Shooting Death at Occupy Oakland: Who has Blood on Their Hands?

I will be covering this in greater detail during tomorrow's program but in the wake of the shooting death near the Occupy Oakland encampment, it's important to revisit the Van Jones dynamic. Oakland has by far been the most consistently violent of all the #Occupy protests. The shooting death serves to underscore that reality; it trumps the critical head injury sustained by the left wing Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen. Perhaps some more pieces to this puzzle can start coming together.

First, as I wrote about HERE, Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett, and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oak) all support OWS. Van Jones is from Oakland and got his radical start there. He is also one of the main organizers of OWS. Here is Jones on September 29th on MSNBC, telling Lawrence O'Donnell that October will be the dawn of an 'American Autumn.' Fast forward to the 2:00 mark to see the relevant excerpt:

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Catherine Evans at American Thinker brings a new character into the mix - and it is significant. His name is Jakada Imani and he took over for Jones at the Ella Baker Center before Jones took his Green Jobs Czar position at the White House in 2009. Imani, as Evans points out, was chosen to serve on the Board of Commissioners for an entity that was a flashpoint within the Oakland protests on the November 2nd General Strike:

A Van Jones protege, Jakada Imani, was sworn in as the newest member of the Oakland Port Board of Commissioners Tuesday October 20, a mere twelve days before Occupy Oakland protesters marched to the Port of Oakland and "effectively shut down" the fifth largest containerized port in the U.S.

Oakland's Port was shut down by Occupy Oakland protesters just two weeks later. Please read the entire piece by Evans; it does an excellent job of connecting Jones, Imani, and the Oakland Port.

However, I'd like to bring in another puzzle piece here. Back on November 3rd, the day after the strike, in a video posted at the San Francisco Chronicle, a woman the press in Oakland believed to be a spokesperson for the group - Barucha Peller - called the shut down of the Port historic and unsuccessfully tried to put a happy face on the protests but after she decided not to take any questions, a man named Shake Anderson began speaking to the press. Anderson said something quite significant but at the time, it seemed Peller was the only one to notice.

Shortly after introducing himself, Anderson said the following:

"Yes, we were here yesterday. I was in the media tent, working with Occupy Oakland, the same media tent that worked on this press release this morning."

This establishes the fact that Anderson had inside access to the inner workings of the movement. Then, Anderson makes a claim that causes Peller to interject herself back into the press conference. Anderson tells the media that when the violence started, Occupy Oakland called the mayor's office:

"We called the mayor's office the moment we understood what was going on over there."

Shortly after that, Anderson was interrupted by Peller:

"Just to be clear, Occupy Oakland does not... if individuals called the mayor's office, they do not represent Occupy Oakland... Occupy Oakland did not call the mayor's office. If individuals called the mayor's office, that's what individuals are doing... we do not negotiate with politicians, police, and we do not involve political parties."

Peller then adamantly stated that the press conference was over and managed to get a visibly perturbed Anderson to stop talking.

Clearly, Peller's problem was with Anderson's claim that Occupy Oakland called the mayor's office during the general strike. She also went out of her way to reject inferences that weren't made (negotiating with politicians). HERE is the video. Fast forward to the 3:00 mark to watch the relevant exchange:



So, the question that needs to be asked - based on Peller's reaction to Anderson's words - is: Why did she not want it known that Occupy Oakland was in communication with Mayor Jean Quan's office? Was it because they were in the process of coordinating, among other things, the shutting down of the port? After all, Van Jones protege Jakada Imani had only been on the Port Board for two weeks. Yet, that port was shut down by Occupy Oakland.

In much the same way that the Obama administration may have the blood of Border Agent Brian Terry on its hands in operation Fast and Furious, it might also have the blood of the shooting victim in Oakland on its hands.

More HERE.