Occupy Oakland has captured the nation and even the world’s attention at times. But those times have not been for Occupy Oakland’s thoughtful direct actions or peaceful marches, but instead for the brutality of its suppression by police. October 25, November 2 and January 28 saw the strongest shows of force by the local and long-troubled Oakland Police Department, working in concert with more than a dozen other nearby agencies and wielding some of the most extreme weaponry US occupy activists have experienced. Occupy Oakland is far more than these street battles and mass arrests, but they are an important part of what shapes this movement.
