NEGOTIATING WITH THE POLICE
On Friday May 9th, a conference was held in which Direct Action, community groups, and City Council members met with the police to get their cooperation. Chief Word did not want us back at the docks, and suggested as an alternative that we hold our May 12th demonstration on an isolated street outside the port - in a "free speech pen," as we sarcastically dubbed it. But Nancy Nadel, Jean Quan and other council members advised him that if he used the police to keep us out of the port, he'd just be provoking problems. The meeting ended with a promise by the police to respect our rights and safety when we returned to the port on Monday, the 12th.
So, we had a firm commitment from the chief of police, but could we trust that commitment? The chief himself was certainly less than honorable, and there were also other less-than-honorable personalities who had control over the police. Among them was Jerry Brown, the man who liked to present himself as the strong mayor of Oakland, "If people try to take over the port for the sake of stating their opposition then we have a protocol we have to follow," he'd told the newspapers after April 7th. Having made such inflexible statements, Mayor Brown wouldn't look very strong if he bowed to pressure and let us into the port this time.
Not least among the less-than-honorables were the shipping companies themselves. We hardly needed to be reminded that APL and SSA did not want us at their gates, and maybe they thought they could handle our City of Oakland the way United Fruit Company treated banana republics. We also knew that somewhere in the dark corners of government there lurked an entity known as Homeland Security, headed by Tom Ridge. Mr. Ridge was an ally of the shippers, and we suspected him of having a role in the events of April 7th.
It's a given fact that flesh and bones are no match for bullets, be they lead or wood. And it would seem logical to assume that given violence versus nonviolence, the violence is guaranteed to win. But I must say that on April 7th it didn't seem at all as if we'd been defeated. Chief Word certainly didn't look much like a winner when he stood tall in front of the City Council hearing on the 29th, making excuses to a resounding chorus of "Liar!" - "Liar!" - "Liar!"
The most encouraging sign was the silence of the higher echelons of state and federal government. There'd even been silence from the most vocal advocates of police state repression. Mayor Brown, along with a few other city officials, seemed to be singularly alone in their expressions of approval.
During the five weeks since April 7th, no other police department had followed the Oakland police example of shooting protesters, and it seemed possible that even Oakland police officials were now looking back and viewing their actions as a serious blunder. At least I hoped they did, and my guess was that this time nothing adverse would happen - but of course I had no way of knowing for certain. None of us knew for certain. We could only guess and hope.