By Kathleen Romero in California
I wanted to share a few photos of the recent incident at Coast Guard Island in Alameda, Oakland, California. On Wednesday, Oct 22, it was rumoured that ICE would be deployed to Coast Guard Island, a small island in the SF Bay nestled along the estuary.
The island was to be used as the staging area for 100 federal agents, including US Customs and Border Protection. This was later confirmed by the press and announced on the evening news.
Hundreds of people turned out in the early morning of Thursday, Oct 23. Demonstrators tried to block the officers driving in, during the dark hours of the early morning, resulting in one person getting their foot run over and a local pastor having a flash grenade go off in their face. (See YouTube video here)
I did not go in the morning, but went after work. It was announced during the day that Trump had called the mayor of San Francisco and that Lurie had “asked nicely” for Trump to halt the action.
Later it was reported that pressure was put on Trump by the heads of some of the high tech CEOs of Salesforce, and Nvidia. You can see in the photos Coast Guard Officers standing at the entrance to the causeway to the island.
The short video shows a group of 300 people who had marched over to the entrance to the island to support those who had stood vigilant all day. Later Thursday night, a u-haul van backed on to the causeway. The Coast Guard responded with shots to the van resulting in the driver having to go to the hospital. The Coast Guard then put up a physical barrier blocking the entrance.
By Friday, Oct 24, it was confirmed by the Oakland mayor, Barbara Lee, that it was reported to the Sheriff’s department that not only would San Francisco be spared, but the entire Bay Area.
I went by after work on Friday, and there were still approximately 50-75 people standing at the entrance to the causeway, and the Coast Guards’ physical barrier blocking the bridge was still in place. Shortly after I arrived, 100 California Highway Patrol cars slowly approached the area turning on a side street. Not clear of their intentions. Some thought they were about to cut off access completely and move in and arrest people.
Instead, they marched in platoon formation to the edge of the area with demonstrators and asked for a parlay to temporarily clear the bridge so cars could leave. The officers made a physical barrier on both sides of the street to allow the cars to leave and then marched back to their cars and left.
I went again on Saturday, and asked the handful of people remaining if the federal agents had actually left. They said it was unclear and that there were quite a few cars without license plates coming and going throughout the day.
They were there to report if they felt activity was actually starting.
