9:30 now it's been uh 3 hours or more that protesters have been blocking 880 Northbound in Oakland at the Fifth Avenue exit and then all the way back stretching for Miles you can see the thousands of cars that are stuck and have been stuck for 3 hours plus in this backup caused by a coordinated economic blockade effort that is happening in the.
Bay Area in the nation and around the world trying to call attention to what's going on uh in the Middle East and just to give you an idea of the backup this is that was 80 at 66th the blockage is up at Fifth Avenue and then here at the Golden Gate Bridge we have a demonstration midspan which is blocking all traffic southbound and police have.
Northbound lanes blocked because they need to access those lanes and also to prevent more people from coming onto the bridge until they can get this taken care of now we have a crew Charles Clifford has been posted at the Golden Gate Bridge and we've talked to him about the fact that you can't get either direction and that traffic is starting.
To back up in San Francisco trying to get onto the bridge CU there's nowhere to go so so traffic is backed up in that direction I have heard from people in Marin County that 101 southbound is gridlocked as are all the uh access roads so don't try going there as far as the East Bay 880 we have another crew and Michael Thomas is along 880 taking a.
Look at the traffic in that area yeah so Michael where are you and what are you seeing oh hi well you know we're we're currently good morning everyone we are actually on the southbound Lanes but take a look we want to give you a real closeup where currently along the fencing you can see multiple uh police.
Units here and those Pro Palestinian protesters chained to those actual barrels and you can see there there's got to be at least two three dozen uh police agency Crews here we've got Highway Patrol uh and a few others with multiple ambulance here and these cars are all just parked here everybody outside of their car and they're.
Currently trying to actually dchain some of these people now when it comes to the backup it's got to be miles everybody I mean miles and miles and this what you're looking at right here is on the other side of the these are the south bound Lanes of 880 but on the other side of this is where 14th Avenue meets if you're driving through near the Oakland.
Area so that is currently where it is we've got calr here on the team as well trying to figure out just exactly how to get these people from those barrels detached and then get traffic flowing again but when it comes to an opening I mean this has to be here at least for the rest of the day Daria and James and this is a live look right now.
As you can see there's a total of seven keep your shot yeah I you were just going to say so we we heard from the group that there are seven people and six concrete filled barrels okay so but in your shot here it looks like there's only a couple barrels and a couple people left and and this police are huddled around another one so is it down.
To maybe two or three people yeah so uh no so we're still at at least six or seven people that are chained to those cron curate barrels what you're looking at those people surrounding that is just the first Barrel where they are trying to get people detangled and you can hear that actual chainsaw going through right now so they're barely on.
The first person um protester all along that are the other protesters that are changed to these barrels causing this what they're calling an economic blockade and again it's happening not only here but really across the entire world we've got Orange County San Diego uh Long Beach Chicago International Airport the Golden Gate Bridge so this.
Is just one of more than 50 plus cities essentially trying to cause an economic block for that um for pro pro Palestinian protesters to seize fire these protesters to be moved you're saying they're still on the first Barrel they're still on the first one correct they're still on the first barrel and we are again we are right.
Along the southbound Lanes heading south so they're completely blocking everything off right now there's a total of seven and you can still hear those chainsaws that are going off they've only they haven't even detached the first one to be quite honest I would assume there may be halfway through and around that Barrel you can see there's.
At least eight or 10 officers trying to help with that and if they're still working on this first one people that are here at the scene told me they've been there doing that for at least the last 30 minutes or so so keep in mind if that's just one person we're going to be here for hours okay stay right there Michael I'm going to I'm going to talk.
To you here in just a second I just want to uh speak across the studio to John uh John would you do me a favor and get your Maps centered up on 980 and 880 I'm going to talk about that here in a second again 980 and 880 but back to you Michael as we zoomed in and looking closer this is the first chance that we've got to see these demonstrators up.
Close like this I I think it's on camera can you zoom into those protesters because that is our first shot our first Glimpse at how they're attached to these barrels with their hands sticking into holes on either side of these concrete F barrels can you zoom in to the barrels a tad bit James want you to zoom into the barrels yes of course we're doing so.
Excuse us uh the large lots of loud noises um and we're yeah yeah there's some police standing in the way I actually have a woman here go ahead m I actually have a woman here ma'am you said you've been here since about 6:00 what have you seen and how did it start I don't know how it started um but I know I saw a bunch of.
Cars just stopped and it was a bunch of traffic and my husband was trying to get to work and he couldn't because um everything was shut down and when did you see them start to try and detach some of these protesters from those barrels about uh about an about an hour ago about an hour ago and were they chanting anything at all earlier nope no.
Chance just completely quiet just completely quiet okay thank you well there you have it um they've been working on that first protester for at least about an hour everybody who is currently at a stop and a standstill they've all left their cars and made their way all the way to the front of where these protesters are so they could.
Essentially see what's going on people standing some on top of their cars others who were just all along the side and then of course you've got look ERS who are driving the opposite way uh slowing down if we have viewers at home who are heading this way find an alternative route but also to be safe A lot of people are pulling out their.
Cameras while driving to try to take video of this which can cause possibly another accident so please try not to do that but lots of lookie lures um on the opposite side and again at least two to three dozen when it comes to officials here from calr Highway Patrol um I see the sheriff's office here as well there's a total of four different.
Ambulance here years so it's it is quite the scene you've also got the helicopters above us as well so as to when this will be open I I highly doubt that there's any ETA have we heard anything from CHP on your guys' end we have not no but keep your keep your picture up CU this is the best shot that we've seen so far of any amount of.
Progress Michael and as you're saying if it's been 1 hour and they still have not been able to uh disentangle two or one of the people to the barrel they've got seven people locked to six concrete barrels and uh you know they're having to uh drill into the barrels they don't want to hurt anybody but they also uh want to try to clear them off of the.
Roadway and then also you you can expound on what you've heard but we've heard uh from the group itself and that this is a worldwide coordinated economic blockade that's affecting 50 at least 50 cities around the world we've already seen action um trying to block Commerce and traffic and the like in Philadelphia in New York.
In uh in the UK in London in Australia I'm wondering what you I I I heard you allude to other places around the nation we know there's going to be a protest later in La this is all day today what have you heard Michael yeah no we've heard the exact same thing essentially this is to try and do an economic block so they're.
Doing it in Dublin Berlin Chicago International Airport Orange County San Diego Long Beach Golden Gate Bridge here and if we can zoom in a little bit Yoli do you see the young lady's arm you know specifically stuck in there oh okay yeah you know it's just there it's very very intense and like Dario was saying to try and drill through these entire barrels.
And you can see that that gentleman there with the saw it's going to take quite some time and if this is happening not only here but in other places it surely is making a an impact in general whether or not it's going to be an economic impact I'm not sure but I think we can all agree this is definitely making a statement when it.
Comes to commuters and people trying to get to where they need to go this morning all right Michael we're going to keep keep your shot up because we're going to keep it up while we talk about what we're learning now is a third incident not too far from where you're located we're getting word now from the CHP that westbound 980 just to your.
North Michael westbound 980 to southbound 880 now also being blocked by protesters did I hear right we're talking about like a 100 people I heard that at some point in my okay I'm getting a confirmation that that is correct there are reports of upwards of 100 people now this could be that March that started West station potentially we.
Know that a large group of demonstrators had walked marched from westbound uh from the uh West Oakland station towards towards 880 uh and southbound as well which is a new Direction which is kind of where this is generally westbound 980 to that southbound 880 connector this could be them we we're waiting to see and John thank you John for for putting.
This map together so now we've got now on the East Bay those two icons showing where these two blocks are in addition to the Golden Gate Bridge so as we mentioned earlier we we couldn't say with certainty that today's demonstrations would be confined just to the uh stretch of 880 that we saw earlier this morning because then we saw.
The Bay Bridge and now we're seeing it and nor to to just right now now by the way so if you if you're sitting at home watching this this morning don't think that you know things could happen throughout the day we've seen uh social media saying that there are protests planned at 1:00 in the afternoon in Southern California I mean so the.
Demonstrators in their note to the media said that they do plan on taking an action today at the Tesla Factory at 5:30 p.m. tonight so this could last in various places for hours and hours throughout the day Michael are you learning anything new we keep monitoring your shot here you know nothing new as of yet I know.
James mentioned that people were heading from the opposite way of Downtown Oakland towards 880 I don't see anybody as of yet but I can tell you and I can attest to the fact that trying to get specifically to this area it was chaotic to say the least uh cars everywhere people honking people yelling and lots of lookie lures I mean there's got to be.
At least I would say at least a dozen people even behind me right now climbed up on this fence just like me to try and see what's going on and I'll try to move out the way just so you can see a tad bit you can see all these people some are media and other people are just regular folks who live in the area trying to get a glimpse of this and when.
It comes to those protesters they are still there they have not chanted anything they have not said anything they are now laying down on the ground they're arms still in those barrels and it does appear that other protesters who are not attached to these barrels are in the area taking photos for their own social media and talking with some of.
Those protesters attached and it looks like officials have finally stopped sawing on one protester so we may be seeing that person get up right now it looks like they're helping somebody up I can't tell because there's a lot of people but it looks like we may have finally have the first person undetached from that Barrel once it opens up a.
Little bit more with CHP officials widening up we'll be able to tell you but as of now they're laying on the ground and we do not see any other protesters coming this way but if they are to come on to 880 everywhere above this point on those Northbound Lanes is completely free because they're blocking it here I don't want to lose this shot.
Keep it here but I don't have another shot to show you of the protests at the Golden Gate Bridge but Michael I just want to compare this kind of like difficulty with the with the barrels and the concrete and what they're trying to deal with at the Golden Gate Bridge something similar uh but uh but different so what they've got here.
You've got the the concrete barrels and people with their hands in them on the Golden Gate Bridge and I don't have a picture to show you but what they've got there is people who are using these cuffs and they'll have one person in a car cuffed to another person outside a car and they've got a chain of that going on about two chains deep on the.
Golden Gate Bridge so they have their own kind of problem to get through and they haven't begun what you've begun over here the CHP has begun to kind of try to extricate them here but at the Golden Gate Bridge we keep looking at it and they so far have not tried to remove the people in The Tubes from the cars and to disentangle that over the gold.
Gate Bridge just to give you an right all right Michael stay there we're going to come back to you we've got to take a quick break but we'll be back with more coverage in just a minute
