Take Back the Plaza! Overnight Vigil + FTP March #O25

During the early hours of October 25, 2011, hundreds of violent police officers stormed into Occupy Oakland’s home base at Oscar Grant Plaza, near city hall, to evict protesters & to remove their belongings. 96 of our comrades were arrested after the cops used tear gas, flash-bang grenades and less-than-lethal munitions to subdue the crowd.

Occupy Oakland’s spirit was not damaged, we were emboldened and radicalized as thousands returned that afternoon to stand up and fight back. Unforgettably, so did the p…olice. The battle for the plaza went on into the night, turning downtown Oakland into what looked like a war zone. Hot canisters of tear gas flew through the air, rubber bullets crashed into the bodies of our fellow occupiers, one hitting an Iraq war veteran in the head, putting his life in serious danger.

This year we say, FIGHT BACK! Let’s re-converge and re-claim our home!

Meet at Oscar Grant Plaza at 3PM for an open forum to discuss how to effectively combat state and police oppression before the 7PM FTP march on OPD. Let’s show these pigs we will never back down in the face of violent oppression!

After the march, let’s hold down the plaza all night and continue our conversations on how to better serve our community and how to empower each other to stand up and fight back against the OPD street gang who puts so many Oaklanders in danger.

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Please join us for a day of discussion on how to effectively combat
state and police oppression on October 25th at Oscar Grant Plaza (City Hall) at 3PM.

Schedule of events:

Converge on OGP at 3PM to begin the open forum
Dinner/break out groups at 5PM
FTP March at 7PM
Occupy OGP and continue conversations all night.

Please bring: Tents, warm clothes, shields, a defensive attitude and
hella friends!

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Added 10/16/12 -

Roughly 10 organizers for this event have been meeting regularly to make sure this night is a success, meaning no arrests or casualties. Knowing that we cannot and will not control autonomous actions & respecting the various forms of anger within those who will be participating, we would like to make it clear that un-targeted property damage is not part of the plan and is discouraged in the interest of extending our presence past the march. This is not to say that a second autonomous march later in the night is out of the question.

Rather than the tactic of smashing, this night would be a great time to exercise our defensive tactics. (Bring shields, “tools of violence,” work together and act smart!)

There are multiple goals to achieve through this action including, holding space through out the night, calling out OPD violence in a very public way & celebrating our unity against oppression.

The march will make stops at various downtown locations where the OPD has shown their ugly side against dissenters. We would like to stop at each location and project video and images of what the police have done to us there, on the walls of a near by building or on our mobile slide show screen. Calling out OPD is such a public way will be a huge win for the Occupy Oakland community by showing the general public what true violence is.

The march will then end at one of three undisclosed locations where we will hold that space through out the night. Remember to bring items that will help you accomplish this goal: Warm clothes, blankets, tents… (For those bringing small easy to erect tents, it would be awesome to see them go up on the return end of the march, and held high above our heads as we zero in on our target.)

See you all on the 25th & seriously, FUCK THE POLICE!