CLICK HERE if you’re viewing on a mobile device.
OAKLAND — Protesters rallied near a West Oakland homeless encampment after Alameda County sheriff’s deputies arrived to enforce a court order to clear a fenced lot Thursday.
Around 2:40 p.m., social-media posts called for activists and residents in support of city curbside communities to support the encampment residents by meeting at a nearby intersection.
Soon after, several dozen protesters gathered by the 4.5-acre fenced lot, part of the Wood Street encampment, to block at least one truck carrying fencing and railings meant to reinforce the lot.
Pat Smith, a lawyer for Game Changer LLC, the company that purchased two acres of the lot in 2016 and another two acres in 2017, said its plan was to clear the lot before turning it over to city officials to install a safe space with water and electric power hookups for recreational-vehicle residents.
The company plans to rent the lot to the city for a dollar for at least two years, Smith said, adding that it will return property on the lot to its owners.
“The city requires the property to be free of people, and clean, and then they’ll take it,” she said. “We think we can do that in about a week or two, but we have to leave their property here for 15 days, so they can come back and get it, if they get in touch with us.”
Smith said she expected to turn the lot over to the city by November 13. During the year, the site has seen regular pushback from activists who find proposed city solutions on homelessness lacking as well as ongoing vulnerabilities, including earlier reports of shootings and fires close by. In a statement Friday, Oakland city spokeswoman Karen Boyd said in part that the city “is eager to be able to move forward with this important project as we know that it will provide much-needed relief for our community.”
On an eviction restoration notice posted by sheriff’s deputies to a new fence where a fresh lock was installed Thursday, several names were listed as evicted from an unpaved lot between 2201 and 2701 Wood Street.
One name was Cameron McKeel, a three-year resident who sat on the ground near the lot. He said he owned an RV, four buses and a van in the encampment, that he grows cannabis, and plans to return to his fenced-off property.
“Today I came out to look for some food, and as I was walking back in they swarmed me, surrounded me and told me I couldn’t go back in, then called in a locksmith and they said it was an issue over trespassing and I said ‘Well I haven’t spoken with the owner, there hasn’t been a trespass, you can’t be arrested for trespassing on the first time,” McKeel said.
“You’ve got to be told you’re trespassing and violate that, then you get arrested. So they said it was over trespassing … Then they broke into my bus and broke into the RV without a warrant and I’d already told them that I was waiving none and exercising all [of my rights], that they did not have my consent and that there was no warrant. But then they still went with the locksmith and broke into our residences … So they violated a whole lot of rights.”
McKeel called the deputies’ actions “tyrannical thuggery.”
“They’re armed and if I had made a move to go into my place, I would’ve been physically handled. Yet they’re able to break laws to tell me I haven’t had my day in court yet. They’re calling it an unimproved lot and it’s sustained me and others for the better part of five years. It’s definitely improved, it’s not a bare lot.
“The world’s got a lot of problems and I’m not one of them. I’m willing to be part of the solution,” McKeel said.
“Whose land is this? #Ohlone land.”
Several dozen activists are protesting @ACSOSheriffs enforcing a “forceable detainer” (which the activists called an eviction in spite of a moratorium til next March) on a fenced off, 4.5 acre part of the Wood St. encampment in West #Oakland pic.twitter.com/NEMmhPKhHg— Dylan Bouscher (@DylanBouscher) October 29, 2020
Fix Arbo, 27, has lived on the fenced off land in the Wood Street encampment for two years. He’s standing in front of a fencing and railing workers’ truck, leading protesters in blocking the truck’s exit after a new fence was installed around the 4.5 acres today #WestOakland pic.twitter.com/9VTIRNiFZO
— Dylan Bouscher (@DylanBouscher) October 29, 2020
Cameron McKeel owns an RV, four buses and a van in the Wood Street encampment. He’s lived there about three years, grows cannabis and plans to return to his fenced off property. “The world’s got a lot of problems and I’m not one of them. I’m willing to be part of the solution.” pic.twitter.com/KgzCcMD5Ua
— Dylan Bouscher (@DylanBouscher) October 30, 2020
Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.
