Sunday, October 30, 2011

Unemployed Oakland man, chmn. of neighborhood crime council, says burglaries have increased because police are busy with Occupy group

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10/29/11, "Occupy Oakland: inspiration, frustration at return," San Francisco Chronicle, by Matthai Kuruvila, Kevin Fagan

"The owner of Sankofa African Arts and Jewelry said that on the two mornings since protesters returned, her front doorway has reeked of urine.

She said her business has declined by 80 percent since Occupy Oakland began.

"I really, really want them to leave," said the owner, who gave only her first name, Ellen. She has owned her business for 17 years. "What they are doing is making business worse."

A camp supporter overheard her lament and shouted:

  • "You would have lost your business anyway with the way the economy is going."

Ellen burst into tears.

Moji Ghafouri said business has gone down 25 percent at her Caffe Teatro. Protesters also smashed one of her windows.

"I'm a small business," she said. "If you're against corporations or big business, I'm not them."

Ghafouri said part of the problem is City Hall's doublespeak - like banning people from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. and then letting people camp overnight anyway.

"If they're not going to enforce it, don't say it," she said. ...

Far from downtown, other Oaklanders see the protests as taking up too much of the city's resources in a time when there are already too few. Parks, recreation centers, senior centers and police have all been cut in recent years.

Larry Benson, 54, has been unemployed for three years, so he supports the cause. But the North Oakland resident, the chairman of his neighborhood crime council, says the camp

  • is affecting the whole city.

"This mayor should never have allowed camping at Frank Ogawa Plaza," he said, while also criticizing Tuesday's raid and the subsequent clashes with protesters. "It continues to cost us. We are having a rash of burglaries over here,

  • and the police are not responding.""...


via Big Government

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