--- title: Defining 'Anarchist' at Occupy Oakland | TIME description: After masked protesters vandalized banks and a Whole Foods grocery, leading to violent clashes with police, the Occupy Oakland movement works to protect its non-violent image canonical: https://time.com/video/aZtTnCM1/ og:title: Defining 'Anarchist' at Occupy Oakland og:description: After masked protesters vandalized banks and a Whole Foods grocery, leading to violent clashes with police, the Occupy Oakland movement works to protect its non-violent image og:url: https://time.com/video/aZtTnCM1/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/aZtTnCM1/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Defining 'Anarchist' at Occupy Oakland twitter:description: After masked protesters vandalized banks and a Whole Foods grocery, leading to violent clashes with police, the Occupy Oakland movement works to protect its non-violent image twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/aZtTnCM1/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Defining 'Anarchist' at Occupy Oakland > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Defining 'Anarchist' at Occupy Oakland [Watch (HLS stream): Defining 'Anarchist' at Occupy Oakland](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aZtTnCM1.m3u8) (4:22)  _Published 2011-11-15. After masked protesters vandalized banks and a Whole Foods grocery, leading to violent clashes with police, the Occupy Oakland movement works to protect its non-violent image_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:19 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [How body cameras are assisting Oakland PD](/video/5rd9fsnv/) ### How body cameras are assisting Oakland PD [What Happens After the Standoff at Occupy Oakland?](/video/sZKpQUPA/) ### What Happens After the Standoff at Occupy Oakland? [Bill Clinton on Unemployment and Occupy Wall Street](/video/SlPlNHT5/) ### Bill Clinton on Unemployment and Occupy Wall Street --- ## Transcript [ SOUND ]. Join us, join us, join us. On November 2nd, the largely peaceful strike in Oakland was eclipsed by nighttime clashes. Police and black clad agitators traded tear gas rounds, rocks, and bottles. Jack, a 24 year old drifter, was in the thick of the chaos. They just started charging us with their billy clubs out. And tear, we heard one, the first tear gas canister went off over here. And, when we heard the explosion over here everyone just started running. The whole barricade fell through. And we all ran off and the cops were like chasing us in their riot line, though, they stayed formed in a line, they were coming at us and something hit me. It was a projectile on their behalf, it like, it ripped my leg open, but. When the smoke cleared more than 100 people were arrested and dozens of businesses damaged. It's difficult to pick a typical representative of Occupy Oakland, but many within the movement worry how its reputation suffers when stand- offs and vandalism dominate the news. Right now, people are waking up to this. Violence, vandals, divide a movement. We need to make sure that we are staying nonviolent. I am an anarchist, but I'm a 100 % committed to nonviolence. I would never throw a rock at a police officer. Right. But at the same time like, I don't condone those tactics, but I wouldn't delegitimize them either. The American Revolution was extremely violent, the Civil War is extremely violent, and a lot of social changes brought about by violence. In running conversations on sidewalks around City Hall Plaza, protesters passionately debate what should be done to prevent radical elements from hijacking their campaign. Without leadership then you have no direction. Okay. You have to have some sort of leadership. When you put that leader thing in front of him, he's gonna have a ego. I gotta agree. Okay, because he's gonna have a ego. My man let me explain something to you. Let me finish, let me finish bro. What I'm saying is basically don't confuse leadership with dictatorship. I don't, I don't. We're not trying to have one, we're not trying to have one person saying, I'm running the Occupy of Oakland movement. Part of the challenge is identifying who is responsible for violence. During the strike, agitators in this so- called black block tactics, dressing up in all black clothing and covering their faces with masks to prevent authorities from identifying people who took part. They vandalized a Whole Foods store and several banks, that escalated into overnight clashes with cops. Some long time participants insist that individuals must do more to stabilize the movement, and that includes policing those who threaten violence. If you see somebody behind a mask that you do not recognize, that's hanging around your crowd. You know, what I'm saying, you know, be vigilant about it. You know, recognize it. Yeah, so recognize it, especially if you're out here for, for the better cause. [ CROSSTALK ]. Jack feels that some are too quick to label and assign blame for the violence. I'm so sick of the word anarchist getting thrown around in the media like it's, like it's this evil being from Hell that's coming to like, eat your children. You know what I mean? Every anarchist I know is in like low poverty homes serving food to people, and having puppet shows for kids and this stuff. Those are the anarchists I know. So I don't, it's like McCarthyism all over again, except with the anarchists this time. You know what I mean? For Jack, violence is a response not a tactic. I'm not a violent person. I'm not gonna, I don't wanna hurt anyone. I don't wanna hurt police officers even. I don't want to. But when you're stomping on my friend's face or kicking in my front door, it's only natural for me to defend myself and my family. And I don't believe that's violence, that's just self defense. One thing everyone agrees on, reaching a consensus on how to proceed won't be easy for a young movement with interests as diverse as its members. For Time Video, this is Jason Motlagh in Oakland. [ SOUND ]. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Defining 'Anarchist' at Occupy Oakland","description":"After masked protesters vandalized banks and a Whole Foods grocery, leading to violent clashes with police, the Occupy Oakland movement works to protect its non-violent image","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/aZtTnCM1/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2011-11-15T17:08:27.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aZtTnCM1.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/aZtTnCM1/","duration":"PT4M22S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/aZtTnCM1/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```