"Last night I arrived at the camp around 10:00 PM to attend the vigil and interview clergy members (who were expected to be there) and members of the CNA about their personal beliefs/belief systems and how those relate to their involvement in the movement. There were two marked cars at the scene along with three O.P.D. officers and a sergeant (who came and went over the course of the night and morning). Very soon after I arrived, a fire truck unloaded a trailered mercury vapor light tower (independently powered by a diesel generator built into its' base). The illumination they created was intensely bright and, given that the tower had four separate lights pointed at different angles, it illuminated the entire area from the light tower (set-up by the bike locker at 14th and Broadway) to the second row of tents from the steps to the plaza, back to the interfaith council tent, to the building running along Broadway to 14th (Tully's, etc.) and the street itself.
The light tower was delivered and then turned on during the vigil (while people were still holding candles, etc.) at roughly 11:40. Some people at the encampment "geared up" for a raid. Given that the city gave control of the plaza lighting over to the O.P.D. earlier in the day yesterday and they promptly cut off all lighting in the encampment, it made no sense as to why there was a need for this massively bright and loud light tower. I had already seen all crime scene tape removed and an officer carry it away as I was arriving. People had been gathering where the shooting occurred and were still gathering and moving about in that area. The BART entrance was closed after the shooting, according to the cops, in an attempt to find and arrest the shooter. The entrance wasn't reopened until close to 5:30 am. When asked, the officers stated that the lighting was there "for safety reasons".
One of the fireman who had to deliver the light (it appears they were ordered to - it'd look absurd for O.P.D. to provide lighting there but not to the encampment) yelled out to the officers, "Hey O.P.D.! Why don't you just raid it, then?!?!", in a very insulting and angry tone. He perhaps could've said, "Hey: this isn't being used for safety! You know you are trying to incite something; be honest and just raid it!". His tone conveyed what seemed to be anger at having been hoodwinked. He and the other firewoman with him were clearly pissed at the cops there.
When I initially got there two news crews were there. One was Fox 40 (reporting on nothingness - saying essentially that there was nothing to report following the shooting - from the other side of Broadway) and the other was NBC. The NBC crew lowered their transmission tower on the van but didn't leave. Shortly after the light tower was turned on (it got brighter and brighter as it warmed up over the course of thirty minutes or so) at 11:40, an unmarked black SUV with a federal agent inside arrived and parked behind the two police cars already parked on 14th on the OO side of Broadway. Councilwoman Brooks showed up and spoke to two of the officers at about 1:00 AM and then left. Soon after an additional unmarked black SUV arrived and parked in front of the cop cars. An additional O.P.D. car arrived and parked in line with the other two, as well, at essentially the same time. Roughly twenty minutes later, Alameda Sheriff Department patrol cars began to patrol in a circle around the encampment. I walked two blocks down towards 12th and saw two County Sheriff Dept cars semi-blocking the road with their lights flashing.
By this time, most inside the encampment felt a raid was inevitable and was about to occur at any moment. People donned bandanas and a few gas masks. No one approached aggressively, treated aggressively, or gave any reason even the MSM might deem "real". One kid and an older woman, both with no bandanas or gas masks, asked the cops for a long time to join in and disobey orders to raid. The cop listened to them and talked to them but never said "we aren't raiding the camp". In fact, as the kids' fear of raid escalated over time, the cop was even more careful to not say they were not there to stage a raid; making it look as if they were even more so. Perhaps two other people spoke to the cops aside from members of MSM crews that were then beginning to arrive as a group (five vans total). They talked extensively. They traded notes. Literally. Handed over handwritten notes back and forth. Eventually virtually everyone chose to ignore the light and go to bed. One lone independent photojournalist and I didn't and stood near the cops with the MSM crews.
A KRON 4 guy came over and asked my new friend and I if we were "waiting for Tom to show up at 3:30 to figure out the setting". I said I didn't know “Tom” was going to be there and that I'd lost his number. I asked him if he had it and he said, "not on me, sorry man", I said "thanks anyway", and then went back to (now intentionally) acting as if I were "one of them", in effect, because it was then that we realized that there was some confusion (at the very least) that led the cops and MSM crews to believe we were on their side of the fence in some way. My friend was the only still photographer that remained and looked the part and, to some extent I likely did, too (minus the camera). I'm certain they were under the belief we were working together. Regardless, nearing 4:15, a car with two women inside pulled onto the curb behind the BART elevator. They were greeted by both a female morning news reporter from one msm outlet and Tom(!), a reporter from another. One offered my friend a beanie (which he declined and I wish he had thought not to) saying, "You're gonna freeze out here, man! Need a hat?".
Here’s where it gets really outrageous. They both got into the Channel Two van and changed clothes, minutes later reappearing as "homeless people". An NBC crew member decorated the concrete (which was really clean before they got there) with bread crumbs and dirt clods with the "protection" (aid) of one officer who stepped between him and the camp (up until this point no cop had walked beyond the sidewalk). The actresses proceeded to "act" in the background as all MSM crews went live. Following the initial live shots, one was immediately interviewed by Channel Two behind the BART elevator ACTING as someone who was a part of the encampment. It was all too eerie and I repeatedly asked my friend (who remains somewhat cynical about the encampment but not the movement - a rational and thoughtful person regardless, who has a day job as a maintenance worker in Concord) if he was "thinking what I was thinking".
He said this was more of a farce and was more disgusting and repulsive than what he witnessed while covering the Michael Jackson trial for the AP, noting things like the dolly one actress was pulling was absurdly expensive and that there was still a crisp white price tag hanging from her (very recently) tattered and dirty pop-up laundry basket resting on said dolly. After the show (quite literally a show: theatre!), while we were leaving I approached two cops and asked why the light was necessary and had been on for the entire night, essentially. He said "for public safety reasons". I asked if he thought simply turning on the lights IN the plaza might've been a "safer" thing to do since it illuminated more than just what the news crews needed illuminated. He said, "it's for everyones' safety". I said that it was understandable: "if it bleeds it leads", but asked that in the future could he call me before the actual raid and not the provocation to commit one and could I also submit requests to the city for lighting and security if I chose to shoot a movie soon. He then glared at me and said, "Sure. Just give me your name and number." and stepped slightly in towards me with his shoulders squared and hand on his baton (only he had a wooden baton on his person, oddly) smiling. I laughed and he dryly did, as well, as my friend and I then left. Lou Reed sang, "Don't believe half of what you hear and none of what you see." I don't. Not now."
- John Murry
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