Clearing Up Occupied Oakland Rumors Regarding Camp Relocation and OPD Scare Tactics

The following is a comment from @occupiedoaktrib, @hyphy_republic, @devilhasdreads and other activist from Occupy Oakland. This is NOT an official statement from the General Assembly.

It’s been a very eventful number of days with lots of information swirling around. This is a list of some of the things we’ve been hearing from sources with contacts in the city and media and an attempt to clarify them:

–Sources from the City of Oakland say that they have been told that Occupy Oakland has decided to voluntarily relocate to Jefferson Park in another part of the city. Mayor Quan, city officials and police apparently had a meeting with individuals claiming to represent the Occupy Oakland community where they agreed to transition the camp to the new location. The General Assembly has not issued a resolution about moving the camp and moving it is not an official position of Occupy Oakland. If this meeting occurred, then someone is purporting to represent the Occupation without any kind of authorization, most likely as an underhanded way of splitting the movement.

–According to sources, the OPD has issued a press advisory telling news reporters that the camp is not safe to operate in. Our media sources tell us that this is primarily directed at journalists, convincing them that the encampment is not safe for reporters. We believe that the OPD’s advisory is a scare tactic meant to justify the impending raid in advance.

–Friday evening, OPD issued a press release claiming that they have identified the shooter from Thursday as a camp resident and the victim as a non-camper. Given that narrative, police could make an argument to use increased force in a camp raid. However, there remains no clear evidence that either the victim or the suspect were related to Occupy Oakland and OPD has yet to clarify this beyond unconfirmed innuendo.