kiwizzo:

Bridgeway to the Oakland Ports. Oakland General Strike.

An open letter from the OPD.  Now I’m confused. At least, mention the veteran you so foolishly shot in the head who is now in the hospital. Yes you are the 99% but your job is to protect the 1%. Have no allusions about what you signed up for. That’s what a cops job is if you don’t believe me look at history or look at this poem: THE POLICE - The ones who beat Rodney King, who gunned down Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo and Oscar Grant, who murdered Fred Hampton in his bed. The ones who broke Víctor Jara’s hands and Steve Biko’s skull, who disappeared dissidents from Argentina to Zaire, who served Josef Stalin. The ones who enforced Apartheid in South Africa and segregation in the United States. The ones who interrogated Black Panthers and Catholic Workers, who maintained records on 16 million people in East Germany, who track us through surveillance cameras and phone taps. The ones firing tear gas and rubber bullets whenever a demonstration gets out of hand, who back the bosses in every strike. The ones who stand between every hungry person and the grocery shelves stocked with food, between every homeless person and the buildings standing empty, between every immigrant and her family.
In every nation, in every age, you tell us you’re indispensable, that without you we’d all be killing each other. But we know well enough who the killers are. You won’t fuck with us much longer.
POLICE EVERYWHERE, JUSTICE NOWHERE

Mountain View Cemetery, Piedmont.  Overlooking the port of Oakland, Downtown, etc.  Some of the best views in the city.  All of Oakland’s old money is buried here. That pyramid mausoleum is about as big as my apartment and it’s a couple of stories tall. Those other structures are burial sites too.

All the names: Stanyon, Merritt, etc.  A beautiful place to run, hike, walk, play, meditate.  “You don’t know how many times I spent here. Even in my darkest times I found peace in this place. It’s crazy how many robber barons are here and it’s a reminder of how crazy America is!”  Those are the words of my cousin who first took me there years ago.  I’ll never forget that day and the impression of Oakland it made upon me.  All the symbolism people have taken to their graves. Symbolism way beyond faith in God but symbols of manifest destiny, capital, wealth, society, the occult, the illuminati. It’s all there. And yes, it’s a strangely beautiful and peaceful place. There is a new Chinese section at the top of the hill with a beautiful new fountain and gravel paths.  This will be a good place to decompress during Oakland’s first general strike since 1946 this November 2.  I wonder if there will be a Richter Scale reading of all the old $ turning over in their graves. 

Occupying Oakland.