We are American citizens. We are unarmed. We are not terrorists. Please do not shoot us.

[kpete]

"The only thing missing was a column of tanks.

SAT OCT 29, 2011 AT 07:54 AM PDT
Oakland: This is what a police state looks like
byJanetrhodesFollow

...............when I say riot gear, I mean head-to-toe: black helmets, body armor, face shields down, and assuming a stance that those training manuals probably refer to as combat-ready. Each officer stood with feet braced wide apart and his baton in both hands.

................

And the street on our side of the barricade was empty. We had walked in the opposite direction of the demonstration as they left the rally and headed toward city hall. And we stood for a moment just looking. We could feel the adrenaline pumping from across the street. I was carrying a picket sign. Someone at the rally had handed me a Nurses United picket sign. It said something very inflammatory and anti-American, like an economy that works for 99% of the people.

I felt as if I was holding the wrong sign. I should've had a sign saying:

Attn: OPD
We are American citizens.
We are unarmed.
We are not terrorists.
Please do not shoot us.

That was the way ii felt, Mayor Quan, to be an American citizen walking down the sidewalk in your city at 5:30 pm on Tuesday, October 25th. To attend a peaceful rally at the Oakland main library, at which activists made somewhat clumsy use of the human microphone to repeatedly announce their intention to nonviolently march back to City Hall and peacefully re-take Frank Ogawa Plaza, aka Oscar Grant Plaza.

the rest:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/29/1031220/-Oakland:-This-is-what-a-police-state-looks-like?via=siderec