It's a race to the bottom for police militarization and brutality in Oakland. Despite losing the long-running Urban Shield in the face of nationwide outrage over police militarization and use of force in 2014, OPD has heaps of dangerous high and low tech weapons. Some of the weapons are from the US military via the 1033 program.
Weapons and equipment OPD (along with neighboring jurisdictions through Mutual Aid) deploys against its own people:
- Bearcat APC
- "less lethal" rubber bullets, bean bags
- LRAD sonic crowd dispersal weapon
- teargas
- weaponized golf cart
Here are some tactics the OPD has used:
- "kettling" protesters into a confined area and then arresting them for not dispersing
- shooting protesters at street level from Highway 24 [1] [2] (2014-12-09)
- undercover police officer from CHP waves a pistol around at protesters, reporters at 24th and Harrison (2014-12-11)
