The vote early this morning was 7 to 1 to bring in former NYPD and Los Angeles police chief William Bratton as a crime consultant. It happened at 2:07 a.m., after several incidents in which unruly protesters—including those associated with Occupy Oakland—did their best to disrupt things. Like a football team playing a big road game, almost anything the council does these days has to compete with lots of nasty crowd noise.
The Merc’s Oakland Tribune edition says 18 cops worked the chamber and hauled people out on three occasions. Hundreds attended, including those in overflow rooms with TV feeds. The disruption circus likely would have been worse except that supporters of Mayor Jean Quan’s crime-fighting strategy got there early and grabbed most of the seats.
Image: NBC Bay Area
Oakland Police,
Politics
