The remnants of that horrible sprawl of encampments at Wood Street might finally be cleared by the Oakland Police Department—we hope—following Judge Orrick’s [reluctant] decision to allow Oakland to evict the 60 or so people who still squat there. Orrick—the same judge who has his boot on the neck of the Oakland Police Department and appears likely to keep it there—made it clear he personally didn’t want to make that particular decision. He wanted the homeless people to stay in Wood Street. But public pressure—and, perhaps, his own conscience—proved too much, and he yielded.
The big problem facing Oakland Police is that they’re likely to face potentially violent opposition if they try to clear the area--not only from the illegal campers themselves, but from their militant allies, who think homeless people should be allowed to put their tents and shanties anywhere they want. It was in anticipation of this resistance that the City Council, surprisingly unanimously, proposed a new ordinance, the Safe Work Zone Ordinance, that makes it a Misdemeanor for any person to “willfully fail or refuse for any reason, after verbal or written request by a Peace Officer, to immediately leave an area designated by City staff as a Safe Work Zone.” Wood Street would be declared a safe work zone, meaning that protesters who hassle the cops would immediately be cited. The punishment is a jail term of up to six months, and/or a fine not to exceed $1,000.
The Council’s early votes on Safe Work Zone were pretty procedurally normal. On November 17 (2022), Bas and Fife—in a stalling action--proposed kicking it over to the Public Works Committee (Kalb, for some reason, abstained). Then something shocking happened—no one is saying exactly what—but, on Dec. 15, according to the minutes of the City Council, “This item was withdrawn and not scheduled.” No reasons were offered, no new vote was set, no means of inquiry were provided, and that is where things stand today.
I think we can reasonably surmise what happened. Between Nov. 17, when the City Council bounced Safe Work Zone to Public Works, and Dec. 15, when the ordinance mysteriously disappeared, homeless advocates got very busy. Who knows what threats were issued to Council members, what deals reached, behind closed doors? What we do know is how ferociously homeless advocates worked to get Safe Work Zone killed. They trotted out the same stale old lies: “This is about criminalizing unhoused people and their advocates,” said one of them. Another homeless advocate, this one a lawyer, opined, “I think what they’re contemplating is a violation of the rights of people experiencing homelessness and a violation of the First Amendment rights of people who’ve made it a point to hold public officials accountable during these sweeps.”
Currently, there is no further hearing scheduled for the City Council to vote on Safe Work Zone. At the same time, the Wood Street inhabitants have vowed to resist being evicted, demanding that Thao end the Encampment Management Policy, and “quash the misguided ‘Safe Work Zone’ ordinance.”
So the fight is on in this Kabuki theater. It’s my opinion that certain council members initially voted performatively for Safe Work Zone in order to be able to brag publicly that they’re in favor of protecting cops—but then these same members secretly and cynically decided to liquidate Safe Work Zone when they thought no one was looking. Council Members such as Fife and Bas and the new Mayor, Thao, don’t want to dismantle Wood Street, or any other homeless encampment, because they see themselves as representing the homeless as a constituency. It will surprise me if the Safe Work Zone ordinance ever gets resurrected. And by the way, one way to look at this—which is how I see it—is that it’s merely a continuation of the Fife-Thao-Bas war on the police. First, they took down Chief Armstrong (let us hope only temporarily) and now, they’re allowing cops to be assaulted, spat upon and cursed when they legally and properly try to dismantle Wood Street or any other encampment. Orrick says cops should begin the evictions on Feb. 10—this Friday. Meanwhile, the city just announced they’re opening 100 Tiny Cabins, close to Wood Street, in the hope that the people who refuse to leave Wood Street peacefully will change their minds and relocate there instead. This is an ongoing situation, and we’ll be monitoring it closely, so stay tuned…
(Thanks for CBO member Chris Moore for alerting me to this.)
IMPORTANT: Please email the Mayor and tell her you demand she immediately reinstate Chief LeRonne Armstrong as Chief of Police. Thao is increasingly feeling the heat over her unjust (and possibly illegal, and certainly immoral) suspension of the Chief, and we’ve got to convince her to do the right thing. Here’s the link to her email.
Steve Heimoff