As noted on WNYC’s The Takeaway radio show, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan explained yesterday that leaders from around the country recently discussed their respective Occupy protests on a group call, leading some to wonder if the recent crackdowns — including San Francisco, Chapel Hill, Denver, Oakland, and today in Zuccotti Park — were coordinated nationally. “I was recently on a conference call with 18 cities across the country who had the same situation,” Quan said in a BBC interview, “where what had started as a political movement and a political encampment ended up being an encampment no longer in control by the people who started them.” The Oakland encampment was cleared again yesterday and 33 people were arrested relatively peacefully, after two previous attempts at removing protesters turned violent late last month. Following the police raid, Quan’s deputy mayor Sharon Cronu and legal adviser, Dan Siegel, resigned. “Support Occupy Oakland, not the 1% and its government facilitators,” Siegel tweeted.
