Oakland, Calif., becomes epicenter of movement

October 29, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Combined dispatches

OAKLAND, Calif.

What began as just another anti-Wall Street protest “occupation” in a midsize California city has grown into a global phenomenon and turned Oakland into an epicenter of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Sparked by the injury Tuesday night of 24-year-old Iraq War veteran and ex-Marine Scott Olsen, the Occupy Oakland movement almost overnight became an international symbol of resistance around which millions of people now are rallying.

Left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore addressed hundreds of anti-Wall Street protesters in front of Oakland’s City Hall on Friday, saying the events there over the past week have helped change the national discussion about the movement.

Moore urged the protesters, many of whom are demonstrating against what they see as a growing disparity between rich and poor, to continue their movement until they run the country.

In cities across the country, thousands of protesters Thursday night expressed their solidarity with Olsen — and by extension the city of Oakland — by chanting and holding signs that said: “We are all Scott Olsen.” As the Occupy Wall Street movement continues to evolve, it is quickly becoming clear that Oakland is at the vanguard.

“At a certain point, we have to overcome the fear that so many of us are feeling,” said Josh Chavanne, a 29-year-old Web designer and Oakland native. “This is our chance to make history.” The world is indeed paying attention. On Friday morning, White House press secretary Jay Carney addressed the violence that led to Olsen’s injury.

“I know that [President Barack Obama] is aware of it,” Carney said when asked whether the president knew about Olsen’s condition. “As I said yesterday, it’s very important that we remember that we have a long and noble tradition of free expression, free speech and protests and demonstrations in this country.”

But in newsrooms, bars, homes and other protest sites around the world, the tenor and mood of the Oakland protest continues to captivate imaginations and spark questions about where the movement is headed next.

In Washington, the online news magazine Politico asked whether Olsen’s injuries in Oakland would become “a Kent State moment” and referred to a comment made two weeks earlier by an MSNBC commentator who speculated that the movement might soon see “a climax moment of class warfare somehow played out on screen.”

That moment seems to have come.