Figures… Radical Leftists and Islamists Think They're Blocking Israeli Ship at Oakland Port – It Was Chinese
Posted by Jim Hoft on Monday, June 21, 2010, 5:23 AM
It figures. Radical leftists and Islamists thought they were blocking an Israeli ship from unloading yesterday at the Oakland port.
It was Chinese. The Israeli ship didn’t arrive until 6 PM, well after most of the protesters went home.
Radical Islamists and Leftists joined together again to protest a ship owned by Zim Lines, a shipping company is based in Israel, that arrived in Oakland harbor on Sunday.
Here’s video from the protest:
The labor and community activists picketed three gates at the Port of Oakland in order to shut down unloading of an Israeli Zim Line ship.
Zombie posted a report from the rally.
Too bad it was the wrong ship.
Israel National News reported, via Free Republic:
Some 500 anti-Israel protestors arrived at the Oakland, California port early Sunday morning, hoping to block an Israeli ship from unloading its cargo. However, the ship did not arrive, and the crowd prevented workers from unloading a Chinese ship instead.
The protestors say they were protesting the recent Israel-Turkey flotilla incident, though they displayed great ignorance about what actually happened; one of them even compared barely armed Israeli Defense Forces troops with Somali pirates.
“Free, free Palestine! Don’t cross the picket line!” the picketers shouted – and in fact, the longshoremen chose not to clash with them, for fear of “getting into fistfights,” a union leader said. No one was arrested.
The Israeli ship arrived only at 6 PM, more than 12 hours after the protestors, but by that time most of the latter had left.
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Published May 24, 2012 at 8:46 pm - 89 Comments
yankeemom commented:
That just made my day!!
Idiocy runs rampant…
archer52 commented:
All that TRE and me on the other side of the country.
Man, it IS all about timing.
LimoLibsStink commented:
0bama:
Yes, it is true I got my facts wrong. I suck.
But, I have an excuse. Barney Frank was supposed to scout out Oakland but, ended up in a Cluster Muck in a San Francisco Guys Bath House. He has a lot of young boys there.
Bill Ayers couldn’t be reached because of some odd explosion in his house. So, it is not my fault! It is Barney Frank’s fault.
My limousine is belching smoke and I must go. But, I will leave you with this thought. The Chinese suck! They deserve to be humiliated. Good day.
Kemo Sabe commented:
What do you expect from people who wage war by strapping bombs to themselves.
neomom commented:
How did they get that close? I thought the ports were secure? Well, not really secure but at least keep people from getting that close? Muslim flags being carried at an American port? WT Heck. There should have been some billy club action. Some days when I sit on my front porch, I totally expect to see a Nuke flash from a terrorist bomb. The people that are supposed to protect us are careless and foolish. Iodine tablets people, get your Iodine tablets.
Betsy Ross commented:
Maybe next time they can read “Protesting for Dummies” ; )
Scott J commented:
FAIL
Joylily514 commented:
LOL! Thanks for the laugh. I will chuckle about this all day.
HandyBill commented:
Epic Fail
Trish commented:
I’ll say it again, I honestly didn’t realize that morons came in sizes. These must’ve been extra larges…
Joanne commented:
That is too funny – I doubt the Chinese were amused.
richard mcenroe commented:
The PLAN will have a task force in Oakland harbor next week “to protect their legitimate national interests.”
In a statement released by the White House, president Obama said he would like to prevent that,but “any action would remove any encouragement for the GOP to support comprehensive immigration reform.”
Taxpayer1234 commented:
Bwahahahahaha!
My Monday is getting better by the hour!
jonyjoe101 commented:
The longshoreman get paid whether they work or not, for them it was a paid holiday thats why they joined in on the protest. If they had non union workers they would have just unloaded the ships Protest or no protest.
Where’s the police? you can protest as long as you don’t interfere with freedom of movement of other people.
Oh I forgot oakland is a suburb of Sin Francisco.
No Man commented:
“Someone said Hitler was on that ship!”
Chisum commented:
Liberal heads are exploding!
Breaking: Supreme Court upholds anti-terror material-support law
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/06/21/breaking-supreme-court-upholds-anti-terror-material-support-law/
Finncrisp commented:
If we are not prepared to defend our ports, what the hell are we prepared to defend? Is these protesters did not have a permit, why are they no incarcerated?
This is crap.
Andreas K. commented:
They’re leftists, so DUH!
Socialism rots away your brain, there’s the living proof.
hermie commented:
Longshoremen afraid of getting into fistfights?
Yeah, sure.
Richard Aubrey commented:
Eric Hoffer was a longshoreman.
I guess they’re not all the same.
PinotHead commented:
I was able to visit the Port of Oakland a couple of years ago with someone high up in their management. Even with that, it took us a bit of an effort to pass through security, and trust me, there is security and plenty of it. What I would LOVE to find out is just how this mob was able to simply walk into a high security area? Who authorized them and why? Why isn’t anyone else asking this question? How did the mob know of the ship’s arrival? And how easy is it to get the info? I am sure someone at Homeland Security was involved to get this mob onsite and info passed on to them.
seven commented:
Obama still has a blockade on the Dutch Oil skimmers.
infinite commented:
Oh how the libs show their uber intelligence…
ahahahahaha dumb@$$e$
Anthony Fairfax commented:
I would like to offer two corrections:
The longshore workers did not “agree” with the protestors: they agreed to abide by an ARBITRATOR’S decision not to cross the picket line due to health and safety concerns.
The arbitrator was brought in at the behest of the PMA and the ILWU. Back in 2002, several longshore workers were injured when they got caught up in an anti-war rally at the port, andthe Oakland police used rubber bullets.
Also, according to ZIM, the ship was scheduled to berth at 2 pm on Sunday.
http://www.zim.co.il/VoyageDetails.aspx?id=170&l=4&voyNum=24&vesName=Zim+Shenzhen&vesCode=ZSY&pVoyNum=
However, it was rescheduled to arrive early, according to the SF Marine Exchange and the port, at 5:30 am. However, to diffuse the protest, it remained out at sea near the pilot station until late afternoon.
Anthony Fairfax commented:
Pinothead — you have your facts wrong.
The protestors were stationed OUTSIDE the terminal gates, on a public sidewalk. They were nowhere near any secure area of the terminal.
Also, ship traffic is a matter of public record, just like airline flights, and can easily be tracked online at sites such as http://www.marinetraffic.com. Also, the SF Chronicle published ship arrivals and departures on an almost daily basis.
In fact, ZIM, like most other shipping lines, publishes its vessel schedules on its very own web site. http://www.zim.co.il
Stop looking for a conspiracy where there is none.
PinotHead commented:
Anthony Fairfax,
Have you actually been to Port of Oakland? I was given a private tour in recent times and all I can tell you is the picture depicts protesters INSIDE the port and very near the cranes, way TOO NEAR for my taste. There is a serious size “buffer zone” between the cranes and public access area, this buffer zone is loaded with zillions of containers and is about a mile deep, no way the pictures were made from a mile away. Anyway…
I did send an inquiry to my contact at Port of Oakland asking him just how the protesters gained access, so far no reply and something tells me I may not be receiving one. No conspiracy theories at all, simply commenting on MY OWN experience based on MY OWN visit inside of Port of Oakland.
Again, have you been to Port of Oakland?
PinotHead commented:
Forgot to add. If by your guesstimate the protesters were OUTSIDE the facility and loading docks, then who and how interfered with longshoremen unloading the ship? There is a huge disconnect there, most likely the “talking points” memo was written by the usual clueless “expert” much more in tune with Alinsky Method.
BTW, those admin buildings you see in the picture are INSIDE the facility and PAST the security check points.
Do you work for a union by any chance? Just asking.
Anthony Fairfax commented:
I work at a Port of Oakland terminal facility and am very familiar with secure TWIC zones and security protocols at the Port.
I do not work for a union.
You may have perceived the protesters being on terminal property near the cranes, but that was not the case. They were simply outside the terminal gates. The area was heavily secured by OPD and DHS.
Sensitive terminal areas are now secured by physical barriers that only admit one person at a time, using a valid TWIC access card.
The protest occured outside the SSA terminal. It is certainly not a “mile deep” with containers. Perhaps the camera angle gave a different impression.
No one “interfered” with the longshore labor. Due to the picket line, an arbitrator used by the PMA and ILWU was called in to determine whether it was safe and appropriate for the longshore workers to cross the protest line and report to duty. The arbitrator determined it would be an unsafe situation and thus everyone, both labor and management, followed his determination and did not work the ship until later that night.
PinotHead commented:
“… cross the picket line”? If the protest was OUTSIDE the secured area, as you keep on claiming, how is it that longshoremen could not reach a terminal INSIDE the secured area? Was the entire port closed yesterday? Those cranes are way beyond any security check point and there is no way ANYONE protesting on the outside of secure area could have stopped or created an “unsafe” environment for any workers INSIDE the secure area. What time do union guys report to work these days? I am betting way earlier than the mob (protesters) did, and yet they could not cross the protest line. Right.
You keep on saying things, but they simply do not fit together, by any means or stretch of imagination. Was the ENTIRE port closed off yesterday and no work performed at all, on any ship, incoming or outgoing? If even one ship was worked on, then ANY other ship should have and could have work performed, whether Israeli or Marcian, since protesters were OUTSIDE the secure/work area as you keep saying and union guys are all working INSIDE the area. There is a huge disconnect in your statements and the more “answers” you provide the more questions they bring.
If what you are saying is true, then mafia bosses, err, union management was as complicit in this “protest” as liberal media seem to be. And if so, it is actually even worse than the “damage control” you are working on, this does lead to WH no matter how you cut it.
dcat commented:
leftist dumb asses!
PinotHead commented:
… and union thugs! Really bad combination, dumb and dumber…
Ryan commented:
COmpletely by accident they struck upon an appropriate target in the CHinese. . .
Anthony Fairfax commented:
I am not sure I can explain this any more clearly, but here goes. I hope it clarifies how the terminal is organized and where the protestors where located, which was on public property.
The protestors had picket lines outside of the SSA terminal employee/public entrances. There are open access parking lots where employees, management and guests park. Further inside the terminal are secure gates to access the working areas of the terminal: the cranes, apron, container stacking areas, etc. These are manned by personnel, and you must show proper ID to gain entry.
The longshore labor was instructed by the arbitrator’s decision not to cross the picket lines for safety reasons and thus did not report to work.
For a morning gang, there are staggered reporting hours, which is why the 5:30 am protest worked so well. Walking bosses and supercargoes must report at 6:00 am. Lashers must report at 7:00 am, with the rest of the longshore labor reporting at 8:00 am.
It also worked well because although the longshore labor reported for work, they could not perform their duties, yet were still paid! This is due to the language of the contract between the PMA and ILWU.
No, the entire port was not closed, and I am not sure where you would get that idea. There are 8 terminals at the Port of Oakland, run by different operators, with different shipping lines calling at these terminals. Each has a separate entrance. Each has a slightly different set up. Some have open access parking lots, others have a guarded entrance before their respective parking lots and administration buildings.
Those 7 other terminals were not at all affected by the protest, and operations continued normally. Simply because the protestors prevented work at one terminal, doesn’t mean it shut down work at the other terminals.
It is true that the protest did prevent another vessel (China Shipping) at the same terminal from being worked by labor.
May I suggest you familiarize yourself with the Port of Oakland: http://www.portofoakland.com/pdf/mari_map.pdf
At the Stevedoring Services of America Terminal (berths 57-59), you can see a large green area connected to Middle Harbor Road. This is the open access parking lot that was blocked from the public sidewalk by the protestors.
Did certain ILWU members sympathize with the protesters? I am sure they did. You can see that for yourself on web videos.
Anthony Fairfax commented:
Pinothead – since you have referred to union management as “mob bosses” and union members as “thugs” I wanted to offer some further information, which may help dispel the “liberal media” reports that all longshore labor supported the protest and non-working of the Zim ship.
Actually, the much of the longshore labor wanted to work that day because Sunday is an overtime day, and due to the cargo volume decline in the last 18 months, longshore worker hours have decreased about 20% .
Since the protest/picket line was not related to anything to do with the ILWU, the arbitrator initially ruled that the longshore workers had to report to work. The longshore agreed and were ready to work
However, the Oakland Police Department, when asked by the arbitrator, said they COULD NOT guarantee safe passage of longshore workers through the picket lines So the arbitrator declared an unsafe condition and the workers were placed on standby and paid standby pay, not regular overtime pay.
There is some history here, as back in 2002, an anti-war protest got ugly and the OPD fired rubber bullets into the crowd, hitting several innocent people, including longshore workers trying to report to work.
The OPD’s stance that it could not guarantee safety may have been influenced by that incident, and may also have been a political tactic on its part as it may face a layoff of 150 of its officers due to city budget cuts. It may also have been that the crowd was several hundred people strong, was blocking four terminal entrances, and the OPD was simply outnumbered.