When the contentious occupation of 19th and Telegraph was ended peaceably and the last tents cleared out of Snow Park the next place where the Occupy Oakland encampment was set up was - ostensibly with the owners permission - a vacant lot in the heart of West Oakland next to a house owned by the same owner that is days away from foreclosure by Wells Fargo Bank. All to the good, a logical heroic and smart direction in evolution for the Occupy Oakland movement to go.
Except it apparently isn't true.
The owner has been asking since around Noon today for the Occupiers to please leave her property. The response? Twitter appeals for more people to come, kitchens being constructed and tents being brought in.
This will be a feeding frenzy for the Occupy haters out there. Imagine it. A distressed property owner in danger of foreclosure asking for people to leave her property and the camp refusing to do so. The bank does not own the property until December 11th, it is still her property.
I don't know what else to call this but trespassing. And stupid trespassing at that.
Unless the entire story in the San Francisco Chronicle was just made up - and continued to be full of hot air at its revision this afternoon at 3:18 - the owner has been unambiguous in asking them to leave.
And has now called OPD to enforce her request.
The hubris and of this response is just breathtaking. Talk about being unclear on the concept:
Thaddeus Guidry, 24, manned an opening to the lot through a tear in the chain link fence, allowing in supporters and denying access to the media.
Told that Cobb did not want them squatting on her property, Guidry said he hoped she would visit them and was confident she'd want them to stay.
"Gloria is going to get on board," Guidry said. "If she doesn't, we're still going to do this movement. It's going to go on."
http://www.sfgate.com/...
So has the main POINT of Occupy Oakland become camping? The march today in solidarity with the people of Egypt belies that. There is good stuff happening still.
But people on the Twitter stream are incredulous that after the GA last night when telephone numbers were given out, etc. to contact the players involved the media shockingly did not follow up. That seems hopelessly naive to think they would do so. There is an agenda in the MSM and always has been to reframe this movement as a battle between "lawbreakers" and "law upholders" thereby blunting or obscuring the very points the movement is expressing as much as possible.
This is not a new phenomenon.
Erecting camps as a visual manifestation has been a very effective tactic, but if that tactic becomes the end in itself - whatever the wishes of a private property owner in foreclosure danger may be - what does that say about those goals?
It is at the very least paternalistic ("We are here to help you, we know the best way to help you fight against this foreclosure") and more basically just tone deaf. I feel that helping foreclosed and about to be foreclosed homeowners is a brilliant, workable strategy.
But this?
This is nothing more than trespassing at this point.