Conversation with Oakland Mayor Jean Quan

by Rashid Patch

I met with Oakland Mayor Jean Quan on Saturday 29 October. I had been in a cafe in my neighborhood, checking on my e-mail, and left to go down to Occupy Oakland to lead a sufi zikr circle. When I walked out the door of the cafe, Mayor Quan was there on the sidewalk next to my car – she was dedicating a mural on a building next door.

I was able ...to talk to her one-on-one for about 15 minutes.

I told her that I knew that in November 2004, the City of Oakland had signed an agreement not to use tear gas, rubber bullets, etc. in crowd control, because of several “excessive force” suits after some anti-war demonstrations; so what had been going on Tuesday night (Oct 25), when massive amounts of teargas was used, and USMC veteran Scott Olson was severely injured.

Mayor Quan said that she herself had been involved in drafting that agreement She told me that Oakland and the Oakland Police Dept. did not own any tear gas, because of the consent decree. There had been a federal monitor assigned to Oakland to ensure compliance, and that monitor had been present on Tuesday evening, and had confirmed that the OPD had not discharged any of those rounds, and had not ordered tear gas, rubber bullets, or stun rounds to be usd.

Of course, I asked, “then, who did?” Quan said that she had been trying to find that out, but that the other police agencies which had been present under the “mutual assistance” arrangement had not been responding to Oaklands' requests for information about who had discharged the rounds or ordered them fired. She said that under the mutual assistance guidelines, other police agencies should not even have brought prohibited munitions within Oakland city limits. She noted that there are commonly such restrictions in mutual assistance operations; she noted that when OPD gets requests for assistance from the Berkeley PD – which happens fairly often – OPD is not allowed to bring K9 units, or use OPD helicopters, because of Berkeleys' restrictions.

I pointed out that there was clearly a grave command-and-control failure in the mutual assistance operation. Quan agreed, and said that her office was still trying to figure out what had gone wrong. She was clearly upset that the chain of command had been so loose and ineffective, and at not being able to get clear and prompt answers. Again she told me that they were not getting responses from all of the other police agencies that had been involved, but that she would not rest until they did. She said that there were “a pile of” federal investigations underway also, because of the Oakland consent decree re: excessive force and civil rights violations.

Quan told me that some security camera footage had showed the officer who had discharged flash-bang grenades at the group of people who went to Scott Olsen's assistance after he was hit. She said that she the image blown up on a big screen at the OPD command center, and they could make out the word “sherriff” on the officers uniform, but could not determine which county sheriff's department it had been, or the identity of the officer.

I said to Mayor Quan that if the OPD could make out part of a word on the uniform in the image, NSA and Homeland Security already knew his name, home address, and blood type; the FBI probably had it also. She just said, “we're still trying to find out.”

At that point, both Quan and I had to head downtown, to City Hall and Occupy Oakland respectively. I had the impression she was truthful, not holding back, and frustrated by not getting clear responses from the police agencies involved on Tuesday.

I do know for certain, however, that every expended teargas cannister used in Oakland on Tuesday night had a serial number, and that those numbers are tracked more closely than automobile titles. The FBI should be able to find out which agency possessed each round within a minute or two; and the agency should take no longer in tracking which officer had been issued each round; and that not having that information on record would violate a bunch of federal laws and regulations. I also know that failing to pick up and account for those expended rounds would also have violated federal arms-control regulations; they can't just be thrown in the trash.

SEE ALSO

Mayor Jean Quan’s ‘Oakland dream turned nightmare’, Elizabeth Flock http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/mayor-jean-quans-oakland-dream-turned-nightmare/2011/10/28/gIQAfQBJPM_blog.html

Occupy Oakland: Mayor Quan Issues Contrite Statement after Police Crackdown, Aimee Allison http://blog.sfgate.com/aallison/2011/10/27/occupy-oakland-mayor-quan-issues-contrite-statement-after-police-crackdown/

Oakland Chief Denies Use Of Rubber Bullets, Dowels, Nishat Kurwa http://www.huffingtonpost.com/turnstyle/oakland-chief-denies-use_b_1035677.html

Oakland Police Under a Cloud for Violent Occupy Crackdown, Gavin Aronsen http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/10/opd-crowd-control-policy-force