Anytime some anarchist nut job anywhere in the U.S. calls for violence for “social justice,” you can count on the Black Bloc in Oakland to act accordingly.
The Black Bloc, you might recall, were the cockroaches back in the Occupy Oakland days who would crawl out from their nests after dark, garbed in black clothing and face-hiding masks. Often wielding clubs and crowbars, they would destroy anything in their path, and then disappear back into the night, leaving store owners and car owners to pick up the pieces of this peculiar Kristallnacht.
Well, the Black Bloc is back. On the night of Oct. 6-7, they struck Whole Foods, according to several store employees I spoke with. They smashed windows and sliding glass doors. Although they don’t appear to have stolen anything (robbery wasn’t their motive), one employee told me the graffiti they left behind was pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel.
Yesterday, Oct. 7, was the start of the so-called Week of Rage, called by some fringe group calling itself National Students for Justice in Palestine. Their website is bizarre: they claim to be located in “Turtle Island (so called North America)” [their words] and they can’t even utter the word “Israel,” instead using the hate term “Zionist Entity.” They can’t urge violence overtly, but they come right up to the line: “We aim to develop a student movement connected, disciplined, and equipped with the tools necessary to pursue Palestinian liberation.” It’s pretty clear that they mean exactly what the Black Panthers meant when they said “By any means necessary.” The “tools necessary” to achieve their dream are anything that can smash a plate-glass window and a can of spray paint.
I don’t care what your views are on the Israel-Palestinian-Hamas-Hezbollah-Iran war. Doesn’t matter. What’s at issue here is the right of the people of Oakland, including shop owners and their employees, to be protected from criminals who are trying to destroy our way of life. Violence, of the sort the anarchists love, isn’t the answer to anything. The morons who perpetuate it are just acting out childish fantasies of being glamorous revolutionary heroes. They’re not heroes. They’re spineless, useless little schmucks who would pee their pants if the cops were to throw them into jail, which is where they belong.
I truly hope there will be arrests. It would be telling if Pamela Price lets them off if they’re under 25, which I assume most of them are. Whole Foods must have security cameras that captured the crimes on video. Someone, somewhere knows who these thugs are; that person should come forward and tell OPD what they know. It can be done anonymously to avoid retaliation.
Now, you might be thinking, “Hey, it’s just Whole Foods. Their prices are ripoffs and Jeff Bezos is one of the richest people in the world. Besides, their insurance will pay for new windows. Who cares?” Well, I care, and many of us care. We’ve had too many businesses leaving Oakland precisely because of this crap and I don’t want Whole Foods to be one of them. We’re all screaming for more law enforcement in Oakland, for more cops, for more arrests of punks and thugs. Well, you can’t be for those things, and then support the Black Bloc, the people who smashed up Whole Foods. They’re as bad as the bippers and muggers and carjackers. All these sociopaths must be stopped by any means necessary. Please, if you have any information at all, contact 9-1-1. You can do so anonymously if you fear retaliation.
Steve Heimoff