That Didn’t Last Long

At the risk of being called a communist I expressed my support for the actions of activists in Oakland reopening a library that was abandoned and sealed by the city. Since tax victims were forced to pay for the building why shouldn’t they reopen it and get some kind of use from it? Only a violent entity more obsessed with authority and power than people would stand in the way of such an action. Needless to say the City of Oakland is more concerned with authority and power than people:

Books were still available for checkout Tuesday but from the sidewalk outside the vacant city building that briefly had been occupied as a “people’s library” before police shut it down.

Ten to 15 people left the property at 1449 Miller Ave., near International Boulevard, shortly after officers entered the building about 11 p.m. Monday and told activists they were trespassing, said Officer Johnna Watson, a police department spokeswoman.

Members of the makeshift library project, which drew many veteran activists, including some who had been part of Occupy Oakland, had been in the building since 7 a.m. Monday. The activists said the vacant building in the San Antonio neighborhood had been left unlocked.

After word spread on Facebook, about a dozen volunteers arrived and started stocking it with donated books and clearing out grime, old mattresses, graffiti and other markings. They put up a bilingual banner proclaiming the “Victor Martinez People’s Library,” named for the late Latino author.

That’s what the state does. It takes money from you at gunpoint to build a library, it then abandons the library and seals the building, and then it uses force to protect the abandoned building that was paid for by the community through the force of its gun.