Oakland is having a SWAT convention today, and Mother Jones reporter Shane Bauer has been sending out some amazing images from it. Scary images. Image that confirm everything you thought about police militarization.
Like this one:
And this one:
And one more:
It appears that those photos and some other videos (see his twitter feed for more) may have gotten Bauer a quick escort to the exit.
Someone didn't care for either the video or stills they were taking, even though they remained in the areas where they were told filming was permitted.
I'll bet it was one of these guys:
This is really scary stuff. The mayor of Oakland said last night that the city would not host this convention next year. To that, she received a big "screw you" from the police.
But officials from the Alameda County Sheriff's Office, which coordinates the conference, hit back at Quan's statement.
"Mayor Quan has had little to no involvement with Urban Shield. She does not have the authority to tell Urban Shield or anyone that they can't come into the City of Oakland," said Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman for the office.
"We recognize that she can influence the Oakland convention center, but we find it amazing that the mayor of Oakland does not want better training for the cities' first responders nor the hotel tax revenue, sales tax revenue, and low crime rate in the downtown area that Urban Shield and its 5,000-plus attendees has provided in the last few years to the City of Oakland," he said.
Yeah, because Oakland hasn't seen any abuse by the police. Sure.
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