Why has this happened Oakland and not elsewhere? The Occupy- there has been the most radical and militant. In fact they have been calling themselves the Oakland Commune, after the one in Paris in 1871. The latter, under vastly differnt circumstances, eventually declared itself the legitimate government. They held out heroically for a couple of months, but were crushed and mass executions followed.
The history of the Paris Commune may not be well known outside radical circles, but the people who own this planet (and own the Oakland Police Department) understand it all too well. By calling themselves the Oakland Commune, the protesters were implicitly challenging the legitimacy of the bourgeois state.
Long live the Oakland Commune!
