One day after a man was shot and killed outside the Occupy Oakland encampment, activists said the killing was not connected to their settlement and vowed to remain despite a city demand that they leave immediately.
Oakland police said they did not believe the shooting victim lived among the 180 tents in Frank Ogawa Plaza, regardless of claims from a camp resident who said the man was her cousin and had slept in her tent.
The victim was shot in the head about 5 p.m. Thursday outside a BART station exit at 14th Street and Broadway, on the doorstep of Occupy Oakland. Police have not released his name, and no arrests have been made. Investigators said witnesses told them the suspect was a frequent resident of the Occupy camp over the past several days.
"This didn't happen in front of Occupy Oakland, it happened on the footsteps of City Hall," said Anwar Ali, who has camped in Frank Ogawa Plaza since the encampment was first set up Oct. 10. "This is a tragedy, one that happens all over the city. It would have happened if we weren't here."
Police hand out notices
While rain spattered the camp Friday, a solemn mood settled over the tents, along with the commonly held belief that the city would use the incident to justify their swift removal. Some packed up their dripping sleeping bags and left, but most seemed settled in for the long haul.
As darkness fell, a half-dozen Oakland police officers arrived and handed out hundreds of notices from the city titled, "Demand to cease violations."
"You must remove all tents, sleeping bags, tarps, cooking facilities and equipment and any other lodging material from the plaza immediately," the notice read. "Your continued use of the plaza for overnight lodging will subject you to arrest."
The reaction was the same as it was to such city demands earlier: near-universal refusal.
"I'm going to go smoke a bowl, take a nap and wait for the raid," one 19-year-old man, identifying himself only as Robert E., said as he gleefully lit one of the notices on fire with several friends. "They won't get rid of us without a fight."
Some city officials said the tent city has devolved from an organized encampment into a street-folk settlement, where longtime homeless people and the mentally ill have clustered with hooligans to create a volatile atmosphere.
"One thing that has troubled me is that we're still calling it 'Occupy,' and this is no longer an Occupy Oakland encampment," said City Councilwoman Desley Brooks, who once camped in the plaza. "This is not the original crowd, not the one that was about the principles of Occupy Wall Street.
"What we have now," she said, "is a mix: homeless, anarchists, gang members, and maybe a handful left who are really about Occupy. To pretend that this is one thing does a disservice to the Occupy movement and continues to give cover to things that are unacceptable."
A few depart
Brooks said she had heard of no plan to clear the camp. But she noted that some people were leaving in the rain, and said it was a hopeful sign that perhaps at least a few were heeding the call.
In a letter sent early Friday to protesters, the Oakland police union said it wants activists to leave with their "heads held high" so officers can "get back to fighting crime in Oakland neighborhoods."
The encampment still has its defenders. A group of 34 local religious leaders gathered outside the camp's "Interfaith Tent" yards from where the fatal shooting took place to renew their support, while acknowledging city leaders would probably close the camp.
"If it happens, it can't be a violent action with police involvement," said the Rev. Deborah Lee of the Interfaith Immigrant Rights Project. "It has to be another way."
This article comes from the SFGate (sfgate.com).
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