Tired, quiet, and insular are three words that describe the mood at the Occupy San Francisco camp at Justin Herman Plaza the day after a day-long siege with police forces.
I didn't see any large projects going up; two sections of the tarped longhouses that are always full of activity were empty of people and equipment. Campers sat in small groups with friends and pets, painting signs, talking, playing music, snacking. Committees went to Starbucks even though the weather wasn't bad; sometimes you just can't hold another meeting on concrete.
[Read more: "So What Happened?"]
According to campers, two days ago, rumors began that a police action would occur at Occupy SF akin to the Oct 25th incident at the Occupy Oakland camp. Over those 48 hours, a crowd of up to 2,000 people eventually filled the plaza by midnight last night
Camper Jean-Pierre described the daytime mood as anxious, which gave way to a long, tense waiting game.
No occupiers I interviewed felt -- or admitted to feeling -- frightened last night; the General Assembly reached consensus on defense tactics and even separated from the crowd those who were not willing to be arrested (believe it or not, many protesters, for varied reasons, do not fear arrest).
So what happened? Culled eyewitness accounts reported between 3 and 6 MUNI busses of policemen that rolled down Market St. around 12:30 AM last night up to 17th. Photos were posted on Twitter of police boarding and filling to capacity at least two busses, one labeled with that said "Charlie." (Unknown if this is in reference to the military alphabet: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie.)
Twitter reported Embarcadero BART station closed a little before midnight -- the station closest to camp. Also, the Oakland closest to the Bay Bridge was closed. An anonymous Occupy SF medic and many others on Twitter and the chatters on occupysf.com reported that large numbers of Oakland campers planned to march across the Bay Bridge to the Occupy SF camp, but police turned them back. (It should be noted that crossing the bridge on foot at night would be dangerous, as there is no sidewalk.)
Around 2 am, Twitter went ablaze with reports of police in a holding pattern on Treasure Island. An anonymous Occupier, who serves on the Communications Committee, reported that trucks from the Department of Public Works circled the blocks around Justin Herman Plaza, the same type of trucks police used on the October 17th Occupy SF police action in which they threw out campers' structures.
No one I interviewed -- nurses, committee members, campers, group organizers -- know what were the purpose of last night's police maneuvers. Police released a statement earlier today stating that the event was a training exercise.
Occupy SF Camper Leslie -- whom some readers may remember as the young woman who held the sign while standing on the enormous cement lawn sphere in photos of the October 15th post-march rally -- cynically opined about the police department's motivation. "It's hard to keep building when you have to be on your toes." She believes the underlying purpose of police actions is to psychologically demoralize and undermine campers' efforts to build a new, more functional society.
"For two days, we've been planning for this raid," camper Lindsay said. When asked what she could have been doing, she replied, "More community stuff" for Halloween and that taking a defensive stance is counterproductive to the Occupy movement. I couldn't help by note that the Occupy SF community did plan for the police action, and stand against the police all night, together. And the entire camp seems to be carving pumpkins, making paper mache' piñatas for the Halloween Children's festival, and generally recuperating together.
However, there were no plans to leave last night, and none today. As camper Jean-Pierre voiced the opinion of the majority: "no one is here to leave." "The more they try to raid us, they more we get used to it," camper Leslie said with a smile.
And life goes on for another day.
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