Reclaim Our History: Nov. 1-15
Special “Occupy Oakland” Edition!
Nov. 2, 2010: Jean Quan elected mayor of Oakland, its first female mayor. Her statement regarding the police riot of October 25: “We want to thank the police . . . who worked over the last week to peacefully close the encampment.”
Nov. 2, 2011: General strike scheduled for Oakland, to protest the shooting of Scott Olson, former US Marine and Iraq veteran, on October 25th at “Oscar Grant” plaza, named for the unarmed African American man shot to death on New Year’s Day 2009 by a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) cop. An investigation into the Grant shooting revealed that BART’s Internal Affairs Division has investigated 162 cases, 39 involving excessive use of force–but not one charge has been sustained. The shooter, Johannes Mehserle, will be sentenced to two years less time served, causing riots in Oakland. Similarly, on July 3, 2011, Charles Hill is shot dead by BART officer James Crowell for brandishing a bottle at the San Francisco station. Later, a knife “found” at the scene will be attributed to Hill. This is the sixth shooting in BART’s 40-year history.
Nov. 8, 1932 Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected President. In the late stages of his campaign, he condemned Herbert Hoover’s destruction of a “Bonus Army” encampment within sight of the capital using federal troops (led by Douglas MacArthur and Dwight Eisenhower) using tear gas, trucks and horses against unarmed veterans seeking payment promised them by Congress in 1924, an action eerily similar to the attack on Occupy Oakland. Fifty-four injured and three dead (including one infant and Oakland resident Eric Carlson). When the protesters returned to Washington a year later, FDR met with them, offered them jobs with the CCC, and paid train fare home for those who declined.
Nov. 9, 2010: Derrick Jones, a well known and respected African American barber, dies when he is shot multiple times in the chest in Oakland by two officers of the Oakland Police Department.
Nov. 11, 2010 BART police are forced to close the Fruitdale (Oakland) station due to protests over the Derrick Jones shooting.
Nov. 13, 1968: Oakland resident and Black Panther Reginald Forte’s car is stopped by Berkeley police, who have been actively harassing Panthers for openly carrying weapons, allowed under California law. The Panthers were organized in Oakland during 1966 to address issues of discrimination and inequality. After an altercation, both Forte and the arresting officer are wounded.
Nov. 15, 1992: 19-year-old Jerrold Cornelius Hall is shot dead by BART cop Fred Crabtree in Hayward, just south of Oakland. Hall died from a shotgun wound in the back of the head, contradicting Crabtree’s testimony that Hall was threatening him, despite the supposed intervention of Crabtree’s partner, a Canine Officer. The shooting mirrored the killing of Bruce Edward Seward, 42, of Oakland, by a BART police officer. Seward was allegedly naked and combative, grabbing the officer’s nightstick and “flailing away” at the officer, who claimed he shot Seward only after pepper-spraying him to no effect.