Oakland Mayor Jean Quan made the right move this week when she allowed Occupy Oakland protesters to return to the plaza in front of City Hall. She also deserves credit for apologizing for people getting hurt in the police action on Tuesday night and for apologizing to Iraqi war veteran Scott Olsen, whose skull was fractured after apparently being hit by a nonlethal projectile fired by police.
But we still think Quan is wrong when she keeps requesting that occupiers not camp in front of City Hall. As we’ve written previously, camping is what the Occupy Movement is all about. It’s about occupying a public space, 24 hours a day, for as long as people can do it or until our system of favoring Wall Street and the wealthy over middle- and low-income citizens changes.
But today at a City Hall press conference, Quan repeated her stance, declaring: “We don’t want them to camp downtown.”
