Occupy Oakland Campers Moves into Foreclosed Home
Occupy Oakland campers will not pack it in, as the protesters are holding strong and setting up a new site in a reportedly foreclosed home in West Oakland.
A day after police cleared the last of three Occupy Oakland camps, the protesters set up tents in a location that resembles the epitome of what sparked the ‘Occupy’ movement first: a home in foreclosure.
According to Mercury News: “Protesters with 10 tents, awnings and camping gear put down stakes at about 7 p.m. Monday night on a large lot adjoining a home at the corner of 18th and Linden Streets.”
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The two-story home is being foreclosed and the protesters told The Associated Press they have permission to be on the lot.
Demonstrators at the new site said camping on foreclosed properties calls attention to economic hardship they blame on big banks.
A protester told ABC’s KGO-TV, she did not know if the lawn was "technically bank owned property" or if it still legally belongs to the former occupant but she said the former occupant was contacted and it was "with her full blessing this is happening."
The new site is a response by protesters to constantly adapt to the rules set by police officers and lawmakers, who are preventing demonstrators from camping out in local parks and other public areas.
Oakland’s Mayor Jean Quan's office released a statement Thursday saying police are aware of the group's plan and have "a strategy in place to prevent the establishment of any new encampments."
Authorities claim that they are breaking up camps due to concerns about drugs, sanitation, and crime.
However, police officers have not been seen in a favorable light lately, as video surfaced of cops spraying student protesters excessively with pepper spray on the University of California Davis campus.
Occupy Oakland began in downtown Oakland at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall in Oakland, Calif., on Oct. 10, 2011. The last encampment at Snow Park was cleared after an early morning raid on Nov. 21, 2011.
