Category: History

Editor: This timely article by Norm Stamper – a former assistant police chief of San Diego – and former police chief of Seattle – is worthy of your time. Stamper is also a member of LEAP – Law Enforcement Against Prohibition of marijuana.

By Norm Stamper / The Nation / Nov. 28, 2011 Issue

They came from all over, tens of thousands of demonstrators from around the world, protesting the economic and moral pitfalls of globalization. Our mission as members of the Seattle Police Department? To safeguard people and property—in that order. Things went well the first day. We were praised for our friendliness and restraint—though some politicians were apoplectic at our refusal to make mass arrests for the actions of a few.

The following is a brief history of Occupy San Diego. Part 1.

This general outline – not meant to be all inclusive – is a recording of what has occurred during the Occupy San Diego movement, beginning in late September and continuing to today, the first part of November. It is an outline to help us recall what we did during those heady first weeks of planning and carrying out our very first actions. But as our movement involved hundreds and thousands of individuals and all kinds of different activities, this is not complete.

September 17, 2011 – Occupy Wall Street begins occupation at Zoccotti Park, next to Wall Street.

Mid to Late September 2011 – Facebook, twitter and other social media are used to generate interest in an Occupy Wall Street type action in San Diego. After some days of discussion, a plan is formulated to hold an Occupy San Diego action that is non-violent, is in solidarity with OWS in New York, and to use the “Egyptian model” of occupying some kind of public / private space to press for changes in the economic and social systems.

Editor: One century ago, in 1911, the last of the Northern California Yahi Indians was “discovered” near starvation. Given the name “Ishi”, he was brought into the White Man’s world – where he became an oddity and anthropological subject with few real friends among “the aliens” who had decimated his people.

By Espresso / Originally published Sept. 13, 2011

November, 1908: A surveyor team hired by the Oro Light and Power Company, accompanied by guide Merle Apperson traveled to Deer Creek, in the heart of Northern California’s Yana Tribes country. Assuming the country to be uninhabited, the crew went about its business with not a thought of the former occupants.

As we watch the Occupations from New York to San Diego fight for the right to exercise free speech and occupy public space, it is worth noting that we have been here before. Recently, it was my pleasure to do a small teach-in at Occupy San Diego with the OB Rag’s own Frank Gormlie on the history of civil disobedience in San Diego. For my part, I outlined the story of the San Diego Free Speech Fight in 1912 when the Industrial Workers of the World and other local labor and community activists struggled against the San Diego’s elite for the right to speak on a soapbox at the corner of 5^th and E downtown. As the homepage of the San Diego Free Speech Fight 100 Year Anniversary website notes:

2012 is the 100-year anniversary of the San Diego Free Speech Fight, one of the most important moments in the history of the city of San Diego. During the winter and spring of 1912, members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and their allies in labor and the community engaged in a pitched battle against a city ordinance that banned public speaking in the area around 5th and E Streets in downtown San Diego.

by Dan Beucke / Bloomberg News / October 27, 2011

Depending on your point of view, the Occupy Wall Street movement may be 1968 — or 1970 — all over again. And this week may mark the point where the bank protests go viral — or take a dangerous turn for the movement and those who support them. Such is the struggle by both sides to assign symbols to OWS.

Police attempts this week to clear protesters from encampments in Oakland, Atlanta, and other cities, complete with tear gas and horse-mounted police, brought to mind images from 1960s and ’70s era anti-war clashes. Then, on Tuesday night, Scott Olsen, an Iraq war veteran, was seriously injured after apparently being hit in the head by a police projectile.

Here at the OB Rag, we’re celebrating our fourth birthday by handing out free tickets to the OB Time Machine!

It takes off every now and then on OB Time. Go to the Nav Bar – just below the masthead – click on “Ocean Beach” to see the scroll down options – tah dah! The OB Time Machine. See here where to go …

Here’s just a sampling of where the OB Time Machine goes (just click on the headline of the stop you want):

The First Amendment and the obligation to peacefully disrupt in a free society.

By Naomi Wolf / Reader Supported News / Oct. 22, 2011

Mayor Bloomberg is planning Draconian new measures to crack down on what he calls the “disruption” caused by the protesters at Zuccotti Park, and he is citing neighbors’ complaints about noise and mess. This set of talking points, and this strategy, is being geared up as well by administrations of municipalities around the nation in response to the endurance and growing influence of the Occupation protest sites. But the idea that any administration has the unmediated option of “striking a balance,” in Bloomberg’s words, that it likes, and closing down peaceful and lawful disruption of business as usual as it sees fit is a grave misunderstanding – or, more likely, deliberate misrepresentation – of our legal social contract as American citizens.

The following video was produced for a class by ReinaldoUPR and posted to you tube in October of 2009. In the 2 years it has been up it has been viewed over 650,000 times. This iconic song and the images contained in the video are a powerful reminder of the turbulent era of the 1960’s and that we still have a long way to go. (Doug, it gave me the chills too.)

Ocean Beach Historical program is having a forum where

Documentarian Noah Tafolla Presents:

The history of San Diego neighborhoods

Thur., Oct. 20th, at 7 PM

Point Loma United Methodist Church, 1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., O.B.

Do you? Got your ticket for the OB Time Machine? It takes off every now and then on OB Time. Go to the Nav Bar – just below the masthead – click on “Ocean Beach” to see the scroll down options – tah dah! The OB Time Machine.

Here’s just a sampling of where the OB Time Machine goes (just click on the headline of the stop you want):…

By Kit-Bacon Gressit / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / September 19, 2011

I vaguely recall the first time someone asked me what it means to be a feminist. I was still a kid, freshly baptized in the blaze of radical feminism.

Or so it seemed, as our consciousness-raising group met in Anita’s living room. She was into her middle years, a professional woman returned to college, and the group was a school project.

Thoughts Stemming from 9-11

My radio alarm woke me up with someone summarizing a study that found that a significant number of schools have not done much as far as engaging students in learning experiences involving 9-11. Because it’s too “controversial.” Is that not sad?

That reminds me of a man on TV, not too long after that fateful day, who said we should tell our children that nothing like this will ever happen again.