Subject: Mother Jones Reporter Booted From Fascist SWAT Convention In Oakland For Act Of Reporting Mon Sep 08, 2014 3:08 am
Shane Bauer was booted from the Urban Shield convention after one of the vendors complained about him 'filming.'
Oakland is having a SWAT convention today, and Mother Jones reporter Shane Bauer has been sending out some amazing images from it. Scary images. Image that confirm everything you thought about police militarization. Like this one:
Here is the University of California, Berkeley SWAT team, which is used to respond to muggings of students. pic.twitter.com/FtOU9HIQ45 — Shane Bauer (@shane_bauer) September 7, 2014
A cop just took our media badges for the #UrbanShield SWAT training. Says his captain called and told him to do it. Not clear why. — Shane Bauer (@shane_bauer) September 7, 2014
Someone didn't care for either the video or stills they were taking, even though they remained in the areas where they were told filming was permitted. I'll bet it was one of these guys:
But officials from the Alameda County Sheriff's Office, which coordinates the conference, hit back at Quan's statement. "Mayor Quan has had little to no involvement with Urban Shield. She does not have the authority to tell Urban Shield or anyone that they can't come into the City of Oakland," said Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman for the office. "We recognize that she can influence the Oakland convention center, but we find it amazing that the mayor of Oakland does not want better training for the cities' first responders nor the hotel tax revenue, sales tax revenue, and low crime rate in the downtown area that Urban Shield and its 5,000-plus attendees has provided in the last few years to the City of Oakland," he said.
Yeah, because Oakland hasn't seen any abuse by the police. Sure.