[A] city’s civic buildings—paid for by previous and current generations of citizens—DOES belong to the people, NOT the government, and certainly NOT the police. The people of a city OWN that city via the taxes they are forced to pay for the privilege of being a municipal shareholder. And, so we’re clear, they would have been providing “compensation” in the form of all the community care they were going to administer in and through that building—care the city Oakland has failed to provide to its citizens. 

…[T]his was not theft. No one was looking to sell, profit, or personally gain from the Occupying of an empty, wasted, civic space. This act was many, many members of the Oakland community attempting to turn a squandered, empty building into a community center where they could offer and coordinate help for homeless folks that have been abandoned by the leaders of Oakland. This act was a pure representation of selflessness. No one person would have personally benefitted from the using of a wasted resource such as the convention center. The whole intent was to create a facility where citizens that wanted to could volunteer and donate their time and skills to helping their fellow humans. Occupy needed nothing from the city, except a reasonable response to a compassionate, pragmatic solution to a complex problem. 

Occupiers did a fantastic job of shining a light on the fact that city leaders and business owners are more concerned with protecting the emptiness of Oakland’s buildings than they are living, breathing people that are the most in need of compassion and assistance. Mayor Quan, do buildings really matter more than the most vulnerable lives? (Mhris Carco)