The March Through the tenderloin. Moments forgotten in Occupy.
included here as a remembrance for what used to happen
February 12 2012
The San Francisco march against police violence that took place on Feb 10th was not a normal march.
First, it was the first march specifically against the police that took part in the City, Occupy Oakland has a weekly #FuckThePolice march each Saturday; and these, in typical Oakland fashion, are brutally suppressed by the cops.
The Feb 10th action was attended by a wide swathe of people mostly due to the Jan 28th actions in Oakland; these actions were marked by an escalation of police violence into something we had not seen before, as one person put it; “Anyone who was at January 28th new the cops were out for blood”. They came in swinging, arrested 400+ people and put them in heinous conditions in the Santa Rita jail.
This has all been written about, well documented and on video. Yet the police violence is still given little to no coverage in the “main stream media”, instead pictures of protesters burning the flag in city hall and pushing down barricades, never-mind that these barricades blocked the only means of escaping getting shot and beaten by police; if a dispersal order is given, people must be allowed to disperse; seems logical.
So the reasons to march are clear and subsequently many people showed up at 101. Highlights from the march included bursting into the Westfeild mall to “Fuck The Police” by NWA, shop keepers, terrified blocked the stores. This brought us out into the open, forced people to see us, and they didn’t see violent protesters, they saw people dancing, waving flags, signs “There is no Honor in Police Brutality”, #catbloc was giving out kitten memes and the whole thing was very vanilla. Of course the security guards bellowed, but there was never any intention of occupying the mall, it was less an anti consumer maneuver as a wake up call and public spectacle.
The greatest moment was in the Tenderloin. Marching down through the poorest neighborhood, young men stood on the sidewalks in groups, the bars were full, the liquor store was busy and the soup kitchen was serving. In the midst of this comes the march “No Justice, No Peace. Fuck the Police”. We had been chanting this for hours, near parks, shops and in the middle of the street. We also chanted “Join Us, help us, stand up!” and no one did, no one from the sidewalk did anything other than take pictures and point. Until the Tenderloin. In the tenderloin the residents are overwhelmingly black, poor and as such, targeted by the police for harassment.
The Tenderloin joined us, people enthusiastically joined in; “Fuck the Police!” the sidewalks emptied and the march swole to double its size. Of course, we were a few blocs from the tenderloin police station, and as one lone police car was surrounded, hundreds of riot cops showed up and attempted to kettle us.
This was too much for most, people scattered the march pulled up a side street and swiftly came to market. The Kettle was avoided, but not before we offered the police a voice; “You can come to our marches, but do not bring your weapons”.
The media paints us as violent protesters, but we did not bring our grenade launchers, our night sticks or our guns.
John Hutt 