Scott Johnson of the Oakland Tribune reports that violence has spiraled out of control in the tent camp in Frank Ogawa Plaza at Occupy Oakland.
A substitute teacher living in the camp was “throttled.” Women have been attacked. And a knife was pulled in one of several confrontations.
The demonstration, which has been addressed by celebrities such as Danny Glover, and by the American hikers recently released from Iran, has descended into anarchy.
A police officer has compared the tent camp to the savagery of the feral children in the novel Lord of the Flies:
One Oakland police supervisor said that the participants first appeared to him as “freethinking activists” but have since devolved into something more sinister. He said it was “interesting for a group that claims to be against current civilization and rules to set up a far more oppressive society than our own.”
Drugs and drug dealers have also been spotted at the Occupy Oakland tent camp, although the city’s Democrat mayor, bizarrely, denies that illegal and unsafe activities are taking place.
Journalists have been barred from the Occupy Oakland tent camp–despite the fact that it sits on public grounds–according to a consensus decision of the Occupy Oakland General Assembly (twinkles).
One journalist was attacked by an activist’s dog.
Johnson describes a demonstration that has been taken over by “bullies, the mentally ill, drunks, thugs and anarchists.” What he does not recognize is that many of those people–certainly the anarchists, and more than a few bullies and thugs–were there from the beginning.
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