Oakland Squat Fiasco.. The Safehouse what the fuck

[rock city]

besides the family there were four hired crackheaded lookin goons over six foot wearin leather gloves and carryin hammers.. fuckin creepy! dunno if I mentioned that. I dunno, call the cops if you wanna but this specific situation it really fucked everyone.. actually no we were fucked regardless. It was just a huge cluster fuck situation.. some of the kids had put nails thru bats and taped to smileys.. as soon as the second invasion happend all their weapons were in the hands of the family and their goons.. dunno how that happend but they werent fuckin happy.. I was the last one in the house with a girl friend of mine and her dog as a group of 10 kids who musta been under 15 and a couple older dudes clakkin bolt cutters in my face while the little kids berated the girl and called her all sorts of nasty shit. the dog was getting visibly pissed off so I told everyone to move the fuck back so I could take him out but they stayed there flappin those lips so I walked on by and he snapped at them and the one dumbass cunt who does that postin on the anarchist site as african princess or whatever defendin the family.. she overreacted and then they were all fuckin pissed like "yo get that dog out for we kill all three of ya!" I wasnt about to flip out with over twenty of these fucks in our house so I took her by the arm and said were leavin now. (She had some balls, she was packin her shit all slow like Ill take my fuckin time this is my house dammit!) As were walkin down the stairs this african princess gives her a shove with her foot on her backpack.. home girl was so tough she turned around like she was gonna swing at her when all of those kids were behind her ready to throw us down the stairs! it was sad watchin them throw out all of our shit and then hear them smashing everything inside the house.. they let other kids go up one at a time escorted to pick up their shit.. it was fuckin sad, I dunno how these fucks got their pride hurt so bad over an abandonned fuckin house but fuck.. there were people in lawn chairs posted right outside on mlk just watching everything.. i got out of oakland about a week later and got back to memphis. poor house, lots of different people called it home at some point. now im sure its just sittin there, full of broken glass and the occasional crack head.

 

[venusinpisces]

What you quoted from my post has NOTHING TO DO WIT THE "SQUATTER" I'm saying the "Property owner(s)" were not impoverished. What I care about is that you assume that the property owners were poor just because they were dark skinned. this thread is turning into the usual StP bullshit . . .

I assume the owners were not even close to rich because of the grammar of African Princess on the anarchist site, not because of anything to do with race. Because no rich person speaks that way. I don't think they should be using "antiracism" as an excuse to throw knives at people either so don't get me wrong. But the whole situation could have been avoided in the first place. Just use common sense and leave the first time. This is the easiest way to defend someone because continuing to stay after you've been asked to leave pretty much guarantees that conflict is inevitable. So is it really any surprise that dude's girlfriend nearly got kicked down a flight of stairs? Why place her in the situation in the first place is what I'm wondering. Not that the girl is helpless but "defense" can be taken to the level of instigation and it sounds like that's what happened here. Working families are not ruthless real estate conglomerates, people. There is no reason to feel like you can just take from them.

 

[rock city]

I think you're an idiot. I dont know what their status has to do with anything but they were definately well to do. Also huge pieces of shit. You're pretty good at makin assumptions and thanks for the recommendations I'll keep em in mind and tuck my tail between my legs and flail off whenever somethin diceys goin on.

 

[venusinpisces]

The point is that squatting property that belongs to working families is not the same as squatting property that belongs to the city
or to a corporation that exploits its workers. Both of the latter situations can easily be justified because housing is a basic human right that no one should have to go without. However, squatting loses a lot of credibility as a movement for "social justice" when working class people are in direct competition with squatters for resources. There's nothing wrong with trying to scrounge a place like this temporarily but saying you own it is another thing altogether.

 

[stove]

I assume the owners were not even close to rich because of the grammar of African Princess on the anarchist site, not because of anything to do with race. Because no rich person speaks that way. .

Wow. You, my dear, have lost *ALL* credibility.

 

[Diagaro]

Lol'd!

 

[venusinpisces]

Wow. You, my dear, have lost *ALL* credibility.

There is a difference between acting ghetto, which many rich people do for street cred, and not having a grasp on the basic laws of grammar. It's usually not too hard to tell the difference and, in the case of African Princess/Muslimah Queen, she clearly had problems with constructing a logical sentence which will get in the way of becoming a truly "rich" person in this country. You might be able to squeak into the middle class but nothing beyond that. It's also not too hard to come up with nice clothes and jewelry, like what the anarchists mentioned as "evidence" of wealth. Even people at the food stamp office dress in Gucci(usually quick money they got from selling crack or similar)! Surface appearances are no indication of true wealth or status. Again, we are going through the same shit so it's probably a good time to end the conversation. I also want to repeat that I'm not siding with the property owners in any way because what they did was wrong. But this was clearly an entirely unnecessary situation that could have easily been avoided.

 

[rock city]

Wow those are some big generalizations there you sure seem to know these ghetto types down to a tee.. So, because they own it, its cool for them to let the house sit there and decay, a haven for crack heads and rapists? No, its not fuckin cool. I dont care who owns it, the stupid fucks just took it as a strike against their pride, they dont give a flying fuck about that house or the neighborhood, because they dont fuckin live there.

 

[venusinpisces]

Again, I don't agree with how they handled the situation in any way. But it's just common sense that if you take over property after you've already been asked to leave, then conflict is inevitable. This is just not a situation where you have any chance of establishing long term residency unless you use the law to justify it. You basically placed them in the position where violence was the only option they had to hold on to their property. I don't agree with what they did, but I also think you could have left the first time. As for crackheads, they are squatters too, the same as yourself. You have no more right to occupy the building than they do. If you move into a neighborhood and then complain about the homeless people that are already living there, then all you're doing is providing a house for anarchist scenesters. As for my generalizations, they come from having lived in West Oakland, not too far from where the squat is located, and witnessing everything that goes on there. I'm not an expert on people's lives by any means but it's not hard to figure out that a gold chain does not equal a good future.

 

[venusinpisces]

I think you're an idiot. I dont know what their status has to do with anything but they were definately well to do. Also huge pieces of shit. You're pretty good at makin assumptions and thanks for the recommendations I'll keep em in mind and tuck my tail between my legs and flail off whenever somethin diceys goin on. .

Also, the only possible exception I could think of where an African immigrant who speaks Ebonics is a rich person in this country
would be if they were in the mafia, meaning they were part of a well-connected network of people who derived their status sheerly through illegal activities. In which case there's a good chance they could literally get away with murdering you guys and not suffer any legal repercussions, making you an idiot for not getting out of the situation when you could have. The neighborhood you all were in is not far from an area where drive by shootings are a regular part of life. I don't think you realize exactly how lucky you were to walk away without any injuries in that situation. It's not my purpose to make anyone feel bad about their poor decisions. I just want to help instill the common sense necessary for avoiding bad situations. Because sometimes your pride is really not the most important thing, especially when it comes to other people's safety.

 

[venusinpisces]

This may be a good place to post a link to an STP thread written by a girl whose boyfriend was shot in the head while they were squatting in Oakland. If conflict avoidance seems like it doesn't apply to you, just read this story and then maybe it will be a little more appealing.
http://squattheplanet.com/around-campfire/stories/5371-condition-oakland.html

 

[Diagaro]

This may be a good place to post a link to an STP thread written by a girl whose boyfriend was shot in the head while they were squatting in Oakland. If conflict avoidance seems like it doesn't apply to you, just read this story and then maybe it will be a little more appealing.
http://squattheplanet.com/around-campfire/stories/5371-condition-oakland.html

Yep also a good point.
Read thread, feels bad man.jp
oakland can be a mutherfucker if you don't know how to act in predominantly black crack infested areas, Pro tip if your white you don't belong there, you are the minority and are subject to what ever physical or mortal peril that neurotic's and drug addicts may deem worth wile to inflict on you or your "PEEPS"

 

[plagueship]

man you just KNOW that any "anarchist" going off on the "calling the cops is totally fucked up!!!" line is someone who has NEVER been in a situation where they or their loved one's safety was threatened in some overwhelming situation they didn't know how or were simply unable to deal with. "cops" seem to be a perpetual bogeyman to the anarchist mentality, but here's a shocking thought, what if they are just a piece of the system like any other? not calling them is not going to cause a revolution. and sometimes it will only get you hurt or killed. there is nothing righteous, politically/ethically enlightened, or even mildly intelligent about that.

also to be clear i don't sympathize with anyone in particular in this situation. i am just sick of ideological nonsense and experiential ignorance being paraded as if it were an actual viewpoint. whether they "should or shouldn't have" been squatting there is really not my concern or place to say but i think it's obvious this was a fight over a house where two sides had very different attitudes and weapons for it. but what it wasn't was what certain "antiracists" have tried to make it into, whenever a dark-skinned person hits a lighter-skinned person it is a blow against "white imperialism"? give me a fucking break...

 

[rideitlikeyoustoleit]

I wrote an article for slingshot about all of this which you can read here :Slingshot! Current Issue

I feel like this forum is really racist and uninformed. The family was not well off, they had inherited the house from a relative and had just gotten money from a family members divorce to start working on the house. The squatters had made an oral agreement to leave by a certain day, and they broke that.

Either way, the safehouse had a fire recently and is pretty fucked up now.

 

[plagueship]

totally, anyone who disagrees with you is racist. that is the #1 rule of leftist political debate.

it sounds to me like pretty much like the owners acted like cops and the squatters called the cops, which makes it hard to understand from an anarchist viewpoint why anyone would support either camp.

you don't like what the owners did, you just like that they did it together? as if they woudl have some kind of sympathy for your anarchist ideals or as if they did it in an anarchist way? "support for victims of assault" - don't you know the hip pc term is "survivor" and that it never applies to white males?

 

[Snipe Junkie]

wont you people learn how to sleep outside!!!

 

[rideitlikeyoustoleit]

Well, as an update, the Safehouse stayed abandoned and then had a really bad fire. Now it's still sitting, boarded up and with a burned out roof, so I guess I was wrong and the owners lied after all.

 

[ped]

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