january rebellions
Oakland, California 2009
 

REVISED EDITION
PRODUCTION NOTES:

If you've read Unfinished Acts before, you might notice some
things are different in this revised edition.

For starters, since its original printing, one of the main contribu
tors was identified as having a pattern of sexual assault. After
this person demonstrated no commitment to changing this pat:
tern, he was asked not to show his face in our circles, and some
of us committed to no longer distribute his writing. To this end,
the writings and drawings of this contributor have been removed
from this edition. While we have no illusions that these actions
are necessarily effective in diminishing his future potential to do
harm in other communities, we feel itis important to honor the
collective decisions agreed upon by the majority of his former
friends and comrades. The necessity of implementing this deci
sion was the catalyst for the republishing of Unfinished Acts.

Inlight of the great number of rebels running in the streets of Oak
land this last year, we also feel that now is an ideal moment to
highlight ways in which the Oscar Grant movement prefigured
much of the contemporary activity that has put Oakland at the
forefront of social struggle in this country. We have added signif:

icant content to this end, as well as noted changes and develop-

  

ments from the last three years. However, we have strived to keep
the Acts themselves in tact as important historical documents.

AUGUST 2012

 

No copyright. Copy, print and distibute at
will The rights to al the original photos be

Jong othe photographers.

you eurenty distribute older versions of
Unfinished Acts please replace these with

this edition
 

 

 

 

 

 
UNFINISHED ACTS 2

 

PREFACE TO THE 2012 EDITION:

14th & Broadway,
Three Years Later

From the 1946 general strike to the Black Panther Party, Oak-
land has a long and proud history of being a city that does
not bow down to authority. Over the past year, Oakland re-
ceived a barrage of attention from across the country and
world as the most radical and militant city in the US. One
of the primary contributions the rebels of Oakland handed
the Occupy movement was an uncompromising politics
stripped of any middle class liberal illusions about the po-
lice being on the side of the “99%” Oakland helped force
the whole movement to come to terms with a simple fact

‘The pigs are our enemies and any successful uprising will

have to confront them.
peer
ae ce!

      

A close reading of recent
history helps to illumi
nate the origins of the
city’s current wave of an-

tagonistic and anti-police
street politics that helped
Occupy Oakland

stand out from the crowd.

ae

make

It can all be traced back
to the events covered [
the
Oscar Grant Rebellions

in this. publication:

that exploded in Janu-
ary of 2009 and againin He AL LS
the summer of 2010. With

the hindsight of today, we can see clearly that those riots
were the fiery beginnings of a new era of resistance in this
city and beyond. They brought together new affinities that
continue to fight side by side today and they exposed the
harsh contradictions of the established activist left for
all to see, Many of those who participated in the first as-
semblies which launched Occupy Oakland, a mix of anar-
chists, Black power organizers and militant rank and file
labor, first began to work together and see each other as
comrades during the movement that followed the Oscar
Grant Rebellions.

This publication is an attempt to
capture the moods, ideas, conflicts
and passions of those early days
when we were first finding our
footing in this new era.

Itmakes sense then that when these comrades came together
to kick off Occupy Oakland on October 10, they renamed
the plaza in front of City Hall and at the corner of the city’s
main intersection at 14th & Broadway, Oscar Grant Plaza,

r This was not a solemn deci

sion that emphasized a vic

timized city in mourning, It

‘was a proud and rebellious

declaration that the plaza

had now been liberated in

7) THe WORDS OEE
ff) AcaPPROPHETS
i i THE SUBw

the spirit of those who par
ticipated in the insurrec
tions of 2009 and 2010. One
of the first decisions Occu-
py Oakland made was that
the police were no longer a:
lowed inside the plaza. And
with the exception of the
massive militarized raid on
the camp during October
25, no uniformed officer was able to cross into the plaza
until the camp's demise at the end of November.

Itis this trajectory that begins on January 7, 2009, and leads
up through the rise and fall of Occupy all the way until the
present that helps us see why Oakland has become what
it is today. This publication is an attempt to capture the
moods, ideas, conflicts and passions of those early days
when we were first finding our footing in this new era. We
hope it illuminates the struggles that have shaped our city
and possible pathways towards the insurrections to come.
UNFINISHED ACTS

 

FORWARD TO THE
2012 EDITION:

We Are All

Oscear Gremit (?)

Attacking White Power in
the Rebellions & Beyond

 

‘The project of sustained insurrectionary activity must con-

 
 

stantly chip away at the foundatior

   

of white supremacy.
Although anarchist practice is assumed to be inherent
ly anti-racist, evidence of this is often hard to find. This,

  

should be
United S

the task set before us is to attack and abolish the racial

wious, but it is worth repeating: to want the

 

1es of America and capitalism destroyed means

order that has enabled these beasts.

‘The Oscar Grant rebellions gave us allttle glimpse of people

 

in the bay area doing just this. In the riots we saw the col

lective power of Black and Brown young people battling,

 

with little fear, aga

 

the established white supremaci

 

order, Surprisingly there w

people in the rebellion as well. This brief show of solidarity

 

Iso a small showing of

 

from white folks - both those who do have experiences of
being ctiminalized poor young people and those who grew
up with relative comfort - reveals that white people can
have agency to violently oppose a clearly racist institution

side-by-side with non-whites without pretending to share

   

experience with them when it is not the case,

 

trary to dominant narratives that paint the es
sence of riots as male-dominated affairs, many queer and

female (mostly non-white) comrades took their place at

 
UNFINISHED ACTS 4

 

 

the front-lines, participating in the supposedly masculine
rebellion without apprehension. Their participation is sig:
nificant as it throws a wrench into the logic of peace-lov
ing, docile femininity and what self determination looks
like for some who live on the axis of gender tyranny and
white supremacy. Although most police shooting vietims
are Black and Brown men, the Oscar Grant rebellions show
us that their deaths affect and outrage masses of people
across race and gender lines.

During each demonstration and riot where folks gathered to
express their rage in the face of Oscar Grant’s murder and
what his death represented, the chant “We are all Oscar
Grant!” rang through the downtown streets of Oakland.
For those indoctrinated into the logic popularized by the
non-profit organizing culture that treats identity and expe-
riences of oppression as one in the same, itis inappropri
ate for anyone other than people of color to yell this slo-
gan. This critique falls flat for many as it is assuming that
wwe yell this to declare collective victimhood rather than
a collective proclamation to not be victims. We'd be hard.
pressed to find any individuals in this society who are vic-
tims, but have never been victimizers or vise-versa

For those of us who are poor and Black or Brown, anarchist
or not, we cannot claim to share every experience with Os
car Grant, but we do live our days with the knowledge that
‘we could have the same fate as him if this class-society,
with its racialized implications, is not reckoned with. For
‘women and queers, especially those of us who also are not
white, our experiences may not mirror Oscar Grant's life
and death, but we too live with the sick threat of violence
on our bodies by both the patriarchal, trans misogynist,
and racist system and the individuals who replicate the at
titudes and oppressive actions of the state. For any of us
sho are not poor and Black or Brown, anarchist or not, we

may not usually fear for our lives when police are near, but
it is plain as day that if we don't all start acting like it's our
very lives at stake as well, not only are we an accomplice
to these racist deaths, we foolishly assume we will not be
next. For whites who joined in this chorus of “We are all
Oscar Grant,” this declaration meant that we refused to be
another white person, if being white means letting this shit
continue to slide for the bogus justification that this racist
violence keeps society (read: white people) safe.

The naiveté of identity politics fails us in this way, both in
its obsessions with ranking and compartmentalizing privi-
leges and disadvantages and in ignoring instances where
actual human beings, their struggles and relationships
to one another are far more complex than their identities
would tell us.

‘The spirit behind “We are all Oscar Grant” is indicative of
the attitude of the Oscar Grant rebellion as a whole. De-
spite the fact that many of us did not generally know each.
other before those nights because of the racial divisions
imposed by society and maintained by ourselves, we found
glorious moments of struggling with one another in the
streets where our identities or experiences were not col-
lapsed into a faux sameness.

TOWARDS A NEVER-ENDING UPRISING

Within these pages you'll see, time and again, examples of
racial unity and other social barriers crumbling as each

Do some of us -whites and
people of all races- find ourselves
shrugging and accepting that it

is normal for Black people to

go to jail?

Act proceeds. This should not lead one to believe that the
days between or beyond these riotous evenings were days
where police shootings ended or where social distinctions
and hierarchies disappeared or solidarity was a given
Disappointingly, we all went back to our usual lives as
individuals: dodging cops, reading about horrendous po:
lice brutality on facebook, struggling to make ends meet,
drinking too much, dragging ourselves to school, or doing
our hustles. Whatever different “normal” is for each person.
‘who ran wild in the streets of Oakland in the name of Os
car Grant, we went back to it.
   

some, “normalcy” is going to jal

Throughout the Oscar Grant movement and the 0

 

upy
movement, despite whatever demographic took part in
the street festivities it has remained that those stuck with
heavy sentences have been Black and/or homeless, many
cof whom were on probation or parole. This fact should not
reinforce the myth that only Black and Brown youth were

arrested, but should highlight the intensely racist nature

 

of the judicial system. If we are to struggle alongside these
folks in moments of uproar, we must recognize that they o}

ten have more at stake if they get caught up in the bullshit
justice system, When folks already criminalized by the sys-
tem put themselves on the line, there should be unrelent

ing pressure on the system to the scale that we know we are
capable of with hundreds of anarchists in the bay. Ifs not
that Black and Brown rebels are people to feel sorry for and

feel protective of and “keep safe” as they r.

  

“help ein

 

the streets, as paternalistic leftists might suggest. But if we
take seriously that these fellow rioters will be our comrades,
and

 

nspirators for bigger and badder insurrections to
come, we cannot let them hang out to dry when they're go-
ing down for the same acts that we (allegedly) took part in.

Do some of us~ whites and people of all races find ourselves

shrugging and accepting that it is normal for Black people

 

 

 

0 to jail? We feel indignant when someone is murdered

by the state, but somehow feel less moved when someone

UNFINISHED ACTS

 

The question that anarchists must
seriously grapple with is, do we
blow just as much hot air as our
leftist enemies?

s kidnapped and held captive by the state, Why is it so
shocking to us when a white anarchist comrade goes down
fora year, but not when many Black or homeless comrades,

 

are locked up repeatedly, and for longer sentences?

 

There is an unqué

ded in the psyche

  

joned and deeply seeded logic embed:

 

American society that has taught all
of us, white or not and anarchist or not, that white bodies
are to be cared for and coddled while non-white, especially
Black bodies are assumed to be criminal, expendable, and
not to be trusted. Without consciously and intentionally
bucking against this logic, Black death —be it psychologi
— will remain the norm and will

cal, physical, slow, or f

    

 

make any attempt of insure
tivity reek of insincerity

ary or revolutionary ac
ind history lessons unlearned!

 

It's mor

 

obvious than ever that leftist politicians and NGO
admins

 

with grant money dollar signs in their eyes have

    

done and will do very little to address every day problems

for or with— folks from Oakland's hoods. The question

 

hat anarchists must seriously grapple with is, do we blow

 

just as much hot air as our leftist enemies?
UNFINISHED ACTS

 

Beyond our lackluster efforts in countering state-repression
of our fellow rebels, have we also left the response to ev-
cexyday atrocities to be tackled by those who we know are
invested in the very institutions that perpetuate these
everyday oppressions and exploitation? It’s fine (great
even) that we can't stand to do reformist campaigns to
make daily life more tolerable. That being the case, what
are we willing to do? If we can't stand the victim-making
rhetoric that strips power from the very people who must
‘wield it, if we loath representational politics and neither
want to speak for or do anything for anyone who is “not
us” where does this leave us? For many of us who are white
and/or male anarchists we know that calls to “check privi
lege” and tip toe around language do little to nothing to
topple racial and gender hierarchies. Throwing ourselves
into the role of social service providers also misses the
boat. What strategies are left available? Are these theoreti
ccal dead ends that cannot be solved or are we lacking the

resolve and imagination necessary to answer these ques:

tions through meaningful deeds? Given the fact that we
found ourselves struggling around the atrocious murder of

   

 

1. It is worth noting that whiteness asa social category was created
and promoted by plantation owners and other capitalists in the
‘early days of America's colonization, to put a wedge between the

‘workers they were exploiting and enslaving, Before this poor fair

skinned people were dirty Irish, criminals expelled from England,
indentured servants, rach, ete. This was done both through ex-
‘treme terror campaigns against those who co-conspired in insur
rections on plantations, shipping docks, and in urban centers and
also in convincing the poor, recently-named “whites” that they
had special privileges which were under threat by those of darker
skin color, thus ereating perfect situation for the nolonger-
shook capitalists where whites began putting racial solidarity
above class solidarity. So now-a-days most darker skinned people
live in crippling poverty while white capitalists are still rich fucks

‘who rule over them. What is often overlooked, however, is hatin

 

Oscar Grant, why don’t we see ourselves in similar ruptures
sparked by the daily abuses faced by oppressed people, your
neighbors, your kids’ friends, your co-workers?

IT’S GOING DOWN WITH OR WITHOUT US.

Insumrections, rioting, mass-expropriations, occupations,
and all sorts of unimaginable forms of class warfare are
not only inevitable, but are happening all over the place
with more frequency and veraciousness as the crisis that is
capitalism deepens.

It is crystal clear that various groups of the deprived, ex-
ploited, and violated have and will continue to organize
formally and informally toward the demise of their oppres-
sors, those who remain neutral, or each other.

The side of history on which we find ourselves is not deter-
mined by whether or not we share the experiences of one
horror or another or how we individually identify, but on
our own resolution to see the end of each of these mis-
eries which perpetuate this racist, capitalist, shit show
called society.

To those of us who cooperatively destroyed capitalist and
state property, humiliated and terrified police and yup-
pies, and found power and a sense of dignity together that,
‘we had never known before; and to those who found our-
selves high off the lack of social divisions in the streets of
Oakland during a moment of open revolt, let’s figure out
‘ways to maintain these experiences outside of a riot. We
must play a part in continuing this rebellious trajectory as
a motley crew of insurgents, or be prepared to be deemed
irrelevant - or worse - the recipients of the wrath of the
righteous people who anger slowly but rage undammed?

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘exchange for accepting the privileged position of White, whites
still make up half of those in the US living in poverty left to the
‘whims of the same ruthless whites in power. This is to say, selling
‘out one’s class-members and helping to prop up a racist system
‘through clutching onto a psychology that our white friends, fam

ily, and selves are somehow more exalted than non-white folks,
hhas for hundreds of years effectively been a shot to our own feet

2."This monster ~ the monster they've engendered in me will re-

‘turn to torment its maker, from the grave, the pit, the profoundest
pit, Hurl me into the next existence, the descent into hell vont
‘turn me. Ill crawl back to dog his tral forever, They won't defeat
my revenge, never, never. I'm part ofa righteous people who an-
get slowly, but rage undammed, We'll gather at his door in such
a number that the rumbling of our feet will make the earth trem-
ble.” ~ George Jackson, Blood in my Eye, 1970
7 UNFINISHED ACTS

 

Greetings Earthlings

ORIGINAL 2009
INTRODUCTION

What you hold in your hands is a collective re
counting and analysis of events surrounding the shooting
of an unarmed 22-year-old Black man in Oakland. Oscar
Grant III was executed by Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)
police officers during the first hours of 2009 on the plat-
form of the Fruitvale station. Unfinished Acts was written
collectively by a group of anarchists who were and still are
actively present in the rebellion following Oscar Grant's
execution. We were in the

We Come in Violence

during the first month of 2009, We have reconstructed the
narrative and dialogue from collective stories, personal ex
periences and videos of the rebellions posted online.

The opening of this letter is not merely an empty play on
words. Anarchists within the contemporary global terrain
of political struggle tend to be regarded as curious crea
tures with crazy, irresponsible, or romantic ideas about

polities and social change. From

Streets during the spontane. + tnarchists come out of their this persepective, anarchists

ous uprising in downtown ark caves and like vampires

Oakland on January 7th
where numerous cars were

torched and businesses were ViOlently, for everyone, again

sinashed during militant’ Gnd again.
standoffs with the Oakland

Police Department. We were in the many demos since, at-
tended countless “community meetings” at locations rang-
ing from Black churches to art gallery spaces to anarchist,
co-ops, and organized support and solidarity for those who
were arrested during confrontational actions. In those free
moments, which barely exist, we have put together this ex:
posé on the events so far (as the story is still unfolding)
and would like to share it with you

The following pages include a few significant local histories
to help contextualize the rebellions. This history acts as in-
termissions for a documentary dramatization (but factually
correct!) of some of the events that unfolded in the streets,

WHO IS WE?

come out of their dark caves and

like vampires (or the Taliban!),

(or the Taliban!), ruin it, sometimes juin it, sometimes violently, for

everyone, again and again. They
ruin it for authoritarian leftist
organizations (Gelf-proclaimed
leaders of movements), and they
ruin it in the mind controlling and numbing mass media,
But outside of that narrow perspective, we simply desire
political conversations and organizing with those whom
‘we can identify a common starting point; one that involves
a push towards militant direct action driven by solidarity
in the streets of our cities.

It is with this desire that we have put out this publication, We
hope that it can provide a starting point to spring from, a
reminder to those of us in the Bay Area and to those who
are afar, a glimpse of exciting and/or tragic possibilities in
US urban centers

 

The pronoun “we” is used extensively in this manuscript. “We” refers to all of those who took part in the rebellions, and made the
conscious decision to instigate and escalate confrontations. That “we” includes, but is not limited to, men, women, trans, queer,
Black, Latin@, Asian, white, anarchist, communist, youth, and adults. Our sameness is in our participation, actions, and solidarities
in the streets of Oakland, not in our identities or life experiences.

Throughout this publication, the dialogue is transcribed verbatim from the streets:
the quotation marks refer to the state’s logic while the italics refer to ours.

The “we" who edited this publication are anarchists in the Bay area who participated in the rebellions in the aftermath of Oscar
Grant’s murder as well as much of the solidarity work that went into responding to the state's repression of the movement,
UNFINISHED ACTS 8

  
 

MAP LEGEND <2 000

© Fruitvale BART @ 14th and Jackson
@ Highland Hospital §— @ City Hall
© BihandMadison —@ 17th Street

© 14th and Broadway —@ Downtown OPD.

 

(@) oom ws 10 movenvonaron HenAORTY oF PHOTOS USED acts @
 

Act l Scene 1:

January Ist, 2009. New years day. A Thursday. We
hear that a Black man has been shot and killed by a BART
(Bay Area Rapid Transit) police officer. People who took
video of the incident had their phones and cameras quick-
ly confiscated by the police. He was executed during the
first few hours after midnight, while partygoers were on
their way home from trying to bum a fond memory into
their heads and kick off another time around the sun. They
shot Oscar Grant III in the back.

He worked as a butcher at the grocery store where my
friend and I shop at every week. When I saw his picture, I
recognized his smile.

‘We were overwhelmed with depression, helplessness. An-
other Black man killed by cops in the Bay, and nothing
being done about it. The general public digests the news
with a frown and goes about their business. What cynical
cruelty passes as normality.

The efforts by the BART cops to completely cover up the exe-
cution started early. After spending time confiscating cell
phones while Grant lay wounded, the cops tell paramedics
nothing of how he was shot or by whom, withholding in-

Berkeley

< San

Francisco

UNFINISHED ACTS

formation that is routinely given in the interest of saving a
life, The BART police have their own interests. They wait for
the bullet to be extracted and take it for “evidence” Hospital
personnel have no reason to second guess their motivations,
Weeks later, one health care worker who had treated Oscar
Grant after he was admitted to the hospital is still shocked:

Thad no idea he was killed by police until the next day when

Tsaw the news.

The hospital is only the beginning of a blatant display of
corruption and arrogance by the police. Despite efforts to
bury the evidence, a video surfaces after a few days, and
then another, until footage of the incident is running on
local news channels, New camera angles make the ex
ecution undeniable. No action has been taken by BART
or city officials, What a surprise, The thought of charg:
ing the police and exposing them as the thugs they are is
avoided in the so-called halls of justice. Johannes Mehser
le, this particular killer cop, refuses to go in for question-
ing. He sends in a letter of resignation instead, Days pass.
By January 7, people -all of us- are pissed.

The stage is set

 
UNFINISHED ACTS 10

 

Act 2 Scene 1:

A crowded Fremont bound train, evening mish
hour, January 7th, six days after the murder of Oscar Grant.

The train operator’s voice comes over the intercom:

“Attention we apologize for any inconvenience, but due to
civil unrest this train will not be stopping at the Fruitvale
station. Again, this train will not be stopping at the Fruit:
vale station.”

Didn't they just shoot somebody there?
That why we're not stopping?

Uh huh.

“For those passengers wanting to go to Fruitvale station,
there will be a shuttle departing from Coliseum station
that will bring you to Fruitvale,”

Tim not getting on a goddamn shuttle.

End Scene,

Act 2, Scene 2:

Tim not condoning violence, but sometimes to get justice,
‘you can’t just sit around holding hands singing ‘Kumbaye.”
—An organizer of the Fruitvale rally

Masses of people had gathered «t Fruitvale
Bart station, one of those rare protests where you walk
around and see different people from many different or
ganizations and ideologies. There's indignation, fear, and
anger. The video of Oscar Grant is fresh, weighing on all
of our minds, The speakers’ words hit live wires of memory
not yet sealed over, not yet forgotten into the nasty legacy
of Bay Area police violence.

Video after video had come out, each with a different angle, a
different perspective; each with a somehow differently dev-
astating effect. As the first videos made it onto YouTube
there was frustration, disbelief, disgust. Millions of hits lat
er, more videos began to emerge: the cops threw punches
to their faces, bystanders with evidence confiscated, But
according to BART police there had been no crime.

Somewhere, at some point, our disbelief gave way to rage, to
anger, to a clarity of purpose and focus. The evidence was
damning and the lack of response was infuriating, We may

 

 

not gather around many things publicly and collectively,
but to pick up the newspaper on the frst day of the new year
and to read about such old news, so fresh, so painfully new
and accessible through modem media, set the stage for an
explosion of those angry with what passes as daily life, what
cruelty that passes as sanity, the timeless status quo.

‘We are here, in the plaza by the entrance to the Fruitvale
station, the site of the murder of Oscar Grant, a crowd of
approximately 1,000. Our friends are getting off the shut-
tle. 4pm. There are many banners, many faces: Oakland
youngsters, youth-organizers, communists, anarchists,
mostly young, and multiracial. The station is closed and
the PA is very loud, The rally has now begun,

Speeches are being made from the sound system in the cen-
ter of the crowd. The emcee is a professional activist:

“Listen everybody, we need to get organized and be peace
ful, not let our emotions take over”

She's greeted with an enormous silence from the erowd. She
continues on, undeterred:

“But right now we'd like to open it up to anyone who's ever
been harassed by the police—would you like to come up
and speak? Especially our youth, feel free to come up right
now and tell your story”

‘Young people begin to take the mic

I'm feelin pretty violent right now, I'm on some Malcolm X
shit: by any means necessary. If Idon’t see some action, I'm
going to cause a ruckus myself

That's right!
 

There are cheers and applause, and chants:

No Justice, No Peace! Fuck the Police!

When you get bullied at the playground you don’t sit down
and beg that fucking bully to leave you alone! You knock
his fucking teeth out. We've been bullied for too long, we've
been talking too long, we gotta take fucking action, you
Imow what I'm saying? Because you don't get results by
pleading to the fucking bully, you beat hi
‘youlet his ass know that you're not to be fu

how it goes.

 

fucking ass and
hed with, That's

  
 

Yes, right on!
The croved listens but interrupts one particular speaker:

“Hi, I'm coming from the mayor's deputy chief of staff's
office, the mayor could not be here~"

000000006, We want the mayor here,
8000000

The police officer and the mayor have
satd that they are sorry but I'm making

it very clear that we reject your apology.

We're gonna march tonight everyone, welll be

meeting at the “Fruitvale Village” sign over there.
‘There is silence... and then chanting:
‘March! March! March!

There is the usual feel of divergence of tactics, the speakers,
the organizers, the organizations standing strong to main:
tain a front of righteous anger while others want to move
this anger to another target, to see that this righteous in
dignation keep going, keep moving, doesn't ust, for lack of
a better idea, go home.

End Scene,

 

UNFINISHED ACTS

 

Act 2, Scene 3:

Fuck the Police, We're All Oscar Grant,

Most of those tired or made restless by the
rally leave to march: young people, communists,
anarchists, neo-Black Panthers, All kinds of signs and
styles of dress represent their affiliations: the fitteds of hi
phop heads, the berets of the Panthers and Brown Berets,
Maoists and their ubiquitous paper, anarchists and their
all black clothing, but mostly it's Oakland's children: Black
and Brown youth. At the front of the march is a crew on
their scraper bikes, The march leaves down International
Blvd, a thoroughfare that crosses the largely Black and
Latin@ Fruitvale neighborhood and the largely Asian Lake
Merritt neighborhood. The police presence is ight, mostly
staying ahead and behind the march clearing traffic. Hun-
drds of black masks are being handed out; residents and
car commuters voice their support, The mood is sponta
neous, loud, and unruly: groups of kids run up and down
through the march, no one was solemn, tired, or quiet. The
mood is electric with anger.

Police are mobilizing and blocking traffic far down the road
But they keep their distance and follow us on parralel streets

Strong in numbers, we start to gather momentum as we
move through Fruitvale, feeling that we are ready for ac-
tion. While there is a feeling of ignit
crowd, there is a feeling of fear and paranoia among po-
lice forces. Helicopter lights flash over us as we march in
surreal soft evening California light through the streets of
Fruitvale. We are black clad figures standing out against
abrasively neon banners. Shy smiles exchange in the
crowd with the flash of cellphones, teeth, scraper bikes,

 

Je anger within the

 
UNFINISHED ACTS 12

 

jewelry and the various adornments of a million subcul
tures. It is getting dark.

As we move tows

 

ds the Lake Merritt BART station people
in the crowd chant about BART as the target. Moving off
freeways and into the edge of downtown, the frustration
begins to feel more focused; we're moving towards BART
police headquarters. A young woman lights a bundle of pa:
per on fire and raises it defiantly above her head. As we all
move towards the BART station there's the feeling of mov-
ing as a single unit, There's the moment of confusion be
tween taking over the freeway which is right in front of us
or going for the gold: moving into downtown Oakland and
wreaking havoc. Where are we going? But with so many
people, with so much energy, it doesn't seem to matter.

At the front of the march kids on scraper bikes and a few
ndividuals on foot make the decision to move onto 12th
street anay from where cops are gathering up ahead, We've
ducked out of the helicopter's spotlight. We find ourselves
momentarily without any police presence. We are now
very close to the Lake Merritt staion

Hey there is a dumpster down that block. You guys want to
go get it?

What about the cops down there?
They're far away enough that they won't mess with us.

Five people move the dumpster into the crowd and start to
bang on it; cheers erupt.

At 8th and Madison a police cruiser is blocking traffic next
to BART police headquarters. It becomes the focal point of
people's anger as people start to surround it. Two officers

an

eas
Oe |

ae

—\

 

 

get out, noticeably concemed about the angry crowd,

Pigs go home! Pigs go home!

The cops quickly grab whatever they can out of the cruiser
and retreat into the lines of backed up traffic. Young folks
emerge from the crowd and start to jump on the police
cruiser, kicking and smashing out its windows, A rare mo-
ment of cross-racial solidarity sets in as people dance on
the cruiser: Latin@s, Black folks, Asians and whites are
tearing down well-guarded day to day boundaries. Owning
and making real our shared fury at the police, we find a
crucial point of political intersection and act on it.

A masked kid approaches the group around the dumpster on
the other side of the street:

Should I spark this shit?
Yeah go for it

The dumpster catches fire and is passed from hand to hand
before being rammed into the police vehicle, which at this
point is almost entirely destroyed. The crowd starts to rock:
the police car trying to overtum it. OPD riot cops who have
been gearing up a block away spring into action and ad
vance on the crowd opening fire with tear gas, bean bag
rounds and other projectiles. People are yelling and running,

Our numbers fall to 200 as we sprint away through China-
town towards the skyscrapers of Broadway, the main street
in downtown Oakland. We pull dumpsters, newspaper box,
es and garbage into the street to prevent the police from
catching up and charging,

End Scene,

 
Cenc

Act 2, Scene 4: ewence

“Reporting live, NBC Bay Area's George Kiriyama is
in the crowd with them. George tell us a little bit about the

anger and what's happening and what they want.”

“We kind of stopped at the intersection now near Madi-
son and 8th in downtown Oakland. Their goal is to get
to BART police headquarters to have their wishes known
that they want justice for Oscar Grant’s family. That was,
a chant they were chanting for about 20 minutes, ‘We
are all Oscar Grant! over and over again. That says it all
right there. I just got out of the car. The crowd right now
is surrounding a police vehicle, I can't see what’s behind
the top of the crowd. They are chanting ‘No Justice! No
Peace’ Motorists are stuck at this intersection and can’t,

 

get anywhere because the crowd is blocking the way to
go forward. They are surrounding a police car. Now they
have.. it has been set on fire!”

“They've set what on fire?”

“They've seta dumpster on fire in the middle of this intersec-
tion and now they are on top ofthe police car, they are jump-
ing on the police car. This crowd has gotten rowdy nov.”

“George, where is the police officer? WHERE IS THE
OFFICER?”

“The officer...I ean not see over the top of people's heads.
Now they are throwing stuff, they have just thrown what,
appears to bea rock at the police vehicle, they are vandal

izing; they are damaging the police vehicle.”

“This has obviously taken a very ugly turn at this point, we
can see the fire, which is in that dumpster you were talking
about, on the police car. Uh... George can you move closer
and give us a better perspective? We can see them rocking

the police car now.”

“The police car is getting trashed by the protestors. They
are throwing stuff, They have broken the windows. They
look like they wanna topple this police car. Ifthey do that

 

13 UNFINISHED ACTS

 

it may hit some of the cars in this intersection here. Some
of the cars are backing up right now because they are
afraid that if this crowd topples over the police car itis go
ing to go on top of their car. This crowd has turned ugly
in the last few seconds. They have brought the dumpster
to within feet of where the cars are right now. The dump
ster is totally on fire right in front of the police car.”

“George do you have any idea where the police officer is,
what is the status of the officer?”

“They are just.. right. looks like the poli..wow.. I GOT

HIT, I got hit by a
“George you've been hit !?”

“I got hit by a beanbag in my arm! The police are shoot
ing into the intersection! ‘The police are shooting into
the intersection to disperse this crowd! I just got hit in

my arm!"

“George you need to move away. You need to back away!
Move away George!”

End Scene,
UNFINISHED ACTS

Oaklemd Pigs:

 

INTERMISSION

Knee Deep in Shit A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF OPD’S RECENT HISTORY

1996 - 2000: The Rough Riders, a gang of police officers
‘embedded within OPD, routinely beat down and plant drugs
on Oakland residents as well as falsify incident reports with
impunity.

2002 - 2003: Three of the Riders are acquitted of eight felo-
nies and the remaining 25 felonies are declared mistrials. The
fourth alleged leader of the Riders flees the country. The city of
Oakland pays out $11 million dollars in a negotiated settlement
to 219 victims, A federal judge mandates a long list of reforms
within OPD to clean up the legacy of the Riders and other kinds
of cormuption within the force.

April 7, 2008: After protestors ignore a dispersal order at
an anti-war demonstration at the Port of Oakland, OPD open
fire with various projectiles, flashbang grenades and tear gas at
point blank range, injuring both longshore workers and protest-
cers. A lawsuit is won against OPD, requiring them to pay over
432 million and follow new crowd control procedures that they
violate to this day.

June 17, 2008: Operation Nutcracker: 400 officers includ-

ing the OPD, FBI, DEA and 14 other law enforcement agencies
conduct a military style door-to-door sweep of the Acom Hous

ing project in West Oakland, as well as other houses throughout
the East Bay, in a drug sting aimed at the Acorn street gang
Community outrage follows with witness reports of indiscrimi-
nate brutality and racism in the homes of the alleged, Mean

while Attorney General Jerry Brown tries to justify the raids by
calling gang members “urban terrorists”

October 1, 2008: Twelve more Oakland Police officers
connected with the Riders are charged with falsifying evidence
Case is ongoing

January 27, 2009: Oakland Police Chief Wayne Tucker
resigns in the wake of the January Oscar Grant riots under pres-
sure from City Council

March 21, 2009: After a routine stop, two OPD officers
are shot to death by 26-year-old Lovelle Mixon, Mixon flees to
his sisters house nearby from where he defends himself from
the SWAT team, killing two more officers and shooting a third
before he is killed. OPD's response to the killing of police off
cers is much heavier than that of any other gun violence which
plagues the town on a regular basis. Reports surface that the

SWAT team commander did not follow protocol and that the
death of the two SWAT officers could have been avoided if the
force wasn't ating vengefully and impulsively

March 27, 2009: A sio million funeral is held for the
“fallen heroes” in the Oracle sports arena, The media hypes the
attendance of over 20,000 people, the vast majority of which
are police from as far away as Canada, not actual people. Ar

thony Batts, the chief of police in Long Beach who has just been
caught abusing his wife attends the funeral and is so moved, he
agrees to be the next Oakland chief of police.

June 2, 2010: The North Oakland Gang Injunction is sanc-

tioned, naming 15 young Black men, defining a 100 block safety
zone eriminalizing such activities as appearing in publi (with
the exception of attending school, work, or church), wearing col

ors that police associate with the target street gang, and being
outside betwen the hours of 1opm-Sam. These injunctions give
impunity to cops that practice racial profiling by sanctioning
the practice of random search and seizures by OPD officers. A
second injunction against young Latino men in the Fruitvale
district is implemented before a strong grassroots opposition
tothe special policing powers brings the city’s plans for expand:

ing the program to a standstill.

August 4, 2011: The white chief of Oakland Schools Po-

lice abruptly resigns after being outed for using racial slurs.
His temporary replacement is the officer who shot dead Ra

heim Brown Jr, an unarmed student just 7 months prior. He
is removed from the posting after community members de

xy his promotion.

October 11, 2011: In anticipation of an upcoming Feder

al review of mandated department reforms stemming from the
Riders case, Police Chief Batts resigns a day after the Occupy
Oakland encampment begins

Fall 2011: In their campaign of repression against Occupy
Oakland, police arrest hundreds and unleash a wave of brutality
against demonstrators nearly killing two veterans including the
highly publicized incident with Scott Olson.

January 2012: A federal judge begins the process of mov-

ing OPD into federal receivership in response tothe inability of
the department to implement the reforms mandated a decade
‘earlier in response to the Riders case. The total legal costs for
police misconduct in 2011 alone is $131 million
16 UNFINISHED ACTS

 

 

sideshow (sid-sho) n. A spontaneous street gather
ing in which young people perform wild car maneuvers,

including spinning donuts and figure eights, while specta-
tors cheer them on,

Sideshow culture is related closely to the Hyphy rap move-
ment, which originated in the Bay Area, and is full of
unique terminology that is used to describe its activities.

‘Ghost-riding the whip” brought this movement into the
limelight nationally in 2005,

The gatherings are considered illegal, and the Oakland po:
lice spent several years trying to shut them down. At the
peak of sideshow activity in the mid-2000's the police and
the state promoted all types of legislation to criminalize
spectators at vaguely defined sideshow gatherings.

For the police, this criminalization of “sideshow activity” is

justified in order to better target social gatherings that

 

they otherwise would have no chance of stopping. Ina city

   

As long as I was old enough to go
out and mingle, people been side-
showin. Every weekend there's a
sideshow somewhere. Every club,
every event, somebody gonna
start a sideshow.

+ MAC DRE, BAY AREA RAP LEGEND

with an average of well over 100 homicides per year for the
past six years running, sideshows are an easy scapegoat
for violence that routine policing never diminishes,

As night fell on January 7th 2009, the cast of kids in the
streets rotated as the clashes moved, much in the way that
young people in Oakland were accustomed to by their par
ticipation in sideshows during the previous decade. People
moved in groups, hollered out when they saw cops, and

used cell phones to spread the word about where to meet

 

up next and where to avoid.

Ie’s mobile. If it’s occurring at High and Foothill, and we go
th

 

shey simply get in their cars and go to another loca:
tion where we're not. We can't be everywhere,
—Oakland Police Lt. Charles Gibson

 

 

It’s 318 [am] but now the sideshows fittin to start up...we got
everybody gatherin in one central location. Everybody get-

 

tin together, that’s what the sideshow is all about.

~Youtube video sideshow spectator 1

Alllhe’s doin is swingin his car, know what i'm saying... He ain’t

Rillin nobody: See him killin somebody? All he doin is swing-

 

ing. And leaving, see him leavin? He gone.
~Youtube video sideshow spectator 2

y

 
UNFINISHED ACTS 16

Ket 3 scene 1:

‘We are now on Broadway approaching Oakland Police Head:
quarters when riot police charge the crowd dispersing
them through the streets of downtown.

 

‘Thereis dispersal and reconvergence. Groups of friends storm
across Broadway, from Chinatown into an area of commer
cial downtown Oakland. The police are setting up lines
now, there is some yelling, A rumor finally passes around
that we are ll gathering back up at 14th and Broadway.

‘We reconvene at 14th and Broadway, the main intersection of
downtown Oakland, Trash cans are lit on fire and knocked
into the streets. There is festivity. Young people and com:
munists take tums on the bullhom berating the line of
riot police. Some people lay down in front of the police
symbolically, the same way we all watched Oscar Grant ex
ecuted. The media takes pictures.

The police are charging now, but they don't sprint. After we
burn all the trash cans, young folks on skateboards begin
smashing windows on 14th. The police come and they
stop, hesitant. We are unyielding: glass bottles are thrown,
car is set on fire and flames reach high into the Oakland
sky—our very own skyscraper. We roll dumpsters into the
cop line, We see groups of friends gallop like horses over
parked cars, dancing and stomping on hoods and windows.

End Scene

 

 

 

Act 3, Scene 2:

EVIDENCE

A Participant's Account of the
lth Street Rampage:

Larrived at 14th and Franklin an hour later, just as police
were backing up the crowd that had gathered a block up on
Broadway,

As I looked around at the diversity of the people who were
gathered in the intersection I realized the profound poten-
tial of what was beginning to unfold in the streets. An older
Black woman was screaming at the police. A group of young
Latin@s were standing in front of the police line refusing to
be moved off the streets. A white 30-something-year-old was
being dragged away behind police lines. These were “every
day” people, indignant, refusing to be moved.

Everyone was out together, defying police orders and scream:
ing their disgust at the system. The police first corralled us
onthree sides. Then they charged into the crowd, grabbing
people and making arrests

Some of the moments when solidarity among strangers and
defiance to authority were most felt was during unarrests
Throughout the night, unarrests were made unflinchingly
and without second thought by all sorts of people who came
together in the streets and knew that their common enemy
was the police.

As the police continued to move their line down the street, a
sudden tactical decision swept through the crowd. People
turned around and began heading the other way down 14th
Street, with the police behind them. It was then that the first
SUV went up in flames, and windshields of lines of cars be-
gan to get kicked in.

 
 

The crowd moved quickly and hit a McDonald's on the way.
The riot police, confused by the burning SUV, stayed behind
to order people away from the car that was now engulfed in
towering flames. Suddenly an armored police truck came
tearing wildly down the street toward the destruction at the
MeDonall’s, sending people running in al directions.

People began to casually regroup fifteen minutes later. An
other SUV had been set on fire, and police were still trying,
and failing, to get people off the street.

Before a group of us turned and ran down side streets, I was
struck by the image of a dozen white police officers tackling
«@ Black man to the ground while behind the orange flames
licked the evening sky. For some unknown reason, almost
‘every cop on the streets that night was white, and at one
point while they pulled Black youth from the crowd, heard
someone shout, “What? You looking for a race riot now?”

 

 

Iwas one of the only white people running down the street
with about 50 Black youth. More cars were being destroyed
and the helicopter with its intrusive floodlight wasn't any
where near us, We were alone in the streets and we thought

we were in the clear.

In the chaos of the group trying to decide where to turn and
nearly running into a deadend courtyard, we almost didn't

UNFINISHED ACTS

get away. I felt a billy club sting the back of my head and
a sharp pain shoot down my spine. All at once I felt blows
land all over the right side of my body. Instinetually, I put
my arms over my face. My right arm was swollen for days
after the riot.

Every car on Lakeside Avenue was being smashed. People
were walking casually, from car to car, with tworby-fours or
poles in their hand, smashing out windows. From above we
heard a gunshot from someone on a balcony; most likely
watching their car be destroyed.

When we saw the armored vehicle appear again, two blocks
behind us, we all split up. I headed up towards 14th Street
The adrenaline from the police beating I had received
earlier was beginning to wear off and I winced with pain
as I walked. I need a cigarette, I thought. Walking to the
next corner, Ieame across two men with masks on, casually
standing around smoking. I bummed a cigarette and told
them where Ihad last seen the police. “Idon't care about no
police,” one of them said. “We got this shit tonight.”

Practically limping from the blows to my right leg, Icontinued
to head up 14th without a plan. Then Iran into the mayor.

End Scene,

 
UNFINISHED ACTS 18

 

Act 3, Scene 3:

Riot cops still stand idly for the most part, await
ng orders. The armored carrier is still oving around slow

ly. A crowd has formed in a circle, and it appears they

stand around one man in particular, He is @ head taller
than most people in the crowd, a Black man with white hair
anda white beard. More and more people push their way
toward him,

Mayor Dellums, Vietnam-era civil rights activist turned may-
on tired, stoic, old. His presence in the street results in the
crowd growing again, to upward of 75 people. The number
of police also swells. The crowd is now widely varied in age,
race, and gender. The mayor stands amid a mounting media
blitz, hunched over while someone speaks into his ear. They
confer and move together, dragging the crowd along with
each slow step. The mayor prepares to give a statement. Af
ter calculating his words, he alerts the presses.

Predictably he condemns the destruction; he asserts that this
type of violence isn't what we should be teaching our kids.
He ignores the fact that it is largely kids who enacted the

socalled violence.

“Earlier today, a representative from my office... blah blah
blah BART investigation blah blah blah Martin Luther
King, non violence blah blah blah people should be civil.”

Why we always gotta advocate peace when they killin us?

It’s been seven days and no charges were filed. Sev-

en days!

What’s wrong with that, Mayor? You've been a con:
gressman. You've been a lawmaker before. What's
wrong with the law right now? It’s not working for the
people, man, You can sell that [be civil] stuf to people
that really don’t know, but the intelligent people here
really understand.

“Earlier today I did talk with the district attomey's office”
We were there, we were with the distriet attorney too.

“My sense of it is, the reason that people are out here, for
whatever reason, right or wrong, people have lost conf
dence because they haven't been communicated with, I
said (to the DA) that I believe that we need to communicate

 

and convey what this process is all about... Then I went to
the police and I said I want you as the police department to
investigate this homicide the same way you would investi

gate any other homicide. We gotta do what we can do—”

  
 

 

UNFINISHED ACTS

 

Police brutality is a problem all over this country, it’s
not just here in Oakland

There's an attitude among police! There's an attitude

 

‘among government as it relates to people of color!

 

We were at the same meeting. The attitude of the DA
was horrible! We have it on tape. He put his hands on
his hips and he basically said it’s his decision, and he

Imean people v
men at the District Attorney meeting shocked!

 

re nearly left in tears... You had Black

What was impressive today was that the citizens:

   

alized for a change that they have the power to t

 

the government what to do.. I witnessed today the
citizens and the community coming together and
te

that we need answers to these questions.

 

1g the government that we need to talk to you,

  

he mayor hears these concerns and tries to come up with
‘a response that isn’t a regurgitation of soundbites. Mean-
while a riot police snatch squad on the next block chases
yet another protester, seemingly at random, and suddenly
the crowd is on alert. The police line stands poised.

ook! LOOK! Mayor, call them off

 

We need help today! Not tomorrow!

 

[My litle cousin is looking out his window and watching
peoples’ heads get crushed to the ground!

  

About 15 minutes ago, at the steps of the Oakland
library. this big six-foot-five Latino man snatched

her by her hair and hit her.
It was cop?

Ie was a cop that did it! And her crime was, she
told this little kid to run! And when she did that,
they grabbed her beautiful ponytail, slung her to
the ground, and HIT HER SEVEN TIMES! This is
evill I been to Mississippi. THIS is Mississippi!
saw young people of all races, they were telling the
police in a very positive way that they're sick of it,

and they're taking thetr streets back! You got police

 

Twenty deep
bids

he armored vehicle, jumping off just chas

 

They [the police] are provoking this! 'm 40 years

 

old, but everybody else out here, these are kids!
UNFINISHED ACTS 20

 

“ve asked the police to step back, the armored vehicle is
gone. Lets remove these symbols of confrontation. This is,
what I'm asking: Let's disperse.”

When they leave, welll leave. That’s what it should be
about!

“I'm asking you to disperse.”

   

They took three or four

people! tin Luther King, non violence blah man

 

“Earlier today, a representative
Were not leaving unt from my office... blah blah blah fil :
outwhotheytock BA PT investigation blah blah Mer. 2h shet him in tke back

 

be directed. Why don't they shut down the BART station
one day during rush hour? That'll get the attention of the
people in Piedmont coming home from work, But this ain't
‘working!

Fuck the car, someone DIED! Do you know the dif
ference between a LIFE and a
Lexus? Did you see the person
get killed? He was lying down

A car is not the same as a hu

  

life. I'm sorry you don't

“Lets demonstrate how big blah blah people should be civil..." understand that, You're lucky ie

‘we can be in this moment”

 

Release all the protes:

Igota question! Mr. Dellums. Excuse me.
Please go home.”
Just ask your question
Why do you let your police oficers kill Black people?
Applause and an amen.

The mayor fails to disperse us and begins to head back to-
wards City Hall. A leisurely procession follows him back

 

down 14th Street alongside a line of cars with smashed

windshields. The fires have been extinguished,

A heated discussion is heard nearby about the car that went

up in flames,

   

“You don’t know me! This is my community. I agree that

‘we gotta organize and mobilize out here. But it’s gotta

was just a car! ONE CAR!

- MAYOR RON DELLUMS

The procession stops near a
BMW with its windshield kicked in. A familiar chant starts,

softly, but grows...no justice, no peace, NO.

City Hall. It sits back from the intersection of 14th and
Broadway, separate from the street by a large square called
Frank Ogawa Plaza. The mayor stands on the steps to ad-
dress crowd, now numbering over 100, one last time. He
tion and is booed. As he tums to head inside, the crowd
runs through Frank Ogawa Plaza.

Two onlookers stay put near the steps, and debrief
Yo, dats da mayor?
Yup.
Inever new dat nigga wuz so white!
We erupt in laughter.

End Scene,
21 UNFINISHED ACTS

 

INTERMISSION

Enemies on the Left

"It's because of the foundation we laid that every Black and person of color
and woman on this council is even here. This used to be an all white, male
republican council. And you need to remember that the blood that was
shed is what put you here... We, the people, will judge you in the streets...
You will be taken out De la Fuente! You will be taken out Larry Reid!”

- FORMER BLACK PANTHER ELAINE BROWN

ADDRESSES OAKLAND CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS, 2/6/12

Here in the bay area, domination and control is exerted
through the established and institutionalized Left who de
rive their power from the legacy of previous generations’
failed or erushed revolutionary projects. Politically, the far
reaching socio-economic gains of the 1960s era of orga-
nizing include the formation of non-profits and seats for
reformist people from marginalized identity groups in the
very power structures that more radical elements within
the movement had once fought to take down. Many of
these reformist leaders and non-profits have become arbi
trators of a successful process of co-optation and pacifics
tion of any revolutionary movements or antagonistic mo-
ments that have come along since,

Even when it is people of color, women, or queer/LGBT
people leading campaigns to improve the lives of margin-
alized groups, they can do little to quell the ongoing de-
portations, incarcerations, police shootings, poverty, and a
million other miseries that remain at an all time high. In
Oakland and other progressive regions, we are reminded
of the leaders in decolonized countries who replaced colo-
nial elites only to sell out their own people to the IMF and
‘World Bank

This is how we can understand the two most recent mayors of
Oakland whose combined terms in office have pitted them
both against the wave of uprisings in this city that began
with the January 7 riots and continued into this year with
Occupy Oakland. On one hand we have Ron Dellums who
came from a prominent family of Black labor leaders in Oak
land. He worked as a civil rights activist during the 1960s
and would eventually serve as a progressive congressmen
and lobbyist before becoming mayor of Oakland. And on
the other hand we have Jean Quan who fought for the ere
ation of an Ethnic Studies program at UC Berkeley in 1969

and would follow Dellums as mayor starting in 2011, Both of
these civic leaders are well versed in the language of social
justice, diversity and civil rights and they both speak as ac:
tivists and members of social movements.

The Oscar Grant rebellions drew a line in the sand between
those rising up from the streets and the puppets of Ameri
can capitalism who disguise themselves with a facade of
progressive polities, racial diversity and the language of
social justice. In addition to city officials, many non-profits
exposed their true colors by circulating directives handed
down from the OPD with each new development in the
Mehserle case.

Not long after the rebellions, a non-profit called Youth
Uprising put out a short video called “Violence is Not
Justice,” in which youth, police, non-profit leaders, and
a District Attomey condemn the uprising. In collabore-
tion with OPD, they also made an anti-sideshow video
narrated primarily by a police captain who criminalizes
all sideshow activity. The video quickly switches gears
to become a promotional piece for the organization. Al:
though they are well funded, non-profits such as Youth
Uprising did nothing materially to support young people
that were arrested in the rebellions, and instead used their
resources to make public and paternalistic denunciations
of youth who chose to take to the streets. As people of
color, many non-profit leaders used their credibility in
communities of color to sell police and media instigated
rumors demonizing ‘white anarchist outside agitators’ as
responsible for the riots. By following this narrative, in
one move they stripped rebellious youth of their agency
and ignored the existence of non-white anarchists and
militants,
UNFINISHED ACTS 22

 

  

INTERMISSION

‘Black Panthers

On the prowl for pigs

Oakland is the birth place of what is arguably the largest
revolutionary organization in the United States during
the second half of the 2oth century: The Black Panther
Party (BPP). Within two years of their formation the
Black Panthers grew to 5,000 active members and 31
chapters across the country. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover
labeled them as “the biggest threat to internal security
in the US” Eventually the Panthers would become one
of the primary targets of the FBI’s Counter Intelligence
Program (COINTELPRO) and were disintegrated by
counter-insurgency attacks.

In October of 1966, Oakland City College (now Merritt Col:
lege) students Huey P, Newton and Bobby Seale decided
to form a new revolutionary organization after gaining ex
perience in Black Power political organizing in the Revol
tionary Action Movement and the North Oakland Neigh
borhood Anti-Poverty Center. Originally named The Black
Panther Party for Self-Defense, the Panthers were concerned.
with countering the para-military style presence of the Oak
land Police Department within Black neighborhoods as well,
as lifting these neighborhoods out of extreme poverty. New:
ton and Seale wrote the founding document and manifesto
of the BPP, their Ten Point Program.

The original Panthers were well versed in their legal rights
and made it a point to assert them, most notably in the
form of unconcealed shotguns and other frearms while
patrolling their neighborhoods and during political ral:
lies, In one of their most notorious actions a delegation of
about 30 armed Panthers entered the state capital build:
ing in Sacramento on May 2, 1967 in order to demonstrate
their opposition to the Mulford Act which made it illegal to
carry guns in public, a measure taken to counter the popu:
larity of the Black Panther's neighborhood patrols.

On April 6, 1968, the OPD attempted to pull over some of
the founding members of the BPP while driving in Oak
land, Amongst them was Lil’ Bobby Hutton, who joined the
BPP at 16, making him the youngest member of the orga
nization. Another panther, Eldrige Cleaver, and Lil’ Bobby
Hutton escaped into a nearby basement while more than
50 pigs rained bullets into the building, After teargas was
launched into the house both Cleaver and Hutton came
out into the police floodlights. Pigs shot Lil’ Bobby twelve
times even though he had taken his shirt off to show that,
he was unarmed. This execution took place the day before

a scheduled rally in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr, who

The Panthers were concerned
with countering the para-military
style presence of the Oakland
Police Department within Black
neighborhoods

 
had also been shot a few days earlier. Regardless, the MLK
memorial took place at De Fremery Park in West Oakland,
which was renamed Lil’ Bobby Hutton Park.

‘The BPP emphasized autonomy for their community and
implemented programs for survival while working towards
revolution. Perhaps the most popular of these was their
Oakland Free Breakfast Program, According to BPP mem-
ber David Hillard, “The breakfast program provided a free,
hot, and nutritionally balanced breakfast for any child who
attended the program”

By 1969 there were hundreds of BPP breakfast programs
around the country. A top government official was forced
to admit, “The Panthers are feeding more kids than we
are” They also distributed free food, published a news:
paper, and operated clinics where diseases and illnesses
that were primarily present in the Black community were
tested for and treated.

‘The BPP quickly spread across the US with chapters stretch-
ing from Atlanta to Chicago, from Dallas to Memphis;
bringing to the Black Power movement an organizational
structure. The politics of the BPP changed as
the organization grew: initially an explic-
itly Black nationalist group the Panthers
started to move closer to revolutionary
socialism while forming cross-racial alli
ances. Pig departments responded to the
threat of Panthers with deadly force such as
the execution of Fred Hampton, 21, who was
gunned down while sleeping in his Chicago
home, The FBI used COINTELPRO to “expose,
disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neu-
tralize the activities of Black nationalist hate
type organizations and groupings, their leader-
ship, spokesmen, membership, and supporters,
and to counter their propensity for violence and
civil disorder” Decades later it was revealed that
the conflicts which led to the fractionalization of the
Panthers were fueled by people working for the FBI.
The BPP ultimately disintegrated under the covert
yet steady hammer of COINTELPRO as members be-
‘came careless and paranoid, fled the US to seek politi
cal asylum in other countries, and waged sectarian wars
against each other.

Today the legacy of the Panthers is still very much alive, es-
pecially among Black communities and the radical Left in
Oakland. There are still political prisoners inchiding radical
Panther journalist on death row, Mumia Abu-Jamal; two of

23 UNFINISHED ACTS

 

the Angola 3 Prisoners, Albert Wood- fox and Herman Wal-
lace-still in solitary confinement after being kept in isola-
tion for 36 years in Louisiana, Most recently, cases were filed
against eight Black community activists, some of whom
‘were Panthers, for the shooting of a police officer in San
Francisco in 971. After more than four years ofa legal battle,
all charges against them were dropped in August 2011.

Unfortunately the strong legacy of the Panthers has also had
a demobilizing effect in Oakland where many ex-Panthers
have joined non-profits, ran for political office or started
commercial enterprises using their previous revolution-
ary careers as selling points. Despite their exemplary
militancy, the overfetishization of the Panthers prevents
collective recounting and critique of their shorteomings,
such as their authoritarian and hierarchical organizational
structure, and prevents the rebels of today from effectively
fighting into the future while both leaning and breaking
from the past.

  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
   
UNFINISHED ACTS 24

Act 4 Scene 1:

After Dellums marches himself back into City Hall,
‘we pick back up where we left off. People scream:

 

Round Two! Round Two!

There are 150 of us, new faces, just outside of the downtown
plaza. There's shouting, and the police decide to shoot tear
gas, We are running, but without fear, and with wide smiles
across our faces, After the few block sprint we looked be

hind us and realized the pigs didn’t follow.
Shit, they thought we'd scatter like scared rats.
You realize, we can do ANYTHING.

e world, as it is always upside down, is tonight, finally,

 

right side up. Somehow, cars are trampolines and windows
are smashed. Someone ghostrides their car, beats pouring
out adding rhythm to our step.

‘There is one dumb-as-fuck white yuppie man who thinks now
is a good time to confront us. He tries to use his dog to
threaten us, A verbal fight carries out, but we do not smas

him. He is advised to go inside; he scurries back indoors,

Hey! We got to get shit into the street!

 

‘A dumpster is pulled into the street and people gather

around it, pulling trash bags apart

 

 

Who has a light?

Here, Anyone have matches?
Damn, We need to be better prepared.

The police roll down tree lined 17th street. It is a war zone.
Every storefront and every car are hit, trash cans and
dumpsters are on fire, smoking debris litters the street. We
scatter and disappear. We do this over and over: evading

 

ops, pulling things into the street, windows broken, jokes

cracked, We tun each comer quickly.

Enough is enough! is the messaging, But not in the form of
signs or anything stated to a reporter. Enough is enough!

says the dancing on the cop car. Enough is enough! says

 

the broken windows up and down sth and 17th Streets

 

‘We outrun the police, we laugh at them, we taunt them,
Enough is enough!

By this point most of the anarchists and the wider Left have
sd out or be

 

disappeared, either because they are ske
cause they thought the night had already come to a close.
‘We are running with an entirely new crew of people; it
ial rally. Many join

 

doesn't seem like anyone from the in
n from text messages, or from seeing shit unfold before

their eyes.

 
 

Act 4, Scene 2:

It is some time later that 100 of us are rounded up
‘and mass arrested on Broadway under the lights of the Par~
amount theater and police helicpoters. It’s the rubber bul
let gun that looks like a rifle in the hands of an anxious pig
that puts our untouchable mob into a frenzy that makes us,
vulnerable, Maybe we are too cocky. Maybe the fact that
wwe are mostly young and inexperienced in street tactics
is becoming apparent. Whatever the reason, most people
panic and OPD takes its opportunity to close in on us.

A hundred of us enter into the custody of the state. We are
partially booked on the street. We wait about two hours,
Shivering as one by one we all remember our obligations
for the next day.

Hey officer! Do you think I'll be out by 10 am? I
gotta go to work.

“I don’t have any information for you.”
What about three? I'm definitely getting fred fortis sit.

Lemme call my mama. Ske thinks I'm getting my sis
ter from school tomorrow. No one’s going tobe there
to get her. need to call my mama! Goddamn it!
don't give a fuck i'm 26. Egotta call my mama!

or] 25

 

UNFINISHED ACTS

 

People give us props, excited
about our riot charges, which
seem out of place. They'd all seen
it go down on the news and say
they wished they'd been there too.
Congratulations.

There is no security culture, A few people are excited and
bragging—all sorts of who's and what's and where's. We tell
each other to keep quiet, talk about other things.

Other people occupy themselves by trying to slip out of the
zipttie cuffs. Freeing a wrist is a small joy.

Later in the holding cells we continue shivering on cement
blocks as we try to get some rest and wait for our release,
We are all too grumpy and tired to congratulate one an:
other. We finally get a glimpse of riot’s significance when
newly arrested people join us in the holding cell and ask us
what we are in for. People give us props, excited about our
riot charges, which seem out of place. They'd all seen it go
down on the news and say they wished they'd been there
too. Congratulations.

End Scene,

 
UNFINISHED ACTS

Act 5 Scene 1:

The march and rally on January Mth is much
larger than the one on the 7th, more people and more
energy, more cameras and more expectation for action.
Meserlhe was arrested last night in Nevada and the DA
s filing murder charges. The timing with today’s mo
bilization is no coincidence. There is still the lingering
memory of the seventh: the freedom of large throngs of
people roaming abandoned streets, working in cohesion
with a total, terrifying freedom, a line of people standing
together against the cops, deflecting anger and testing
resistance, fleeting conversations, holding a line, each ex
ploding car windshield making police push us backward,
crews of friends methodically wrecking windows, begin:

ning with a kick, a punch, a key mark.

But that was last week. At the end of the permitted march
lined by protest-marshals, these self-appointed guardians
of revolution force us to walk from a rally at City Hall, to
the courthouse for another rally, back again to City Hall to
tell us to. go home. They are trying to wear us out. Their ral
lies say little. Lawsuits, healing spaces for businesses, how
charming of a man Oscar was, and of course: “Stay peace:
ful They mean to say, “Stay the same,” or“Don't act up,” oF

‘Now's not the right time.” They are little Napoleons trying
to domesticate a new world.

‘We suppose they think we are too uppity.

 

Back at City Hall groups are split on either side of the street.
We are divided somewhat racially. Members of the spon:

soring organizations try to disperse us:

“OK everyone, it's time to go home, The rally is now over,

so you can go home”

“Take your people, and go home. They are not going to ar
rest you, it's going to be those kids over there, it's going to
be youth of color who are arrested when yall do something
STUPID?

“Go home, please go home. Go back to Piedmont, Castro
Valley, SF, or wherever you came from”

Lines of “organizers” in electric colored vests link arms, at
tempting to push people out of the streets and onto the
sidewalks, telling us over and over again that the rally has
ended, Everyone, the marshals, the would-be rebels, every:
one is tense, The unity from the seventh feels tenuous as

politics” emerges on the street
““We support the demands of the Grant family. The Grant
family has advocated for peace. The Grant family does not

want violence, Please go home”

Some people move onto the sidewalk, others remain in the
streets, still others cross back and forth, dodging organiza:

tion security, but no one seems ready to go home.

End Scene,
 

Act 5, Scene 2:

Finally groups settle onto either side of the street as the pro-
test marshals shulfle in between,

A scuffle breaks out on a far corner, a group runs past. The
spark is lit, people laugh as they realize everyone has come
together to run off a bunch of evangelical Christians that
feed off of public demonstrations.

Protest police move to surround us as we shift to the next cor
ner. We are again broken up on various sides of the street.
Someone tries to smash a bus stand, and then suddenly what
everyone is waiting for, the loud crash of a breaking window.

Wells Fargo’s windows go first. A deliberate shift from the
small businesses from the night of the 7th, or maybe just
the best target available. Tear gas canisters arch across
Broadway and explode in front of the bank

Protest marshals and police storm towards the action, and
people run again. A small crowd funnels into an outdoor
concrete mall filled with Jamba Juices and Radio Shacks.
There is an eerie feeling of too much power at first: we wait
for the other shoe to drop and the police to materialize at
the other side of a dead end,

Get out! Get out! They're gonna box usin here!

They do not and we are overcome with disbelief and laugh-
ter; we continue running,

Large potted plants and small signs are picked up and
thrown through windows in the mall, people kick at what-
ever they can as they run by. The media crews are running

   

 

27 UNFINISHED ACTS

 

‘with full camera regalia to get in on the action. There must
have been a memo to tell them to wear jogging shoes.

Cover your face!

‘When we find a moment, we remind one another to remain
invisible to be seen.

Outside of the mall groups splinter and reform again and
again, in smaller numbers than the 7th. Patrons in a down:
town restaurant stare, or deliberately avert their eyes as if
eye contact would make them the next target.

‘We run down the streets through a maze of bewildered busi-
ness patrons, spontaneously reforming lines of riot police,
and media. A street full of parked cars has their windows
smashed in, kids jump up and down on them. A woman
with a gigantic camera jogs to film the wreckage.

What the fuck are you doing filming this? You
should be filming the cops!

“Hey, we're just trying to make sure no one gets hurt!”
Youre going to GET people hurt with that shit!

The police announce that downtown Oakland is officially
closed to the public. Unmarked cruisers filled with pigs in
riot gear roam the streets, their back doors cracked open.
One rebel shouts with a huge smile across his face:

Welcome to downtown Oakland.

Welcome. Welcome to the city that holds contempt for its
own youth and is cruelly complacent in our deaths.

End Scene,
UNFINISHED ACTS

 

INTERMISSION

CAPE Cops Policing the Movement

The Coalition Against Police Exectuions (CAPE) is a group
of individuals which formed days after Oscar Grant's mur-
der and planned a January 14, 2009 permitted rally. Several
Bay Area based nonprofits and organizations were called
on to provide “security” in order to ensure a “nonviolent
and peaceful” protest. The struggle that unfolded at the
intersection of 14th and Broadway that evening was not
surprising given that CAPE had attempted to restrict the
goals of the movement to only calling for the city of Oak:
land to arrest and prosecute Grant’s murderer. This notion
of justice reinforces the violent ways Oakland already re
sponds to harm and conflict, and strengthens our depen:
dence on a system that promises little more than increased
policing, an intensification of surveillance, and mass im:
prisonment-tools designed to target communities that
challenge the status quo. This particular situation was
also startling because of the relationships individual secu
rity volunteers had with the protestors they were policing,
As CAPE’s January 14th program came to an end, a loud
voice repeated, “We don't need the police, we can police
ourselves,” over the sound system, While we agree that we
don't need the police, we have to wonder: is “policing our-
selves” necessarily what we need to be doing?

Despite conflicting opinions between individual security vol:
unteers, the security team that CAPE assembled used a va
riety of state- and police-reinforcing strategies and tactics
that created a disheartening environment which sent the
message that this team’s role was to work with the police by
fighting the protestors. These tactics are examples of how
activists and/or people actively policed and targeted by the
state can be seduced into using the very tools of political
suppression that police and politicians use every day, tools
of suppression that keep us from taking over the streets
every time the police shoot, beat, or arrest anyone; tools
that continue, each day, to deny us our self-determination.

SOME OF THESE TACTICS INCLUDE:

SELF-APPOINTED AUTHORITY: CAPE had peo
ple appoint themselves as authorities, empowering them:
selves to tell other people what to do. By wearing bright
orange vests to separate themselves from protestors, it
was clear who the security team was supposed to control.
CAPE made sure to ask representatives from a spectrum
of community-based organizations to ensure that those

who attended the rally would recognize at least a couple
of those designated to be security. This could have been a
positive attempt to make sure protesters felt surrounded
by those they recognized, but because of the nature of po-
licing this tactic created a situation where would-be pro-
testers instead took on the role of policing the movement,
Becoming “movement cops” by asking friends, allies, and
potential collaborators to police each other, the security
team created a situation where, in order to protest, demon
strators would have to actively work against their friends
and comrades.

THREAT AND INTIMIDATION: Security volunteers
repeatedly shouted, “Leave or you will be arrested” over
megaphones at an anti-police rally.

SHAMING PEOPLE INTO NONVIOLENCE &
PASSIVITY: Some security volunteers attempted to use
guilt to convince protestors to leave, insisting that this ral
ly was for Oscar Grant, If we cared about the Grant family,
they argued, we would go home and stop ruining their pro-
test. A few of these movement police effectively shamed
protestors into following their orders of nonviolence and
tolerance, while a large majority of security team members
remained absolutely silent and made no noticeable effort
to question or intervene.

USING HIERARCHIES TO DETERMINE WHO
IS ALLOWED IN THE STREET: Security volun:
teers shouted and argued with protestors, starting a slip-
ery competition over who was allowed to claim author
ity over the entire demonstration. This competition was
typically based upon assumptions of who was the most
oppressed and who had experienced the most suffering,
Based on how you looked, security members assumed
whether you were or weren't capable of making good de-
cisions; whether you should stay or whether you needed
to go home. Security volunteers tried to justify themselves,
when making assumptions about protestors’ capability to
make informed decisions in the streets against the cops,
but these assumptions were clearly based on race, gender,
age, and dress. The security team did what the police do
every day-profiled and treated people like children, as-
suming we would be up to no good.

DENYING SELF-DETERMINATION: Many pro-
testors wanted to be in the streets and face the police,
Playing “movement cop” in a situa
tion where people wanted to stay in
the streets and face the cops enabled
the security team to literally perform
the police's job. The security team ef
fectively dispersed people who were
enraged and wanted to express their
anger at the state, denying people
self-determination. These movement
cops stripped away the power and
momentum that had been established by separating peo:
ple while police in riot gear formed blockades throughout
downtown, preventing those involved from developing
the kinds of solidarity, collaboration and informed deci-
sion-making needed to take an effective stance against
the police.

‘When confronted on their tactics by protestors, some secu:
rity volunteers explained they wanted to be between the
people and the police in case the police decided to rush the
crowd. This defense raises some key questions that secu:
rity team members failed to acknowledge during the span
of the night: If they were on the side of the people, then
‘why did they face the crowd with their backs to the police?
Why didn’t this so-called security team face the police like
the rest of us that night?

How does deploying policing and control help us in any
way? The state uses the threat of arrest and imprisonment
every day to make us fear being in the streets and standing
up to the state. It is these forms of intimidation and the
criminalization of young people of color and communities
of color that led to the executions of Oscar Grant, Gary
King Jr, Andrew Moppin, Mac “Jody” Woodfox, Lesley
Xavier Allen, Vernon Dunbar, Hector Jimenez, Anita Gay,
Rosalyne McHenry, Casper Banjo, Jose Luis Buenrostro
Gonzalez, Lovell Mixon, Alan Blueford and many more at
the hands of police in Oakland. These tools of intimidation
and criminalization that result in police executions must
always be a part of what we fight against in the streets,

SO WHAT?

There would be no “Oscar Grant Movement” as we know it
if it was not for the rebellion that occurred on January 7th
2009. If youth across racial and political lines did not come
together to disturb the edifice of the Oakland police state,
if the dynamics of direct action did not replace the illu-
sion of the paper petition, if the flames of rage did not bum.
into the streets of downtown, then there would be no Oscar
Grant Movement. Shortly after the Occupy Oakland en-

 

29 UNFINISHED ACTS

campment was claimed in Oscar Grant
Plaza in the fall of 2011, the camp was
declared a “cop free” zone, At the same
time, while many Occupy encampments
throughout the US struggled to artic
late clear demands and goals, one of Oc-
cupy Oakland's most coherent demands
‘was to end the use of gang injunctions
in Oakland. Occupy Oakland did some-
thing within the Occupy Movement
that many cities had not yet done“it placed policing at the
forefront of this era's struggle against economic inequal-
ity and powerlessness. What would Occupy Oakland have
been without the Oscar Grant Movement and its formative
January 7th Rebellion? In both of these struggles, we see
that despite the call for dynamic and unified movements
across gender, racial, political and economic lines against
police violence and inequality/powerlessness, some mem:
bers of various organizations and communities insist
upona passive, predictable, and controlled effort. How will
wwe ever be free if we're unwilling to take the smart risks
that inevitably come with daring to break away from op
pression? If we are serious about liberation, then we must
struggle through contradictions in principled ways rather
than hide, give up, bum out or perpetuate oppression and
social control.

‘The execution of Oscar Grant is not exceptional and is not
a consequence of one bad cop; rather it is a horrifying
symptom of the system of policing. Similarly, the violence
perpetuated by the security team at CAPE's rally is not a
consequence of one organization, or a few individuals, but
of the ways that many people, regardless of what uniform
they're wearing, help the pigs in blue and riot gear. We
have seen very similar tactics used or upheld as accept-
able during Occupy Oakland demonstrations and general
assemblies since then. Rather than negotiating ways of
working with the police and the city to respond to the vio-
lence of policing, we need to look towards each other and
practice self-determination right now here in Oakland, and
collectively create responses to violence that don’t involve
tools of policing, surveillance, and imprisonment. We are
capable of doing this. The moment we attempt to pacify
one another is the moment the state can declare victory.
Let us leam from the events of January 2009 and Occupy
Oakland and build a fierce movement that will not crumble
but propel us forward to demolish our common enemy: the
police state.
UNFINISHED ACTS 30

 

INTERMISSION

Anarchy & the Anarchists

The story of the Oscar Grant rebellions cannot be told with-
out atleast a modest attempt to sketch an outline of the an-
archists who took to the streets during those early weeks of
2009. For the police and the existing left power structure
in Oakland, (including a progressive mayor and an array
of social justice nonprofits) the presence of anarchists
within the riots was used to discredit the unrest as sim
ply the work of opportunistic outside agitators who cared
little for the struggles of poor and working class people of
color. In response to this pacifying narrative of counter
insurrection as well as the very real threat of state repres-
sion, many radicals and anarchists publicly downplayed
what roles they did play. It has thus been difficult to get a
real understanding of anarchist intervention in this pivotal
contemporary uprising.

Anarchists take an extreme anti-authoritarian position which
fights for the abolition of all structures of domination and
coercion such as the state, capitalism, white supremacy
and patriarchy. Some anarchists extend this opposition to
the foundations of civilization itself and others center their
antagonisms on an anti-capitalist politics that rejects state
power as a tool for liberation. Most anarchists seek forms
of living and working together grounded in practices of
self-organization, mutual aid, collective decision making

FTP Near & Far

and direct action that undermine hierarchical power struc-
tures, This almost always puts anarchists in direct opposi-
tion to professional activists and the nonprofit managers
of movements,

For contemporary anarchists in the US, the Oscar Grant
rebellions represented an important turning point of
enormous proportions. Following the decline of the anti
globalization movement in which anarchists had played a
significant and militant role a decade earlier, there began a
relative dark age for American anarchy. This was a period
characterized by an authoritarian and reformist anti-war
movement dominating the left as well as a campaign of
state repression against Anarchists engaged in ecological
struggles that came to be known as the Green Scare, In the
Bay Area, many anarchists allowed themselves to become
subsumed within the larger reformist circles of progres:
sive politics dominated by a vast array of local non-profits
Their polities became confused and watered down and
their tools of resistance were blunted.

Yet in the months before the rebellion in Oakland, things had
begunto change. As the remains of the anti-war movement
and much of the left threw their weight behind the Obama
campaign, anarchists struck out on their own, discarding

 

In the aftermath of the Oscar Grant rebellions in 2009 we saw a new trend: small and medium sized rebellions against the police
state began exploding across the western part of the country with increasing frequency. Below is a brief overview of various

anti-police uprisings in cities in the US over the past few years. Police violence is never an accident and unfortunately for the

pigs, neither is the blossoming movement against them.

PORTLAND Jen. 29, 2010: Aaron M. Campbell, 25, is
gunned down by a Portland pig while surrendering attracting
national attention and spawning local outrage. April 10, 2010:
‘Twenty-five miles from Portland, Daniel Barga, 24 is tased to
death by a Comelius police officer who is a taser instructor
for the department. Numerous anti-police demos and marches
and clandestine acts of sabotage follow in subsequent weeks.
SEATTLE August 30, 2010: John T Williams, 50, is killed
by an SPD officer. Audio of the incident was captured which.
documents the mere seconds that passed between the time
the cop orders Williams to drop his knife and when he opens

fire, Williams, a Native American wood-carver who was deaf
in his left ear, was killed with four shots. The officer resigned
shortly after. Numerous marches, street take-overs, rallies,
and a noise demo outside the city jail follow. Banks are at
tacked as symbols of the capital that police protect. Police
stations are also vandalized in Seattle, Portland and Tacoma.
DENVER July 9, 2010: While trying to retrieve hi
at a police station, Marvin Booker gets into an argument
with a booking deputy. Deputies shock him with a taser, put
him in a “sleeper hold” and maim him until he stops breath-
ing. The coroner's office rules that his death was a homicide.

shoes

 
 

the liberal baggage of the previous generation and em:
bracing a militant street politics of insurrection. This new
‘wave exploded in the streets of St. Paul during the 2008
RNC and {toa lesser extent in Denver during the DNC. And
then on December 6, 2008 on the other side of the world,
Alexis Grigoropolous was gunned down by Greek police
in Athens leading to a month long anarchist-led insurrec-
tion which prefigured the revolts that have spread across
much of the world over the past year and half. Anarchists
in the US and elsewhere watched this spectacular insurrec-
tion very closely and took Greek comrades’ words to heart
when they proclaimed “We are an image from the future”

This was the context for anarchists when videos began to be
posted online of Oscar Grant's execution on New Year's
Day 2009. Their participation within the subsequent rebel
lions helped solidify the ascendent and uncompromising

     

The incident is caught on the security tape and released
soon after. A series of black blocs and anti-police street pro-
tests decry the killing and disrupt the downtown commerical
district in the year that follows.

SAN FRANCISCO July 3, 2011 Charles Hill, 45, is
shot dead by BART cops after drunkenly shouting and
throwing a small object toward them. Weekly protests fol
low called by ‘Anonymous’ a hacker activist network, tar
gets various SF BART stations. Anonymous also posts the
names, home addresses, emails and passwords of BART PD
officers on the internet.

July 16, 2011: Police attempt to stop Kenneth Harding Jr,
19, for fare evasion on the MUNI. He immediately flees, and
‘while running away is gunned down by officers. Various anti
police marches, solidarity actions, and clandestine attacks of
state property take place the year following, including an at

 

UNFINISHED ACTS

trajectory of insurrectionary practices within local anar
chist circles as well as those across the country. The riots,
exposed the contradictions inherent in working with non-
profits for all to see and forced social rebels in the area to
take a side, But what part did anarchists actually play in
this early climax in the sequence of international urban
unrest that continues to resonate across the globe to this,
day? The short answer is that their role was minimal There
‘were some anarchist affinity groups scattered throughout
the streets during those days of unrest. A few did travel
from afar to lend a hand but the vast majority lived and
organized in the Bay Area. Either way, their participation.
‘was dwarfed by that of the crews of diverse Oakland youth
who animated the rebellion and gave it the fierce energy
that made the state tremble.

‘The longer answer is a bit more complicated and opens up
important questions. As soon as the actual riots unfolded,
Anarchists were relatively insignificant in the outcome of
the street battles, But if it were not for their initial actions
early on January 7, those riots would most likely not have
happened. Anarchists helped instigate and protect the
march that broke away from the vigil at Fruitvale BART.
They made sure that no group could co-opt the anger or
pacify the crowd. And when the march reached downtown
it was the actions of a few anarchists that provided an
initial spark which led to the first confrontations and the
trashing of an OPD cruiser. They then quickly became lost
in the crowd as the real anarchy took over and the full po-
tential of the evening unfolded,

  

 

 

 

tack on the Mission district SFPD station, the MUNI Castro
station, and the Glen Park BART station.

ANAHEIM July 21-22, 2012: Maniel Diaz, 25, and Joel Ace-
vedo, 21, are executed by Anaheim police, sparking days of
protests and clashes with police. A few hours after Diaz is shot
dead, witnesses of the murder and nearby residents take to the
streets to confront police. A police dog is released and attacks,
a woman and her baby as cops in riot gear fire bean bags and
pepper balls injuring several people. In the week that follows,
the shootings are decried by over 600 people as they storm
Anaheim police headquarters lobby and city hall and then
take to the streets. Tensions with police mount as protesters
kick passing police cars and vandalize dozens of businesses
National media attention results in solidarity demonstrations
and attacks on police property in Oakland, SF, Seattle, Port-
land, Denver, and elsewhere
UNFINISHED ACTS 32

 

Act 6 Scene 1:

January 90th. Bail hearing for Mehserle.
The court house is grey and sits on Lake Merritt. Six blocks
from 14th and Broadway, a block or two outside of China-
town. A sunny Oakland day.

This edge of downtown is usually sleepy, tranquil-office
buildings, often empty small businesses, wide streets, and
the looming and always quiet downtown library.

But today is different: representatives of the Left are out in
force, so are the unaffiliated and the young. Three weeks
after the initial uprising, Mehserle faces his first bail hear
ing. Family members of Oscar Grant and those who can fit
fil the courtroom. Everyone else rallies on the street corner
with a generator mic and a makeshift stage. There's slo-
ganeering chanting, and threatening allusions to the price
that the city will pay if Mehserle is released. Petitions are
signed. Why Riot? flyers are handed out.

The rally is interrupted when someone announces:

They're fucking letting him out! Those motherfuckers!
Three million dollars! That's three hundred thousand
with the bond!

If those courts aren't gonna get him, the people out
here are gonna get him!

 

The crowd's immediate response is to block the entrances
of the building but soon folks are yelling and taking the
streets in the direction of 14th and Broadway. 150 are now
moving towards the police station on the opposite side of
downtown, Kids are getting out of school, folks yell at us
from bus stops and street corners. One man brandishes a

 

 

golf club and says through his smile

Tonight shit's gonna get fucked up.

Legal numbers are scribbled onto flyers and onto each oth-
er’s arms. Cops are scrambling to put on their helmets
and riot gear as they form a quick line in front of their
headquarters. There is @ momentary standoff—some yell
ing, mad dog stares, The sun is still shining. There are not
many of us but there is still energy

We decide to head back up Broadway against traffic. The
crowd threads through the lines of idling cars and cop eruis-
ers, We move towards a grey SUV that i filled with five cops.
Someone darts out of the crowd. A quick warning to friends:

Alright, watch out everyone!

The back window of the SUV is smashed and we scatter,
cheering. The cop driving immediately opens his door,
steps out and throws a handfull of flashbangs and small
tear gas grenades over his shoulder in the direction we
are running, They bounce off cars and explode at our feet,
sending an older man fiying to the ground, We help him
up and get away from the gas.

Armored personnel carriers and police SUVs are deploying
riot cops around downtown and they quickly block inter
sections, dividing us up. Eight people, mostly high school
students who have joined the crowd, are brutally arrested
in a standoff next to the McDonalds.

The police are nervous. We are in broad daylight.

End Scene,

 
a3 UNFINISHED ACTS

 

CONCLUSION TO THE
2012 EDITION:

You Can't Shoot Us All

INTRODUCTION:

The following piece was originally written and distributed
as a pamphlet at anti-police demonstrations in 2010. This
brief memoir of the Oscar Grant movement was written,
at the peak of militancy during the summer uprising in
Oakland. While the bulk of the piece focuses on the days,
following the verdict that found Mehserle guilty of invol
untary manslaughter and not guilty of murder, the frst
few pages reflect on the inception of the struggle year
and a half earlier. While the tone is, at times, somewhat,
grandiose in its description of events, itis representative
of the sentiment of the time. It is important to understand
that, in the days leading up to the verdict, it was widely be-
lieved that a rebellion would envelop the entire city, that,
like the Los Angeles riots nearly two decades earlier, the
fires would not be extinguished for days, While the actual
scale of events turned out to be significantly smaller, the
intensity of the resistance was remarkable.

 

~~ Dedicated to the countless people who have died at the hands of the police, to those currently incarcerated ~

This is not a piece that offers all of the answers, rather, itis
an unusually honest portrayal of a moment in time where
the earth shook and the forgotten and subjugated con-
fronted the contemporary masters with whips of our own.
There is certainly a rather somber undertone present, the
result of the realization that the most dedicated resistance
Northern California had witnessed in decades was still not
enough to ensure that no more people would die at the
hands of the police.

Until now, we have only succeeded in making our frustra-
tions visible, It has become apparent that the conditions
we suffer will not be stopped by protests or demonstra-
tions, no matter how violent our expressions may be. We
have yet to discover the mechanisms through which we
will effectively disrupt the cycle of police violence; how-
ever, itis clear that this protracted struggle will need to uti
lize tools and methods that can be used in our daily lives.

August 2012

 

for fighting back, and to the kids who jumped on top of that police car that night last winter.

When we realized that, in the eyes of the powerful,
our lives are just piles of bones waiting to be shattered,
arteries and veins on the verge of tearing open, hearts and,
lungs that stop beating and expanding at the moment they
pull the trigger, the only thing left to do was to come to”
gether and make them tremble before us.

Everyone saw the video. At least it seemed that way at the
time. A young father’s last breaths press against a cold train
platform, a cop holsters his firearm and calmly pulls out his,
handeuffs. Why would they kill an unarmed man with so
many people around? Why don't we know how to respond?

I wanted to break windows, to set fires, to strike fear into
every cop on the streets that night. I wanted to show the
powerful that they, too, would lear the meaning of vio-
lence, just as we have been forced to learn it time and time

again, They needed to understand that we don't forget, we
needed to feel that we were still alive.

But what could we do? We were so weak then, we didn’t know
each other. Somewhere [heard a call for a demonstration a
week later. I came alone.

A warm winter night, not too long ago. A long march and
then the sun sets. Shortly after, there is a fire and kids are
jumping on top of a police car, shards of glass glimmer
along the asphalt, and strangers are, for the first time, com-
ing together. To see people who hours earlier hung their
heads in fear of the police, people who were afraid to step
into the street, finally come together and stand up to the
cops was amazing, Days earlier we ran from the police, that,
night, when we were all together, we ran toward them. No
one will ever forget that evening; the moment those kids,
UNFINISHED ACTS

jumped onto the roof of
the police car was the
most beautiful moment
Tve ever witnessed,

For an instant, we realized
that we are strong, watch:
ing the police tremble
as they cowered on the
other side of the intersec
tion, we got a glimpse of
our potential.

Later that night, as the
cars were still buming,
we talked with friends,
discussing ways to keep fighting, ways to ensure that the
memory of the dead continues to haunt the living. In the
following weeks, we continued to fight in the streets.

Tt was on those warm January nights, evenings which now
seem so distant, that I met some of the greatest people I
have ever known. Our friendships have created the founde-
tions of a network of struggle and formed basis for a differ
ent kind of community,

‘We leamed so much from the courage of some of the young
est people on the streets in those nights.

For weeks after that first night of outrage, everything felt dif
ferent. People held their heads higher and the feeling of an-
ger toward the police was finally out in the open. The violent
and repressive nature of the police was the main topic of
discussion everywhere I went. People openly disobeyed and

 

insulted the police to their
faces every day and the cops
were on the defensive.

We could finally breathe.

July 8, 9:30pm: A jew.
elty store is being looted.
30 people tear apart the riot
gate and flood the store.

  

Across the street someone
is writing a message about
Oscar Grant on the wall of
a business. A block away,
people continue to fight
with police, in some places separated from the advancing

lines by small fires.

We're moving slowly away from the center of downtown.
On Broadway the crowd is extremely thin, about 80 peo:
ple spread across two blocks. Police are everywhere, yet
are unsure of how to bring the situation under control. A
bbank window shatters and 20 people rush inside attempt:
ing to take anything that isn't bolted down. Nearby, a fire

s burning inside a department store. Two blocks east a
larger crowd is advancing near the lake, tailed closely by
armored police as they break the windows of stores and
throw their contents into awaiting hands of the crowd

that surrounds them,

That night, the night of the verdict, we were reminded how
litle our lives mean to this system, and that police officers
do, in fact, get away with murder.

 

“There were outbreaks like this one, the footlocker incident which we've been telling you about
all evening, where in some cases the people weren't even... they were taking the shoes, breaking

the windows, taking the merchandise, and just simply throwing it out on the street.

 

News

 
a5 UNFINISHED ACTS

 

Demanding justice is not enough. The concept of justice for an
individual doesn’t address the need to dismantle the system.
that murdered him. It doesn't prevent any of us from being
killed by the police. What is important now is not speaking
in terms of justice, but attack-
ing and weakening the institur
tion of policing that continues
to wage war against us.

For people who hold the weight
of the earthon their shoulders,
the fastest way from the bot-
tom to the top is to tum the
world upside down, to throw
the property of the rich into
the street and to dance on the
roofs of police cars instead of
riding in the back seats.

“When the South has trouble
with its Negroes- when the Ne-
.groes refuse to remain in their
‘place’ it blames ‘outside agi-
tators”- James Baldwin

 

The term “outside agitator”
was popularized during the
civil rights struggles of the
1950s, when southern polit:
cians would blame the grow:
ing unrest in exploited black
communities on the presence
of (often white) radicals from
outside of the city. Presently, it
is a term used by Oakland politicians (and aspiring politi
cians) to try and keep the situation under control, to pre-
vent local marginalized people from realizing the power
they have.

Today, we face enemies that we could have never conceived
of before this. Sometimes, it’s the people that pretend to
be on your side that are the most dangerous enemies, The
non-profit world has, for 18 months, waged a campaign
against this movement.

Many non-profits that function independently of the local
government have disparaged us. They oppose collective
uprisings and spontaneous activity because they feel the
need to control the movement. These organizations view
themselves as they saviors of the downtrodden; when
dominated people rise up on their own terms, it threatens

 

the position of leadership these organizations occupy in
their imaginary worlds.

‘We have also come under attack from non-profits that operate

entirely under the influence of the city government. One of
these city-funded non-profits has
taken up a full fledged assault
against us, using some of the $2
million in city money they have
received to wage a propaganda
campaign against the unity
we have found with each other
through this struggle. They have
even used city money to pay
young people to come to their
indoctrination workshops where
they speak of the evils of people
coming together and standing
up to their enemies.

They have also helped to spread
the absurd logic of the Mayor's
Office that only people born and
raised in Oakland have the right
to take to the streets, This micro
nationalism is an attempt to
foster collaboration between dis
enfranchised people and their ex
ploiters in a unified front against
the enigmatic “outsiders.”

It is incorrect to assert that nor
profits of this type have motive
tions of their own. They are sim:
ply the hip mouthpieces of the city government that funds
them. Their agenda is the agenda of the Mayor's Office and
the police department. They use the language of “peace” to
try to preserve the institutions that created them. We have
never been concerned with their peace. The peace of the
powerful is the silent war waged against the dispossessed.

In the past, our enemies have attempted to divide move-
ments by distinguishing the “good” elements from the “de-
structive” elements. This time, it seems that the primary
division they created was not between the “peaceful” and
the “violent,” but a racial division wedged between groups
in the uncontrollable elements in an attempt to neutralize
our collective strength.

1, identifying with a man whose photograph was not unlike
my own reflection, wondered if people who did not see
UNFINISHED ACTS 36

 

themselves in Oscar Grant at least saw in his image their
friend, their neighbor, their classmate, someone whose life
was worth fighting over. I hoped that there were white
people who, after watching a video of a black man being
murdered by the police, would be angry enough to break
‘windows, In time, I met these people, because they fought
alongside us, throwing bottles and chunks of concrete,
‘cursing the police and writing the names of the dead along
the walls of the city,

July 17, 8:20am: The cops killed someone else. Once
again in Fruitvale. Forty eight year old Fred Collins died
after being shot multiple times when five officers from
BART and OPD discharged their weapons.

July 18, 11:27pm: shots fired at police from an upper
floor of a high-rise building in the Acom housing project
complex in West Oakland. The officers were performing
a traffic stop in the area and had to take cover when they
heard the shots, however, no officers were hit by the gunfire

 

Today, the situation is every bit as dismal as it was yesterday.
Every hour of our lives spent at work creates the revenue
that strengthens the army that confronts us. In Stockton,
in Livermore, in Bakersfield; the police continue to open
fire on us, we continue to die, We have yet to create a force
that can subject them to the misery that will one day con-
front them, however, we have come closer than we ever
thought we would.

Until now, we believed we were fighting battles, On the day
of a demonstration, we walked the streets, we fought, and
‘we went home thet night, unsure of what to do in the time
until the next battle presented itself, Today, we understand
that we are at the beginning of a war. Wars are protracted
conflicts. Their results aren't determined at the end of the
day, The police have killed again, and, as of today, our re-
sponse has been less than forceful. In warfare, itis neces-
sary to develop weapons.

‘We need to learn new tactics, There is still so little we really
know how to do, We could learn how to blockade roads
or shut down BART trains. With better communication,
‘we could attack police property or raid supplies in places
where the cops aren't waiting for us, We are working to-
ward developing the capacity to respond forcefully every
time the police kill one of us

This movement has never had leaders. It is composed of
independent and often disconnected groups of people.
‘These groups tend to operate outside of the typical po

litical and social justice networks. So far, their autonomy,
their lack of reliance on both the non-profit world and the
radical political scenes, has been a strength. We all come
from vastly different places, and many people may not be
willing to work with one another. Therefore, the point isn’t
to try to bring everyone together into one organization,
‘What is important is to begin providing supplies to people
toassist their ability to continue to struggle autonomously.

“Thnow you'll win in the finish all right. You have a formida-
ble arsenal at your disposal, and what have we got? Noth-
ing, Welll be beaten because you're the stronger and we're
the weaker, but in the meantime, we hope that you'll have to
pay for your victory.”-A Rebel

‘We have spent too many nights living in fear of the po-
lice, When we started fighting back, the world that sur
rounded us began to feel different. Today, we can tell the
children in our neighborhoods that we stood up for our
communities, that, when we all stand together, nothing
seems so frightening.

Since that warm January night, we have made the mistake of
allowing this movement to be confined to the borders of
the city of Oakland. The BART police are a regional prob-
lem, policing in general a global problem. Disruptions are
as relevant at Civie Center in San Francisco or Downtown
Berkeley as they are at 14th and Broadway. The movement
becoming entirely centered around the city of Oakland
has confined us, it has weakened us because it defines the
struggle by the borders created by the powerful instead of
by the lines drawn by the outraged.

This system exists to erase memories, to evict us from our
childhood homes, to inearcerate our loved ones, to exe-
cute the fathers of children too young to fully understand
what happened, Our struggle has been an effort to create
memories that they can never take from us.

Running toward the sunset, we have found that the horizon
only moves farther away. We awake every morning to the
same cycle of death and power that we escaped in our
dreams the night before. Yet we continue to trudge to
the ends of the earth, we continue to fight. It is when the
air is still, when all seems quiet, that we are planning our
next move.

At the very least, we have inflicted harm on our enemies, and
because of this, we live with dignity.

Oakland, July 2010
 

wo neeee eee January 8, Early Morning --

We sat in a frigid holding cell in the downtown Oakland jail following
the night of the 7th. Hunger began to set in as adrenaline faded and we
speculated on the charges they would try to put on.us. Someone spoke up,
and didn’t have to say much to keep moral high

In1o years nah fuck it,
here right now. All you gé

six months~ you ain't gonna remember sitting

  

remember is the night the Town stood up.

 

 
 

 

Oakland, California 2009