Petition in Support of Occupy Oakland
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We, the undersigned, are concerned citizens of Oakland, CA and are asking our elected officials (Mayor Jean Quan and all of the elected City Council) to support the constitutional right of Occupy Oakland participants to peaceably assemble and petition their government. We believe the occupation of Frank Ogawa plaza, in violation of bylaws that prohibit camping and cooking fires, has been a powerful petition against the erosion of public domain rights and public services within our society. We acknowledge these actions have been an act of civil disobedience. However, given present challenges facing our society, we feel the need to foster public discourse and participatory democracy supersedes the need to enforce park regulations.
We, the undersigned, desire an inclusive and civil society. We acknowledge the peaceful intent of Occupy Oakland. We expect any individual that initiates violence to be held accountable, regardless of whether the individual is affiliated with the Occupy movement, a law enforcement agency, or any other group. Police actions employing tear gas, flash bang grenades, rubber bullets, bean bag rounds, batons, and other violent means of crowd control indiscriminately against peaceful persons do not benefit our community. We, as citizens, are concerned that continued acts of violent exclusion from public spaces around the country will only serve to radicalize Occupy participants.
We, the undersigned, desire all parties work together to address the practical concerns of safety, sanitation, and vandalism. We believe these issues can be satisfactorily addressed once all parties begin to work together.
We, the undersigned, implore our elected representatives to embrace new forms of democratic organization, including the Occupy movement. Technologies, such as Twitter and UStream, have empowered citizens to communicate and organize without centralized leadership. Although these information age associations may appear foreign compared to traditional power hierarchies, we assert that they are inherently democratic in nature. We request the city engage the civic energy embodied in Occupy Oakland for the betterment of our democracy.
Finally, we, the undersigned, are Oakland. We are a diverse community with a strength of spirit that rarely gets reported on in the media. We do not want our community to be known for police-on-citizen violence. We desire to be known as the progressive community that figured out how to end the violence and embrace the Occupy movement.
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