Oakland Mayor claims she was unaware of PD's plans.

[RandySF]

Oakland -- Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who is being criticized from all sides for a police sweep of the Occupy Oakland encampment, said Wednesday that she was not involved in the planning and did not even know when the action was going to take place.

The decision to raid the camp outside City Hall was made by City Administrator Deanna Santana on Oct. 19 with consultation from interim Police Chief Howard Jordan after campers repeatedly blocked paramedics and police from entering the camp despite reports of violence and injuries.

News conference

Quan told a news conference at City Hall on Wednesday that her input on the raid was limited.

"I only asked the chief to do one thing: to do it when it was the safest for both the police and the demonstrators," she said.



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/1...

[Tx4obama]

1. Mayor Quan wasn't in Oakland Tuesday, she was in D.C.

In the middle of night last night the news broke that she was leaving DC and would be back in Oakland on Wednesday.

Sounds like City Administrator Deanna Santana and interim Police Chief Howard Jordan both need to turn in their resignations ASAP!

[CreekDog]

4. Not so fast with the forgiveness buddy...

she just complimented the police for their handling of the protests in Oakland while she was gone.

her police chief when asked about the injured protestor (who was named and was all over the news) said, mockingly, "who?!"

she was a good progressive when she ran for mayor, but that doesn't mean she isn't happily presiding over something pretty ugly now.

[Tx4obama]

45. There is NOTHING in my comment about forgiveness. n/t

[piratefish08]

13. Good - then firing the police chief and the officer who attempted murder should be a foregone

conclusion then.

If she doesn't immediately fire those involved she's fucking complicit.

[Ganja Ninja]

36. Exactly. n/t

[RandySF]

39. She was called

She complained that she was sleepy because she took a redeye to DC.

[Poll_Blind]

2. Oh, ok. That's fine, she can fire the police chief then. Problem solved.

Keith Olbermann Calls On Mayor Of Oakland To Fire Police Chief Or Resign

Accountability.

PB

[Are_grits_groceries]

3. Quan is a

lying sack of shit to use an upscale term.

[coalition_unwilling]

5. If Quan wishes to retain any credibility whatsoever, she must do

one of two things:

1) Fire Deanna Santana and Howard Jordan immediately

or

2) Take full responsibility for the disaster, apologize and resign.

Right now, the Occupy Oakland General Assembly has more legitimacy as a representative of the people than Quan does, imho.

[Selatius]

6. If she is sincere, she'll hold the police chief accountable for going overboard.

There was absolutely no reason to display such a high level of brutality. If she wants to be cowardly about it, she'll do nothing.

[Fumesucker]

7. Accountability..

It's for the 99%..

[chollybocker]

8. Yet she admits that it was her call:

"...(I asked the chief) to do it when it was the safest for both the police and the demonstrators..."

It's her boondoggle now.

[truth2power]

9. She didn't know? Really? REALLY? OK, so let's see....

Can their asses. Today! Yeah, fat chance of that happening.

So, walk the walk, Ms. Mayor, or STFU.

[malthaussen]

10. Ya know, Ms Mayor

... when Harry Truman said "the buck stops here," he wasn't talking about dollars.

-- Mal

[tavalon]

11. That doesn't come close to washing your hands Mayor Quan

[tcaudilllg]

12. Who will Oakland run against her next spring?

[sarge43]

14. Ah, the circular firing squad is forming

Anyone care to bet how long it'll be before Santana and Jordan start "She made us to do it!"?

[OneBlueSky]

15. too bad . . . ask Harry Truman where the buck stops . . . n/t

[Bake]

16. She didn't know? BULLSHIT!

I believe that about as far as I can piss against the wind.

Bake

[Aerows]

17. Did that look "safe" to you, Mayor Quan?

That looked ANYTHING but safe to me. Excuses don't cut it, lady. It happened on your watch, and it's still your fault. Passing the buck onto some city administrator is a lame attempt to shield yourself from blame.

EDIT: Oh, now her response is "I don't know everything." http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/1...

Well, if you don't know that this whole event was unacceptable, you certainly don't know enough to be Mayor. Or enough to run a bake sale.

[CanonRay]

18. She ought to fire somebody or resign herself.

[City Lights]

19. Way to pass the buck, Quan.

Something stinks. Maybe it would be best if all the buck passers resigned in shame.

[mulsh]

20. a week or so ago Quan was supportive of Occupy Oakland

then this. As a life long Oakland resident I've got to say it looks like she and her cronies were bought off pretty quickly and probably cheaply.

[lunatica]

21. It happened on her watch

and she posted an asinine comment praising Deanna Santana and Police Chief Jordan on Facebook

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

https://www.facebook.com/MayorJeanQuan

[SidDithers]

22. Obama should remove her from office...nt

Sid

[City Lights]

24. .

[leftynyc]

29. Are you really this stupid? (n/t)

[SidDithers]

33. I didn't think the sarcasm tag was needed...

guess I was wrong.

Sid

[RandySF]

38. Actually, it was

Because someone would inevitably say it seriously.

[SidDithers]

42. You're right...

You'd think I would know that by now.

Sid

[frylock]

44. yes

[Iggo]

23. Fire the chief, Jean.

[Javaman]

25. it's amazing when a mayor tries to pass off being innocent

if she was "unaware" then she should be fired or resign.

but we all know she's full of shit.

[tk2kewl]

26. the replace the chief

[orwell]

27. Howard Jordan is the interim chief...

...Chief Anthony Batts had just resigned a couple of weeks ago in an ugly dispute with Quan. The local news media was all over it.

Batts basically said that Quan wouldn't let him do his job.

She sounds like she is someone who would be way in the loop on a decision like this.

I'm calling BS on her buck shifting.

Don Perata, a well known Bay Area pol was considered the likely winner for the mayor's office when Quan came out of nowhere and narrowly beat him last November. I suspect with Quan's track record to date, many are wishing that they had voted for the more seasoned Perata.

I hear that there is a vigorous recall effort starting...

[hifiguy]

28. Let tjhe buck-passing and CYAing

begin. Seems this didn't go over so well. A pox on all their houses.

[lumberjack_jeff]

30. "I didn't know" doesn't make you look better, it makes you look worse. n/t

[Aerows]

43. I know!

I'm so tired of the "I have no recollection of that" and "I didn't know" defense. It means either one of two things: You are hopelessly incompetent or you are lying through your teeth. We've heard entirely too much of that from politicians of late.

[Ignis]

48. +1

I don't know who is coaching Quan here, but they're doing a poor job.

[AsahinaKimi]

31. She was ultimately responsible for what goes on in her city..

She needs to:
1. Apologize.
2. Fire the Police Chief.
3. Fire City Administrator Deanna Santana.
4. Have the city pay for the hospital bill for the veteran.
5. Resign.

[RandySF]

37. She just fired one chief.

As much as people may complain about Batts, his police were much more retrained during the Oscar Grant protests, which did result in looting, than the other night. you think she's going to admit this appointment was a failure?

[AsahinaKimi]

40. is there a link to that?

Also..more than one police chiefs? That sounds odd.

[TBF]

32. You can't have it both ways, Jean. Cowgirl up here and take responsibility.

If the chief is rogue, you fire his ass.

[SwampG8r]

34. if she 'didnt know' then

was she a psychic when she said "I only asked the chief to do one thing: to do it when it was the safest for both the police and the demonstrators,"
that is a statement of what she said before it happened
you know.... at the time she didnt know about it

[DevonRex]

41. Damn. Finally. I read the whole thread to see if anybody caught the obvious

fallacy before I posted. A couple of folks obviously got it but you stated the problem outright.

[chollybocker]

49. See my #8.

[Ganja Ninja]

35. You know how lame that sounds?

Like Rick Perry or Herman Cain saying "I was only joking".

If she was really not part of it then fire the police chief or at least put him on leave pending an investigation. But there will be no investigation because she was likely in on it all the way.

[seabeyond]

46. "blocked paramedics and police from entering the camp" i thought it was cause of trash and pee

seems the story continually changes.

[EFerrari]

47. Was she also unaware of the 5-10 other agencies that were called in to Oakland?

Was she in a coma?