their first West Coast speaking appearance at Occupy Oakland, drawing an audience of around 300 people.
- October 18, 2011 – Snow Park camp is established with about two dozen people primarily because the Frank H. Ogawa Plaza site was running out of room.
- October 19, 2011 – The Alameda County Health Department visits the plaza on the pretext of "upholding public safety", specifically whether conditions were sanitary and whether rats that had previously been living in bushes in the park had been present in the encampment. No evidence was found of a rat problem within the camp. County representatives offered some recommendations but no aid.
- October 20, 2011 – The City of Oakland issued an official notice to the encampment citing "violence, assaults, threats and intimidation", among other complaints, and, forbidding lodging overnight. The demonstrators "appeared determined not to leave" and countered that "the rats, drug crimes, and violence in the area of 14th Street and Broadway went unchecked before they arrived." The The grandnephew of labor leader and civil rights activist César ChávezCésar ChávezCésar Estrada Chávez was an American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers ....
got married at the protest site.
- October 22, 2011 – Protesters marched from Frank H. Ogawa Plaza to Snow Park. Some protesters entered a Chase Bank branch and ripped up hundreds of deposit slips and threw them in the air, while some protesters stayed to help clean up the deposit slips. After leaving Chase, they protested outside of a Wells Fargo branch before returning to Frank H. Ogawa Plaza.
- October 25, 2011 (5 AM6 AM) – Police officers in riot gear from various Bay AreaSan Francisco Bay AreaThe San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
law enforcement agencies cleared both Frank Ogawa Plaza and Snow Park in the morning resulting in over 102 arrests.
- October 25, 2011 (4 PM8 PM) – Hundreds of protesters and supporters gathered in front of the Oakland Public LibraryOakland Public LibraryThe Oakland Public Library is the public library in Oakland, California. Opened in 1878, the Oakland Public Library currently serves the city of Oakland, along with some neighboring smaller cities including Emeryville and Piedmont. The Oakland Public Library has the largest collection of any...
to march back to Frank H. Ogawa Plaza to reclaim the space. The march continued around the city for about two hours, and then moved in on the plaza. Police issued a dispersal order which failed to move the crowd, and fired tear gas, and beanbag rounds. Scott Olsen, a former MarineUnited States Marine CorpsThe United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
and Iraq War veteran, and a member of Veterans for PeaceVeterans for PeaceVeterans For Peace is a United States organization founded in 1985. Made up of male and female US military veterans of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and other conflicts, as well as peacetime veterans, the group works to promote alternatives to war.-Foundation:The...
, suffered a skull fractureBone fractureA bone fracture is a medical condition in which there is a break in the continuity of the bone...
caused by a shooting projectileProjectileA projectile is any object projected into space by the exertion of a force. Although a thrown baseball is technically a projectile too, the term more commonly refers to a weapon....
that witnesses believed was a tear gas or smoke canister fired by the police.
- October 26, 2011 – More than a thousand protesters gathered peacefully at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza and held a general assembly in the plaza's amphitheater. They agreed to organize a general strikeGeneral strikeA general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
for November 2. The Oakland Police Department released a statement confirming the use of bean bag rounds.
- October 27, 2011 – At least 1,000 protesters held a candlelight vigil for Scott Olsen at Frank Ogawa Plaza. The plaza was re-taken by protesters in the evening. Mayor Jean Quan issued a statement urging non-violence and asked that there be no overnight camping; however, the city did not take steps to prevent the re-occupation. Scott Olsen's medical status was upgraded from "critical" to "fair" by doctors at Highland Hospital, although surgery was still being considered in order to reduce pressure on his brain.
- October 28, 2011 – Documentary filmmaker Michael MooreMichael MooreMichael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries...
spoke to a crowd of about 1,000 protesters. In the hour-long address, Michael Moore encouraged Occupy Oakland by saying, "We've killed despair across the country and we've killed apathy." Dozens of new tents were erected in the plaza, including a medical tent provided and staffed by the California Nurses AssociationCalifornia Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing CommitteeThe California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee , is a labor union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States. CNA/NNOC has a four-member Council of Presidents, currently including Deborah Burger, RN; Zenei Cortez, RN; DeAnn McEwen, RN; and Malinda...
. Pro-democracy protesters in Egypt marched from Cairo's Tahrir Square to the U.S. Embassy in solidarity with Occupy Oakland.
- October 30, 2011 – Wounded veteran Scott Olsen's roommate Keith Shannon reported that doctors expect Olsen to make a full recovery.
- October 31, 2011 – Representatives of Occupy Oakland held a press conference detailing plans for the general strike on November 2.
November 2011
- November 1, 2011 – The Oakland Police Officer's Association issued an open letter to the citizens of Oakland expressing "confusion" about Mayor Quan's decision making. The open letter took issue with Mayor Quan's decision to allow public employees to participate in the upcoming general strike.
- November 2, 2011 – Thousands of protesters gathered at Frank Ogawa Plaza to participate in rallies, marches, and teach-ins designed to empower citizens and to draw attention to economic inequity and corporate greed as part of the 2011 Oakland general strike2011 Oakland general strikeThe Oakland General Strike of 2011 was a general strike held in Oakland, California on November 2, 2011 as part of the larger Occupy Oakland movement. -General strike:...
. A small group vandalized a Whole FoodsWhole foodsWhole foods are foods that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible, before being consumed. Whole foods typically do not contain added ingredients, such as salt, carbohydrates, or fat. Examples of whole foods include unpolished grains, beans, fruits, vegetables...
storefront, and broke windows and ATMATM-In science and technology:*Adobe Type Manager, typeface management software from Adobe Systems Allocated*Air traffic management, synonym for air traffic control*Alternating Turing machine, model of computation used in theoretical computer science...
s of Bank of AmericaBank of AmericaBank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
and Wells FargoWells FargoWells Fargo & Company is an American multinational diversified financial services company with operations around the world. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by assets and the largest bank by market capitalization. Wells Fargo is the second largest bank in deposits, home...
banks in the afternoon.
- November 2 (11 PM)November 3 (1 AM) – Later in the evening, a group of protesters took over a vacant building that once served as the headquarters of the Traveler's Aid Society, a non-profit organization that provided services to the local homeless population. Police soon arrived to break up the protesters gathered outside of the building. Some protesters fled while others set a barricade on fire. Police used teargas and flash bangs to try to clear protesters. Clashes continued past midnight. 103 people were arrested. Scott Campbell was shot by police using a less-lethal round while he was filming a stationary line of police in riot gear. Kayvan Sabeghi was seriously injured while being arrested by police that evening.
- November 3 – After 18 hours of being denied medical treatment while in police custody, Kayvan Sabeghi was transferred to Highland HospitalHighland Hospital (Oakland, California)Highland Hospital is a public hospital located in Alameda County, Oakland, California. It is operated by the Alameda County Medical Center.It is a Level II trauma center.- History :-External links:*...
and put into the intensive care unit. Journalist Susie Cagle was arrested in the early hours of November 3, jailed, and ultimately charged with a misdemeanor. Cagle subsequently reported having observed mistreatment of protesters during their imprisonment. The Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce issued a letter calling for the eviction of the protestors.
- November 4 – The Oakland City Council held a five hour meeting to consider a resolution by council member Nancy NadelNancy NadelNancy Nadel is a U.S. politician, businesswoman, and member of the Oakland City Council serving her fourth consecutive term. After two terms on the Board of the East Bay Municipal Utility District, Nadel was elected to the District Three Downtown-West Oakland City Council seat in 1996. In 2006,...
in support of the Occupy Oakland encampment. The council heard over 100 people speak about the positives and negatives of Occupy Oakland. Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce President Joe Haraburda said,"We have made our position clear.… We want Occupy Oakland closed." The vote on the resolution was postponed until the November 15 city council meeting.
- November 5 – A downtown Oakland Wells Fargo branch closed for business because of the roughly 100 immigrant rights protesters who marched from Occupy Oakland's encampment to protest the bank's connection to companies that run immigrant detention centersImmigration detention in the United StatesImmigration detention in the United States began in 1981, when the administration of President Ronald Reagan reacted to the mass migration of asylum seekers who arrived in boats from Haiti by establishing a program to interdict...
.
- November 7 – Occupy Oakland deposited $20,000 donated by Occupy Wall Street for urgent medical and legal expenses into Wells Fargo. The Occupy Oakland general assembly approved the decision to hold it temporarily in a Wells Fargo account so that it could begin being used immediately while the group waits on the state to finalize its status as an unincorporated association able to hold funds.
- November 9 – Five members of the Oakland City Council, two dozen clergy and some local small business owners held a press conference calling for the immediate eviction of Occupy Oakland. Occupy protesters interrupted Larry Reid's speech with chants. The council members and business owners responded with their own chants. Jean Quan held a meeting with the remaining protesters at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Occupy Oakland general assembly voted to "withdraw a resolution calling for future demonstrators to remain peaceful." Law enforcement attempted to evict the members of OccupyCal from their encampment on the UC Berkeley campus. Members of Occupy Oakland joined in the Berkeley protest.
- November 10 – A man was fatally shot near the Frank Ogawa Plaza encampment.
- November 11 – The Oakland Police Officers Association release an open letter to Occupy Oakland stating that "it is time to go home." Oakland Police issue eviction notices to the demonstrators at the tent encampment. Veterans march and rally in downtown Oakland against police brutality.
- November 13 – The November 10 shooting victim is identified. 25-year-old Kayode Ola Foster had been staying at Occupy Oakland in the days leading up to the shooting.
- November 14 – Hundreds of law enforcement officers clear the plaza for a second time. Mayor Jean Quan's city hall Legal Adviser, Dan SiegelDaniel Mark SiegelDaniel Mark Siegel, or Dan Siegel, is a civil-rights attorney at the Oakland-based law firm, Siegel & Yee.Siegel was born and raised in New York City and on Long Island. He attended high school in New York, graduating second in his class. He attended Hamilton College in 1963-1967 majoring in...
and Oakland Deputy Mayor Sharon Cornu resign.
- November 21 - Police clear out final remaining Occupy Oakland encampment at Snow Park. The movement was left with no physical presence occupying any public space overnight in the city of Oakland.