Occupy San Francisco was a collaboration that began with a demonstration event located at

Justin Herman Plaza Embarcadero Plaza, previously known as Justin Herman Plaza from its opening in 1972 until 2017, is a plaza near the intersection of Market and Embarcadero in San Francisco's Financial District, in the U.S. state of California. It is owned by Bos ...

in the Embarcadero and in front of the Federal Reserve building on

Market Street Market Street may refer to: *Market Street, Cambridge, England *Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia * Market Street, George Town, Penang, Malaysia *Market Street, Manchester, England *Market Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia ...

in the

Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. It is based on the

Occupy Wall Street Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest movement against economic inequality and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, in September 2011. It gave rise to t ...

movement that began in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

on September 17, 2011 and is one of several "Occupy" protest sites in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

; other sites include

Occupy Oakland Occupy Oakland refers to a collaboration and series of demonstrations in Oakland, California that started in October 2011. As part of the Occupy movement, protestors have staged occupations, most notably at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in front of Oakl ...

and

Occupy San Jose Occupy may refer to: * ''Occupy'' (book), a 2012 short study of the Occupy movement by Noam Chomsky * Occupy movement, an international protest that began in New York See also * * Occupancy Within the context of building construction and ...

. As of June 2012, Occupy San Francisco had continued to engage in organized meetings, events and actions.

Chronology

On September 17, 2011, a small group of about 10 protesters set up camp in front of a Bank of America building in the

. The protesters moved to Union Square for one day then relocated to the entrance to the Federal Reserve Building on September 29, 2011 where they set up tents, sleeping bags, and tarps. On October 7, 2011, the encampment consisting of tents, cooking gear, and other belongings was dismantled and taken away by the San Francisco police and city workers because it posed a public safety risk. One protester was arrested. The protestors, however, remained at the Federal Reserve site. An additional protest site was set up at Justin Herman Plaza on the evening of October 15, 2011. The San Francisco police and city workers dismantled the camp the next evening because it was in violation of city codes. Five protesters were arrested. The camp was rebuilt the next day, on October 17, 2011. Protesters attended the San Francisco Police Commission meeting on October 19, 2011, to protest their treatment on October 15. An initially contentious meeting ended when Police Chief Greg Suhr told the protesters that he is working with Mayor Ed Lee to provide port-a-potties and hand washing stations at Justin Herman Plaza. Police raided a section of the Occupy San Francisco camp in the early hours of November 16, dismantling 15 tents which formed an overspill from the main encampment in Justin Herman Plaza and arresting seven people. On November 16, hundreds of demonstrators, many of whom were California college students, marched through downtown San Francisco to protest the continuing tuition and fee hikes proposed and approved by the University of California Regents. Along the way, about 200 demonstrators staged a sit-in at a Bank of America branch. The bank was chosen because UC Regent Monica Lozano is on the bank's board of directors. Some demonstrators jumped on desks and wrote on the wall in chalk. One man was seen urinating in the corner. Roughly 100 demonstrators remained in the branch, set up a tent, sat down, and linked arms. 95 demonstrators were arrested for trespassing. The main encampment at Justin Herman Plaza was dismantled following a raid at approximately 1:00am on December 7. Seventy protesters were arrested on suspicion of illegal lodging in a public park. The site retained a police presence for several days, with signs posted stating the park was closed for renovation. Crowds swelled at the original protest site, outside the Federal Reserve building, and on December 8 it had developed into an encampment. The site continued to grow until Sunday, December 11, when police dismantled the encampment and arrested 55 protesters in the process. In January 2012, a few members of Occupy San Francisco stated they will be submitting an application with the California Department of Financial Institutions to charter a credit union. The credit union, to be named People's Reserve Credit Union, will follow the pattern of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh with low interest rate loans being granted to those people who generally do not qualify for credit.

Responses and reception

San Francisco Board of Supervisors member and mayoral candidate

John Avalos John Avalos is an American politician. He served two terms as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 2008 to 2016. Avalos represented District 11 in San Francisco, consisting of the Crocker-Amazon, Excelsior, Ingleside, Oce ...

has visited the Federal Reserve site and said of the October 7, 2011 camp dismantling: "With our unemployment rate nearing 10 percent, we have a responsibility to be a sanctuary for the 99 percent. Instead, last night we witnessed that 99 percent being detained, arrested and intimidated with force." On October 27, 2011 the police massed at the Potrero Hill substation and planned a raid, under orders from the Mayor to clean up perceived health issues. Some members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (the city council of San Francisco) stood in solidarity with the Occupy San Francisco movement, and the police canceled their raid. On February 28, 2012, the protest site at 101 Market began to be Occupied 24 hours once again. There is also a De-Colonize Yoga event every Friday above the 16th and Mission Bart Station (10 weeks continuous). A free store in Daly City is currently open on Saturdays between 10am and 5pm. General Assemblies still occur on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6pm. There are attempts to continue a Saturday General Assembly that is not currently weekly. Occupy Education's "99-mile March for Education" to Sacramento was supported by Occupy San Francisco members and was covered by Occupy San Francisco Media members on March 1, 2012 through March 5, 2012.

Marches

The first march took place on September 29, 2011. On Wednesday, October 5, 2011, hundreds of people participated in a mid-day march from the Federal Reserve protest site to Civic Center Plaza. On October 15, 2011, thousands participated in a march from

to the

San Francisco City Hall San Francisco City Hall is the seat of government for the City and County of San Francisco, California. Re-opened in 1915 in its open space area in the city's Civic Center, it is a Beaux-Arts monument to the City Beautiful movement that epitomi ...

. Dubbed the "Global Day of Action," #15october, "Occupy Earth," and now known as the

15 October 2011 global protests The 15 October 2011 global protests were part of a series of protests inspired by the Arab Spring, the Icelandic protests, the Portuguese "Geração à Rasca", the Spanish "Indignants", the Greek protests, and the Occupy movement. The protes ...

, it was a broad coordination of people-to-people diplomacy between online activists around the world, including many from Occupy San Francisco.

Gallery

File:Occupy_SF_October_13_2011-2.jpg File:Occupy_SF_October_13_2011-3.jpg File:Occupy_SF_October_13_2011-4.jpg File:Occupy_SF_October_13_2011-5.jpg File:Occupy_SF_October_13_2011.jpg File:Global Day of Action October 15 2011 at San Francisco City Hall.jpg File:Occupy_SF_Better_System.jpg

References

External links

Occupy San Francisco
{{Occupy movement Occupy movement in California 2011 in California History of San Francisco 2010s in San Francisco Protests in the San Francisco Bay Area