A Guide To Protesting In Oakland: What's Allowed And What's Not, And What's Still Unclear
OAKLAND (KPIX 5) -- Amid the confusion of protests, arrests, social media half-truths, and mixed messages from news conferences, Oakland police and the mayor's office have outlined exactly what they say will and won't be allowed from protesters.
Yes, you can still protest in Oakland. At night. Without a permit. But, there are some restrictions police will try to enforce.
ALLOWED: Day protests, night protests, permitted protests, non-permitted protests. Daytime protests in the street.
NOT ALLOWED: Nighttime protests in the streets. Officers will require you to move to the sidewalk.
MANAGED: If you do not have a permit to protest, police may try to "manage" your protest, steering it away from vulnerable areas in the interest of public safety and safeguarding of private property and preventing vandalism.
To be clear, whether a citizen has a First Amendment right to protest by marching in the streets without a permit, day or night is a debate that will rage on. As protesters challenge those points, police are being directed to follow the Oakland ordinance restricting protests to the sidewalks after dark.
"Better crowd management that gets demonstrators out of the roadways, onto sidewalks and into safe gathering spaces after sunset protects everyone's safety and supports free speech and assembly," said the mayor's spokesperson, Erica Derryck.
The clarifications come after an Oakland city official was handcuffed over the weekend when she joined about 200 people marching against an ordinance banning protests down city streets after dark.
"I was scared," said Oakland Planning Commissioner Jahmese Myres. "For myself and for the rest of the residents that I was with."
Myres was handing out surgical masks to fellow demonstrators Saturday night to protect against them against pepper spray when police announced they were going to clear the streets.
She says she retreated to a sidewalk, but was still put in handcuffs.
"I was grabbed by several officers," she said. "They left the line that they were holding to reach out to me and grabbed me and pulled me down to the ground."
The city of Oakland is cracking down on street protesters, which has triggered this new round of demonstrations.
Mayor Libby Schaaf's office emphasized that these are not "new" policies, just the enforcement of an existing ordinance that keeps protesters out of the middle of streets at night — a policy that has brought out protesters over the past two nights. Over the weekend, at least nine people were arrested and 66 people were cited and released.
The mayor called Commissioner Myres yesterday and told her she doesn't want to see her city get trashed.
"It's not a new policy," Schaff said. "We are making better utilization of our existing policy. You could say it is a new 'approach.'"
Myres said understands the mayor's concern for vandalism and businesses having to shut down temporarily.
"But the reason we are marching the streets is to highlight the larger issues that are about people," Myres said. "Folks are concerned about the loss of lives of black folks nationally and locally, and if that shuts down a business for a couple of days, or ends up in broken windows, there's important issues we need to continue to raise."
When KPIX 5 asked her if it's appropriate for a city official to be out there in the streets participating in a demonstration, Myres stood behind her decision.
"Sure, well, I'm a planning commissioner, but before I was a planning commissioner, and as I continue to be, I am a resident of this city," she said. "I am a neighbor to this community and part of being a good resident and a good neighbor is to stand in solidarity with those who are speaking out against injustice."
