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<p dir="ltr"><big><big>Tonight got crazy, but let me start with the
beginning.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p dir="ltr"><big><big>The mood during the day was as yesterday,
except that by the afternoon there were even more people out.
A rally at a big church was planned, first for 3:00 and then
it was announced that it wouldn't be until 4:00. By 3:30,
there were still a hundred or so people at the main gathering
place, showing no signs of leaving. One person said that she
wasn't into going to hear all the "big names" (various local
politicians, the chief of the state police, Al Sharpton, etc.)
I decided to go because I wanted to see what the rally would
be like. When I got there, parking was only available about a
quarter mile away, there were so many people there. There must
have been 3 - 4,000 people. Massive. There was no way I was
getting in, but I listened a bit from the outside. </big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p dir="ltr"><big><big>I should note that this church is right
alongside the freeway, several miles from the heart of town.
Really, nothing else around. The street protest is on W.
Florissant, about a mile or so down the road from the street
that leads to and from the freeway. What happens is that the
cops block off W. Florissant to traffic around 4:00 p.m. So
the effect of this rally was to discourage people from going
to the street protest. I am absolutely certain that this was
the intent. Those who wanted to, myself included, were able to
drive around the police block and get near the center of
things, but it wasn't very easy.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p dir="ltr"><big><big>I got back to the street protest around 4:30
or 5:00 and it was like yesterday -- a tremendous feeling of
solidarity. We have talked about how the old traditions have
been lost, and a very graphic example is this: I got to
talking to a woman and her daughter. The symbol here now is to
raise your hands and chant, "hands up, don't shoot". I always
raise my fist instead. I asked the daughter - a pre teen - if
she'd ever seen people put up their fist, if she knew what it
meant. It was totally new to her.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p dir="ltr"><big><big>you can see a leadership being born, but
again it's clear that the old traditions - both good and bad -
are not there. This new leadership is being born in the form
of young people marching up and down the street leading
chants. It's totally spontaneous, but the most confident and
assertive are the ones leading it. Given time and without
"outside" interference, they would develop into a
revolutionary leadership. But that's just the point - as the
previous church rally showed - there will b all sorts of
intervention from politicians, preachers, people like Al
Sharpton, etc. </big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p dir="ltr"><big><big>Some goals are clear: They want the cop
charged with murder. They want the chief of police fired.
Beyong that, though, things get more murky. One guy marches
around with a sign demanding that the cops live in the city
where they work. Others have religious signs.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p dir="ltr"><big><big>I added to my sign of yesterday. I put:<br>
"Oakland - Ferguson - Gaza<br>
Unite!<br>
"Rely only on our own strength."<br>
</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p dir="ltr"><big><big>Now comes the hairy part: As it started
getting dark, a few people organized a march up and down W.
Florissant. We marched half way up to Airport Rd. and then
back down the other way. We got maybe a quarter mile past the
main meeting point. At this time, things were totally
peaceful. The mood was a combination of angry and festive, if
that makes any sense. I was about two blocks behind the head
of the march, and all of a sudden I saw people come running
back down the street. I looked up ahead, and it looked like
fog was rising up from the street, but it wasn't fog; it was
tear gas. I kind of stopped, but everybody was running back so
I joined them. A few blocks back, half the crowd (mostly the
younger people) stopped, regrouped and started marching back.
you could see the lights from the cop cars strung out all
across the street as they slowly moved towards us. A layer of
the people, mainly youth, were saying, "no. fuck that. It
ain't even twelve o'clock yet. (by that time it was about 9:30
or so. The reference to twelve was that a curfew had been
declared for that hour. It is interesting that part of the
outrage was that the cops weren't abiding by the rules that
they had set up, however arbitrary those rules were.) Back
these youth surged. Another round of tear gas. This time even
more and even closer. Everybody ran back. More tear gas.
Shouts, Curses. Mass confusion, but order in the confusion.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p dir="ltr"><big><big>A huge traffic jam, because part of this
street protest is car loads of young people driving up and
down W. Florissant past the main gathering point (which is
where the QT store was burned to the ground), honking, kids
hanging out the windows and doors with their hands up, etc.
(Ihave all that on video.) So there were all these cars in the
middle of the street, trying to get out, trying to get away
from the advancing police line.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p dir="ltr"><big><big>As for myself, my car was kind of trapped
behind the police line, a block or so off W. Florissant. I
couldn't get back to it. So I had to walk maybe a mile or so
around to get to it from behind.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p dir="ltr"><big><big>I'm planning on going back home Monday
afternoon, unless something really new pops up before then.
When I get back, I'm going to work on posting that video. I
think it will do a million times more to give an idea of the
mood and consciousness than anything I could write. But the
main thing is the youth are out here, way way more than ever
came close in Occupy Oakland or anything else I've seen since
the 1960s. As to why that is, I have some ideas, but I'm a
little too tired to get into that right now.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
John Reimann</big></big><br>
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