Occupy Oakland supporters shout down city officials at meeting
Even the hyper liberal Oakland city council is fed up with the Occupy movement.
A majority of the Oakland City Council indicated late Thursday that they would like an end to the Occupy Oakland encampment in front of City Hall, but they did not vote on any proposals.
The statements came at the end of a five-hour meeting during which hundreds of people crammed into the council chambers for an emotionally charged discussion about whether to allow the encampment to remain at Frank Ogawa Plaza with city support. Several times, the rowdy crowd shouted down city officials as they tried to speak.
But after hearing from speakers who support the camp and others who said it hurts the city, Councilwoman Desley Brooks, a strong supporter of the camp, expressed reservations.
"I believe and understand the lack of hope and pain and frustration that people are feeling," said Brooks, who represents the East Oakland and who had camped with protesters for the first two nights and had been a regular visitor. "But I have been extremely troubled by how far do we allow your rights to go and infringe on other people's rights."
Brooks said the City Council is one of the most progressive in the nation, but added that campers did not try to work with the council.
"This is a council that would have worked with you," she said.
Truly pathetic. Brooks just doesn't get it. It doesn't matter how "progressive" city officials are, the Occupy Oakland leaders are even farther to the left. And if they worked with the city council, it would defeat the purpose of the entire movement.
These protestors could care less about other people's rights. Rights are meaningless to them anyway. What matters is power, not rights, and violence has given the protestors more power than they should have. They intimidated the port authorities to shut down the facility in order to protect the lives of their workers, who were endangered by the "peaceful" protestors who set fires, threw chunks of concrete at police, and prevented trucks from going in or out of the port thus making the drivers virtual hostages.
This is power as exercised by the street. Why should the protestors give that up by surrendering to the city council? It's why we should expect more and escalating violence in Oakland as a result of city offocials coddling the thugs by telling them they agree with their goals and allowing them to do just about anything they please.