Oakland's Port of Paranoia

On April 7, 2003, police attacked peaceful protesters, longshoremen, legal observers and newspersons in the Port of Oakland. Fifty nine people were injured. Nevertheless, five weeks later (5/12/2003), several hundred protesters returned to the Port for a successful demonstration in defense of our endangered First Amendment right to hold protests at the docks. This right was reaffirmed the following year with another demonstration in the Port on the anniversary of the attack.

Meanwhile, paranoid Port officials pondered their worst-case nightmares and wound up equating demonstrations to nuclear explosions. They shared their finest thoughts on Port security with a reporter from the Oakland Tribune. The article is below.

(Also please see related Port Protest articles at bottom of this page)

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PORT SECURITY PLAN TARGETS PROTESTERS
By Sean Holstege
STAFF WRITER, Oakland Tribune
Sunday, June 29, 2003


A NUCLEAR EXPLOSION, a dive-bombing aircraft, sabotage -- and mass protests -- are equal threats to the Port of Oakland, according to a classified security plan being developed by those responsible for thwarting terrorists.

That plan, the Port Safety and Security Plan for San Francisco Bay, is still a draft. The reference to "mass protesting of persons" and "civil disobedience" will be, according to the document, "softened, but probably included in some form lower down the list." Currently, it tops an unranked list of six threats.

The plan, mandated by laws written after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is being drafted by a committee led by the U.S. Coast Guard. The port participates.

Yet, the port and city of Oakland both insist that, in the months since the attacks, they have not corresponded with anyone about protesters, radical groups or the threats they pose.

Under the California Public Records Act and the Oakland Sunshine Ordinance, the Oakland Tribune asked the port to reveal any communications since 9/11 about planned protests, radical groups or civil disturbances.

"The port has no records in response to your request concerning these matters," wrote Deputy Port Attorney James Allen Jr. City officials said the same after a preliminary review of their records.

Requested communications were to include those involving the port, local law enforcement, the California Anti-Terrorism Task Force, or CATIC, the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration. The Coast Guard is now a division of Homeland Security.

The Coast Guard's Captain of the Port, Jerry Swanson, declined to discuss specifics of the plan, but acknowledged the draft should be forwarded to Washington this fall and that the Bay Area maritime community enjoys good information sharing.

The Port Security Plan, obtained by the Oakland Tribune, is just the latest example of how counterterrorism officials from Washington to Sacramento to Oakland clump protesters and terrorists together, at least when they congregate around a major terrorist target, such as the port.

"They really believe there are terrorists mixed in, or potentially mixed in, with labor groups and protest groups," said one source familiar with the port plan who spoke on condition of anonymity.

What has maritime security experts worried, he and others said, is economic disruption, regardless of whether the cause is the destruction by Osama bin Laden's terrorists, protesters blocking shipments or work stoppages.

"Our concern is for the safety of individuals and the disruption of business for our tenants, and since 9/11 those concerns have taken additional focus," said the port's maritime operations chief, Ray Boyle, who is also in charge of security at the facility.

The 9/11 attacks propelled port security near the top of the national security agenda. In California, two weeks after those attacks, Gov. Gray Davis and Attorney General Bill Lockyer launched the nation's first state counter-terrorism nerve center, CATIC.

The center's working definition of terrorism broadened the concept to include "threats" of illegal acts or "any other activities" which would make people fearful. Violence or even law-breaking were no longer necessary to draw scrutiny; mass demonstrations could be fair game.

Labor unrest at the port drew the first attention, not from CATIC, but Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, as the International Longshore and Warehouse Union was locked in a contract dispute with West Coast shippers a year ago.

"Not only did Tom Ridge call the officers of our union saying our dispute was a matter of national security, we were getting regular calls from an attorney in the U.S. Labor Department making various threats," said ILWU spokesman Steve Stallone, referring to threats of using troops as replacement workers and other tactics to weaken the grip of longshormen on West Coast ports.

"They are defining terrorism as any activity that interferes with commerce," Stallone said. It would set a pattern.

On April 2, CATIC issued a bulletin warning of the potential for violence at an anti-war demonstration at the port five days later. The port's Boyle said he receives CATIC bulletins and meets with Oakland police, even though the legal department released no record of it.

The same day of the CATIC bulletin, San Francisco police had arrested an Arcata man on charges of concealing firebombs during anti-war protests there.

In preparation, Oakland police gathered e-mails from ILWU chatrooms, downloaded protest announcements from the Internet and checked out groups such as the Earth Liberation Front on the Internet, according to documents released under the Sunshine Ordinance.

Police Sgt. Derwin Longmire sent out a series of internal e-mails warning about the violent tactics of various groups, including the informal Black Bloc, which had scuffled with San Francisco police.

Before those big Market Street demonstrations, which resulted in about 2,000 arrests, San Francisco police had also "been monitoring a lot of open-source material," said San Francisco Deputy Chief Rick Bruce, who heads the special operations division.

Veterans, such as former FBI agent Rick Smith said it is appropriate for law enforcement to prepare for protests, which may have nothing to do with terrorism. It's prudent to protect themselves, peaceful demonstrators and the general public, he said, noting "the threat from radical street demonstrations is they have the ability to organize extreme elements."

On April 3, San Francisco police shared their tactics with Oakland, according to a document entitled "pre-demo briefing notes."

Bruce, who runs the special operations unit, said he met with Oakland the day before the April 7 protest. Asked what OPD's planned options were for overcoming its resource problem, Bruce said, "the options they utilized."

Those options included firing wooden dowels and other "less-than-lethal" ammunition at protesters to break up the crowd. Police reports show that the order to fire came after some protesters had failed to disperse.

On Thursday, two civil rights lawsuits were filed in federal court seeking damages and new policies to prevent a repeat of the events of April 7 [2003].

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RELATED ARTICLES ON PORT PROTESTS OF 2003 & 2004


Oakland Cops Under U.N.'s Watchful Eye
by Brenda Payton, Oakland Tribune
Tuesday, April 6, 2004

THERE'S NOTHING like making the list of the world's worst government violence against activists. The Oakland Police Department earned that distinction for its assault on peaceful anti-war demonstrators at the port …
Full article at:
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0406-13.htm

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Police Violence Shocks Activists, Others at Port of Oakland Protest
by Dana Hull, San Jose Mercury News
Monday, April 7, 2003

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0407-07.htm

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Getting Shot on the Docks
Remarks to the Oakland City Council.
By SCOTT FLEMING
May 3, 2003
http://www.counterpunch.org/fleming05032003.html

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Injured Demonstrator to File Suit Against City of Oakland
BY ALICIA WITTMEYER
Contributing Writer, The Daily Californian
Monday, May 5, 2003

Oakland resident Willow Rosenthal, 31, said she underwent surgery Wednesday to remove three to four inches of dead skin from her right calf caused by a nonlethal projectile.
Full article at:
http://www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=11464

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United Nations Report on the Oakland Port Protest
Saturday Apr 3rd, 2004

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights report, which was released Friday, April 2, 2004, includes a summary of last year’s April 7th police attack on protesters at the Port of Oakland.
The text of the U.N. report is at
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2004/04/03/16760741.php

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RETURN TO THE DOCKS
Undaunted by police violence, Oakland activists push message of peace and social justice.
By T.J. DeGroat, San Francisco Bay Guardian
May 21, 2003

JUST A MONTH after the April 7 Oakland police debacle that left dozens of peaceful protesters with welts the size of golf balls, hundreds of antiwar activists and concerned residents returned to the Port of Oakland May 12 to stand up to police brutality and to affirm the constitutionally protected rights of free speech and assembly.
Full article at:
http://www.sfbg.com/37/34/news_war.html