Oakland 2009: Militarization in front of our House

This morning at 8am I opened the front door of our house to walk my 3-year old to our car. I quickly ushered her and her sister to the back of the house.

A dozen troops were amassing on the street in front of my neighbor's house. Two armoured carriers were on the street, one with a sniper on top. Across the road at my friend's house a sniper unit of two officers established a base on his front porch. See the pictures. This was the scene, I took some pictures.

We got the kids set up watching cartoons at the back end of the house, and a loud speaker began negotiations with those inside the house two houses down from ours. Within a few minutes up to 50 police officers were on the block. No-one went door to door to tell us what was going on. We were told to stay inside, that was all. It was a very tense morning.

Eventually two adults gave themselves up. No-one was shot. The kids got to go to school. Everyone came out on the block to talk about the incident. And life, surreally, went on.

But it was just another sign of the bruality of this society. The segregation. The violence. The inequality. The broken-ness of things.