Where the name Oscar Grant Plaza comes from

Not alot of people were a part of Occupy Oakland at the very beginning, and some may be wondering why people call the plaza outside of city hall Oscar Grant Plaza, rather than the city $1000 loan online given name which is Frank Ogawa Plaza

First, a quick background. Frank Ogawa was a victim of the US injustice system and spent many years in a Japanese internment camp during WWII, and was elected to Oakland city Council in 1966, and was the first Japanese American elected to hold a city council seat in a major US city.

So why Oscar Grant? Oscar Grant was in San Francisco on New Years Eve, and was headed home to Hayward after a night of partying. Things got a little crazy, and we all know what happened, and he was shot in the back by a Bart cop from Napa. Bart is Headquartered at the Kaiser Building in Oakland.

The trial for the person who shot Oscar Grant was also held at Alameda County Superior Courtroom, which is also in Oakland.

Ok, so there was a major injustice there. But there have been hundreds of other injustices in Oakland, why Oscar Grant Plaza?

Is it about blacks being oppressed by whites? Then why not call it Huey P. Newton plaza? Is it about Occupy being oppressed? Then why not call it Scott Olson plaza?

Ok, jump forward a year or so, and you have Oakland City Council making the moves to create gang injunctions. The gang injunctions are a baby of Ingacio, and are intended to target know, repeat offender Nortenos gang members.

But keep in mind that the Nortenos are a very well connected gang, which control a vast majority of the latino drug and gun market in Norther California. They have unlimited $ in their hands.

And they use some of this money to keep lawyers on retainer to defend them when necessary, and give them legal advice. This law firm is Siegel and Yee, out of Oakland.

Knowing that the gang injunctions is intended to target their well paying clients, Siegel and Yee set up a separate group that they fund, called “Stop the Injunctions”. Dan Siegel was Quan’s adviser when she was on city council, and Jane Brunner, also on city council, works at the law firm. So it’s illegal and a conflict of interest for them to get involved, which is why they created an outside organization which they can finance, but remain disconnected from.

When the trial for Mehserle went down, there were also 2 people running for Mayor, who saw this as a tactical advantage to winning the election. This was Quan and Kaplan.

Stop the Injunction’s goal is to make it appear as though there is great opposition to the gang injunctions. So they found ways to manufacture public outcry, but taking up the cause of social injustice against Grant, and began organizing major actions during the trial, several of which ended up in rioting and looting, and even had Quan and Kaplan on the front lines trying to play that they are protecting the people, the masses of Oakland, as they would when elected mayor.

This means of gaining support and strength really took off the Stop the Injunctions, and Siegel and Yee kept financing them even more to get even more opposition to the injunctions.

When Occupy came to town, Stop the Injunction is one group of many, who saw the opportunity to co-opt a movement that appears to be a populist movement, to get strong backing for their own cause. It is this group that gave the plaza it’s new name, Oscar Grant Plaza.

It has nothing to do with economic nor social injustice. It has everything to do with powerful gangs financing powerful law firms who finance fake social organizations that get manipulated by politicians with a goal of becoming even more powerful politicians.

And while Quan has severed ties with Siegel, who continues to use Occupy Oakland to his tactical advantage, Kaplan has not and continues to manipulate OO as she loves how it causes chaos to Quan, and with Quan recalled, Kaplan is strong chance of being elected mayor. Jane Brunner, she continues to sit on the fence, throwing support behind city council and OO both. Her goal is to be City Attorney, and as the recent election would have made the City Attorney a position appointed by City Council, she had to play their favor. As that did not win, she now has to be as neutral as possible, leaning a little towards not favoring OO, as that is the overall opinion of OO of those who will be voting this fall.

So there you have it, the reason it’s called Oscar Grant Plaza is because Occupy has become a tool, and been manipulated from the start. Occupy Oakland has become tools of the 1%.