The connection between Oakland and the events down in Los Angeles is that the riots and protests could easily happen here. They’ve already erupted in San Francisco, and frankly I’m a little surprised that Oakland has been so quiet.
As Gov. Newsom has emphasized, there’s a huge difference between the peaceful protesters, who comprise the vast majority of the L.A. crowds, and the violent agitators who are burning cars and dumpsters and assault the police with rocks and bottles. This latter group is only a couple hundred, but they know how to grab the media’s attention. The first rule of news is “If it bleeds, it leads,” and you can’t blame the media for wall-to-wall coverage of burning cars and masked rioters dancing on the burnt-out hulks of torched police vehicles.
Gov. Newsom and Mayor Bass are in a tough spot. They’re 100% correct to condemn sending in the National Guard, which is a needless provocation by Trump. At the same time, they really do have to contain the vandals in the black masks. We’ve called them the Black Bloc here in Oakland ever since they hijacked a peaceful demonstration, on Oct. 25, 2011, the night the former Marine and Occupy Oakland member, Scott Olsen, was hit in the head by a police-fired beanbag. The name “Black bloc” comes from the black bandanas the rioters used to hide their faces. The violent thugs in L.A. are the spiritual descendants of the Black Bloc of 14 years ago.
I had firsthand experience with the Black Bloc: I was there that night, Oct. 25, 2011, about 75 feet away from Scott Olsen. I heard the Oakland police department repeatedly warn the crowd, through a bullhorn, to stop their advance on City Hall. When I say “repeatedly,” I mean maybe ten times, over a period of perhaps 15 or 20 minutes. The warning could not have been clearer: OPD said they would use ballistics if the crowd refused to comply.
Most of us did comply, myself included. Scott Olsen and some others did not. When they got threateningly close to City Hall, the cops finally acted. Scott was hit, for which he later received a settlement of $4.5 million from Oakland.
As soon as the cops started firing their beanbags, the crowd, which was at least 1,000 people and possibly double that, started running in all directions, including me. I found myself in a subgroup that got as far as 17th Street. There were about 150 of us. Suddenly, a young man in front of me, wearing a black mask, pulled out a tire iron from his pants and began randomly smashing the windows of parked cars. I was shocked. “Dude, what are you doing? You don’t even know whose cars these are. Please stop.”
For my efforts, the young man shoved me in the chest, and walked away. I was then 65 years old. The young man was about 21.
I soon realized there was an active group of violent vandals whose purpose was to smear the reputation of the peaceful Occupy protesters. But I had no explanation for why that was. Now, all these years later, I think I do.
If these people have any political philosophy whatsoever, it’s anarchy. They don’t like authority of any kind. They may also be mentally unbalanced sociopaths whose unresolved anger and resentment drive them to commit wanton acts of destruction. That their actions hurt the very people they claim to be supporting—the poor working folks who would park at night on 17th Street between Broadway and Telegraph—apparently never occurs to them.
Despite this theory of mine, I confess I still can’t figure out why the Black Bloc, under whatever name they now have, is doing what they’re doing in Los Angeles. It helps no one except for Donald Trump and his MAGA stooge, Pete Hegseth, by giving them the opportunity to claim—as Trump already has—that he’s “saving” L.A. from an armed insurrection. (Never mind that the real insurrection happened on Jan. 6, 2021.)
I’ve urged the Governor to get tough with the Black Bloc. Round them up “in the act” and charge them with the toughest charges the D.A. can bring. They’re acting against everyone’s interests, including the poor immigrants Trump is rounding up. If the Black Bloc continues to get away with their insurgency, it will go a long way toward Trump imposing martial law, sending in the Marines, and—who knows?--possibly canceling the 2028 presidential election and installing his idiot son, Don. Jr., as Maharajah of MAGA. Am I being paranoid? Nope, just realistic. If you know anyone who might be in the Black Bloc, please, I beg you to talk with them. Help them stop. Educate them that they’re tools being used by Trump to destroy the U.S.A. Then again, that may be exactly what they want.
As for the peaceful protesters who are truly bothered by what’s happening with our undocumented immigrants, to the extent you’re aware of who’s in the Black Bloc and you remain silent, you are part of the problem. You’re certainly no friend of immigrants!
Steve Heimoff