Protesters prepare to march to Port of Oakland
OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) --
The police union in Oakland goes on the attack. In an open letter to all residents they blasted the mayor for how she's handled the "Occupy" protests.
At Frank Ogawa Plaza demonstrators are preparing and making signs for Wednesday's general strike. In the meantime, there is a fair amount of hand-wringing among both business leaders and the police of the city's handling of Wednesday's event.
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View all 42 photos "We need some leadership, that's the bottom line," said president of the Oakland Police Officers Association Dom Arotzarena.
The president of the Oakland Police Officers Association is sending out a message ahead of Wednesday's called general strike by "'Occupy Oakland." The police officer's union is directing much of its angst toward Mayor Jean Quan. They contend her flip flop on allowing campers to re-occupy Frank Ogawa Plaza and encouraging city workers to participate in Wednesday's general strike has put officers in a terrible position.
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Story: 'Occupy' tents back up in Frank Ogawa Plaza "Our own city is villainizing the police department. That's what I see. I see us being made out to be the bad guy again. Remember this, we're just taking orders from the mayor's office," said Arotzarena.
Meanwhile, the Occupy protesters have announced they plan to march on banks and big corporations Wednesday. Quan has already said city workers can take the day off to participate, the school district is allowing teachers to take a paid personal day, the ultimate goal -- according to protesters -- is to shut down the port of Oakland.
"There's been talks of that and I think that's a high possibility, but I have no planning on the schedule of where we're going to march, but I'm pretty sure that there's a lot of people that would like to do that," protester Shake Anderson.
"We've considered this a major threat," said Joe Haraburda from the Oakland chamber of Commerce.
Meantime, the Oakland Chamber Of Commerce considers Wednesday's planned demonstrations an all-out assault on local businesses, big and small.
"We've got to have business as usual. We cannot allow ourselves to kowtow to an organization that doesn't have a clear set of objectives, from what we've seen, other than to say they want to shut down corporations and banks. That's dead wrong," said Haraburda.
BART and AC Transit are making plans to divert their normally scheduled service, if events warrant.
"We plan to offer service as close to normal as we can. Of course given the uncertainty of what may occur, we're going to play it by ear," said Clarence Johnson from AC Transit.
City officials maintain their goal is to make sure the general strike is as peaceful as possible.
When asked if things are going to be peaceful on Wednesday, Oakland interim Police Chief Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan said, "I hope so," but when asked what his officers will do if they are confronted, he said, "I can't tell you that."
Quan has not made herself available to reporters for two days, but late Tuesday afternoon released a statement that said, "I am working with the police chief to make sure that the pro-99 percent activists - whose cause I support - will have the freedom to get their message across without the conflict that marred last week's events."
All Oakland police officers have been called in from their days off for Wednesday's general strike. Jordan told ABC7 other police agencies from the Bay Area have not been asked to come to Oakland.
There is a regular city council meeting that started at 5:30 p.m. where Occupy Oakland is not on the agenda, but everyone inside City Hall expects that it will come up during the public comments portion of the meeting.
BART is warning riders of the possibility of service problems on Wednesday. The protesters have not publicized any sort of plan to disrupt BART, but if crowds near the stations get too large there could be station shut downs or other service disruptions. BART is advising riders who use the Downtown Oakland and San Francisco stations to be particularly aware.
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