Public Comment

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United today condemned the early morning police raid on the peaceful Occupy Oakland encampment, and criticized Oakland Mayor Jean Quan for joining the list of mayors employing repression against the occupy movement. 

According to press reports, police stormed the encampment near Oakland's City Hall well before dawn, with billy clubs and shotguns, uprooting tents and making multiple arrests. 

"This unwarranted attack on peaceful protesters places Oakland Mayor Jean Quan in shameful company with mayors like Chicago's Rahm Emanuel and other cities whose response to public expression of protest is repression rather than respect for the rights of free speech and assembly," said CNA Treasurer Martha Kuhl, an Oakland RN. 

CNA called on the city to drop all charges against those arrested in the raid, and encouraged protest calls be made to Mayor Quan at 510-238-3141. 

"Few cities have endured more pain and abandonment from the reckless behavior of Wall Street and the banks than Oakland. Mayor Quan should be supporting the occupy movement, not breaking up demonstrations," Kuhl said. 

California nurses have joined rallies and marches with Occupy Oakland actions, and set up nurses' humanitarian first aid stations in a number of cities, including San Francisco and San Diego, support activity that will continue despite the escalating police attacks on the occupy movement, said Kuhl. 

In Oakland, "we will support efforts of Occupy Oakland to rebuild and continue the protests," Kuhl said.