OaktownLive
Team OaktownLive consists of Pirate (Camera-Monkey, Raconteur) and Lexica (Base Control, Social Stream Mod, Voice-of-Reason).
This work by Team Oaktown Live is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Just wanted to let people know that for the rest of the month of May, Team Oaktown Live will not be streaming much if at all.
Partially it’s because Pirate will be on the road working & just plain won’t be available. On top of that, TOL also has a WHOLE LOT OF FOOTAGE from the last several months that we’ve hardly had time to process, in particular from May Day. We’ve got a lot of editing to do of a lot of looong footage from which we want to make highlight clips that people can actually go back and watch.
Regarding livestreaming: the ability to connect live video of newsworthy events to the world is a powerful tool. When somebody tells Pirate that they were watching the stream earlier and came out to participate in person, or when a commenter on the social stream says they’ve learned things about Oakland they didn’t know before, it feels like we’re making a difference, even if it’s a small one.
But streaming is also quite an expensive tool right now. Part of TOL’s downtime will be to spend some time considering how we want to continue with this “Oakland-based citizen journalism” project that we feel called to, and how to do it without letting it eat up such a huge chunk of the TOL household budget.
One of the new tools TOL is looking to add to the CJ toolkit is Signal. It’s being called “The Instagram for Citizen Journalists” and looks like it’s got a lot of potential. We’ve signed up as beta testers and look forward to its roll out.
Love, peace, justice, compassion, meaningful life pursuits, and generally all good things to everyone everywhere, nobody excluded…
Pirate & Lexica
Oakland May Day, 2012: OPD “Snatch Team” Arrest
After the crowd had been dispersed from 14th & Broadway, fellow livestreamer CourtneyOccupy & Pirate encountered what seems to be one of an undetermined number of roving OPD “snatch teams” prowling the streets of the 510. This may or may not be part of the “new tactics” Chief Jordan planned to roll out for May Day
It’s not strictly illegal to have rocks in your pocket, and the two men standing on the corner didn’t seem to be doing anything more suspicious that dressing in all-black on May Day in Oakland. That seems like sketchy probable cause at face-value.
If OPD had some specific intelligence that they were arresting a specific person for a specific crime, that’s one thing.
But just rolling up on people dressed in all-black, that’s kinda fucked up.
Here are the raw video segments from the TOL May Day 2012 Broadcast.
All Team Oaktown Live videos are Creative Commons licensed (reuse,remix/non-$/attribution). Any booshwa from YouTube about “Matched Third Party Content” is in dispute as these were all captured at public, newsworthy events and come under “Fair Use”.
Highlight clips to follow.
Oakland May Day 2012 Pt 1/7
May Day 2012, TOL will be Live & Direct from Oakland, Ca. Plan is to start early, go as long as the batteries hold out. Won’t be live streaming constantly all day, but both Pirate and Lexica will be tweeting all day long.
Watch this space for further updates.
Oaksterdam Raid - Arrest of Jose Gutierrez (beginning to end).
On Monday, April 2, 2012, agents from the DEA, IRS, and U.S. Marshals Service raided Oaksterdam University and several other businesses associated with Oakland cannabis activist Richard Lee. The Oakland Police Department was not notified in advance of the raids and did not participate in them, but did provide crowd control as the morning progressed and increasing numbers of angry locals opposed to the raid arrived at 19th and Broadway.
In this clip, several federal agents come to evacuate other DEA agents who have locked themselves inside Coffeshop BlueSky when confronted with an angry crowd of Oakland cannabis supporters.
A shoving match, instigated by a Fed making his way to the door, resulted in KPFA correspondent Jose Gutierrez at the bottom of a Federal dog-pile and under arrest. In the scuffle, a US Marshall is accused of hitting Oakland livestreamer Bela Eiko in the face.
Transparency statement: Clipped from the longer raw video; captions, title, and end text added; otherwise unedited.
Apologies for the way the video freezes at times; downtown Oakland is something of a concrete canyon and signal quality can be irregular. We’re working toward upgrading our equipment.
Oaksterdam Raid - DEA Agents break the window from INSIDE Coffeeshop Blue Sky.
On Monday, April 2, 2012, agents from the DEA, IRS, and U.S. Marshals Service raided Oaksterdam University and several other businesses associated with Oakland cannabis activist Richard Lee. The Oakland Police Department was not notified in advance of the raids and did not participate in them, but did provide crowd control as the morning progressed and increasing numbers of angry locals opposed to the raid arrived at 19th and Broadway.
In this clip, OPD clears a path for DEA vehicles leaving with confiscated Oaksterdam University records as Oaklanders, including one in a wheelchair, attempt to block the way. We also see officer J. Low with his baton out, pushing protesters out of the way of the DEA vehicles, but his personal camera is off. When it’s on (see in passing on Officer Nguyen) the green is exposed.
Transparency statement: Clipped from the longer raw video; captions, title, and end text added; otherwise unedited.
Apologies for the way the video freezes at times; downtown Oakland is something of a concrete canyon and signal quality can be irregular. We’re working toward upgrading our equipment.
Oaksterdam Raid - Protester in a wheelchair blocks DEA vehicles
On Monday, April 2, 2012, agents from the DEA, IRS, and U.S. Marshals Service raided Oaksterdam University and several other businesses associated with Oakland cannabis activist Richard Lee. The Oakland Police Department was not notified in advance of the raids and did not participate in them, but did provide crowd control as the morning progressed and increasing numbers of angry locals opposed to the raid arrived at 19th and Broadway.
In this clip, OPD clears a path for DEA vehicles leaving with confiscated Oaksterdam University records as Oaklanders, including one in a wheelchair, attempt to block the way. We also see officer J. Low with his baton out, pushing protesters out of the way of the DEA vehicles, but his personal camera is off. When it’s on (see in passing on Officer Nguyen) the green is exposed.
Transparency statement: Clipped from the longer raw video; captions, title, and end text added; otherwise unedited.
Apologies for the way the video freezes at times; downtown Oakland is something of a concrete canyon and signal quality can be irregular. We’re working toward upgrading our equipment.
Oaksterdam Raid - Andrew DeAngelo & the OPD Riot Line
On Monday, April 2, 2012, agents from the DEA, IRS, and U.S. Marshals Service raided Oaksterdam University and several other businesses associated with Oakland cannabis activist Richard Lee. The Oakland Police Department was not notified in advance of the raids and did not participate in them, but did provide crowd control as the morning progressed and increasing numbers of angry locals opposed to the raid arrived at 19th and Broadway.
In this clip, Andrew DeAngelo of Harborside Health Center addresses the OPD riot line, imploring them to side with the City of Oakland and not to help the Feds.
Transparency statement: Clipped from the longer raw video; captions, title, and end text added; otherwise unedited.
Apologies for the way the video freezes at times; downtown Oakland is something of a concrete canyon and signal quality can be irregular. We’re working toward upgrading our equipment.
Oaksterdam Raid - Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan
On Monday, April 2, 2012, agents from the DEA, IRS, and U.S. Marshals Service raided Oaksterdam University and several other businesses associated with Oakland cannabis activist Richard Lee. The Oakland Police Department was not notified in advance of the raids and did not participate in them, but did provide crowd control as the morning progressed and increasing numbers of angry locals opposed to the raid arrived at 19th and Broadway.
In this clip,Oakland City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan appears with Dale Sky Jones of Oaksterdam University to speak about Oaksterdam, the legally regulated and taxed dispensaries in Oakland, and and why they are not the sources of the violent crime epidemic the city is seeing.
Transparency statement: Clipped from the longer raw video; captions, title, and end text added; otherwise unedited.
Apologies for the way the video freezes at times; downtown Oakland is something of a concrete canyon and signal quality can be irregular. We’re working toward upgrading our equipment.
