It was to be expected, I suppose. Three Oakland police units, having nothing better to do on a Friday evening in a town where no one ever complains about crime, showed up before the Inside Urban Shield forum on the militarization of police, ostensibly to inquire into whether a gathering convened expressly to listen to speakers in an auditorium was getting ready to hella march. Fortunately, they must have gotten an emergency call for donut delivery, as they eventually left some eighty odd of us attendees to listen to excellent talks by Shane Bauer, Joshua Smith, Susan Harman and Julia Wong. Here is a video of the four speakers, with the time each begins listed, and some excerpts below:
- Shane Bauer: 0:10
- Joshua Smith: 13:26
- Susan Harman: 24:50
- Julia Wong: 32:15
Shane:
A device that blinds you for ten minutes. It scrambles your occular fluid…
I asked him ((the spokesperson for Urban Shield)) “Do you think there’s validity to the criticism that the US is becoming a police state?” He said yes.
Josh:
The aggressive, military warior mindset… ((I saw)) Sniper rifles, M16′s… drones… armored vehicles and surveillance equipment…
I picked up some free informational brochures and a small notepad. The uniformed officer immediately asked if I was law enforcement, and I responded “No, I am an analyst.” only to have the material abruptly and physically snatched from my hands.
Susan:
This scenario was a dentist smuggling in arms… the plane was there… the pilot had been taken captive by the dentist… a couple of bad UPS drivers who knew what was going on, unloading the arms from the plane… The minute you were shot – and you knew you were hit because it hurt – you had to lie down.
What I’d like to do… is distinguish between the legitimate emergency response practice, that and the clearly excessive militarization.
Julia:
The two big issues that were constantly on my mind, that were constantly in the air and never being spoken about, were… fear and money… Everything that happens at ((Urban Shield)) is supposed to have a nexus to terrorism…
Inside the vendor show it was remarkable just how much Federal, State, local money was around for these vendors.
… she got a grant to create a dummy dog, so they could practice rescue for canine units… this while there was an action outside for people making minimum wage, fighting for $15/hr.
A gallery of pictures from the forum, taken by Daniel Arauz, are here. The rest of the forum consisted of a video of an interview with Radley Balko, author of The Rise of he Warrior Cop, a Q&A with the speakers from audience members, and a discussion about “What’s Next – Where do we go from here in combating police militarization, terror and the surveillance state?” When video of the Q&A and “What’s Next?” segments becomes available it may get posted here or in a separate post. The event was organized by members of the Occupy Oakland General Assembly, the Oakland Privacy Working Group, Code Pink and the Oscar Grant Committee. There will be a followup “What’s Next?” meeting on October 27th, at 7:00 PM at the Niebyl-Proctor Library.