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Police scuffle with protesters in Oakland march
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1 of 3. Pedestrians walk past a burning trash bin during an ''Occupy Wall Street'' demonstration in response to an early morning police raid which displaced Occupy Oakland's tent city in Oakland, California October 25, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Stephen Lam
OAKLAND, Calif |
OAKLAND, Calif (Reuters) - Police and protesters scuffled in the streets of Oakland on Tuesday as more than 1,000 people marched on city hall to voice anger over scores of arrests at an "Occupy Wall Street" camp.
Police dispersed the crowd once with what appeared to be a stun grenade and several other times set off tear gas to drive the demonstrators away from a downtown plaza that had been at the center of the conflict.
Witnesses reported seeing several people taken into custody during the confrontations, but an Oakland police spokeswoman said the department would not confirm any Tuesday night arrests until Wednesday.
Protest leaders said the march aimed at reclaiming Frank Ogawa Plaza, which had served as a base for two weeks of protests against economic inequality in the city until police cleared it before dawn by firing beanbags and tear gas.
The area remained cordoned off with metal barricades and guarded by police for the remainder of the day, though Oakland city spokeswoman Karen Boyd said that, once cleaned, it would be reopened to allow daytime demonstrations.
About 350 people were in the plaza when police began to clear the area, Boyd said, confirming that officers deployed beanbags and gas. There were no reports of injuries but least 85 people had been arrested on charges of camping or assembling without a permit in the plaza.
The city said in a statement it had told protesters last Thursday to cease overnight camping and cooking at the plaza. More warnings were issued on Friday and Monday.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said in a statement that the city had maintained daily communication with the protesters and thanked those who "peacefully complied with city officials."
"Over the last week it was apparent that neither the demonstrators nor the city could maintain safe or sanitary conditions, or control the ongoing vandalism," Quan said.
The city said conditions at the plaza had begun to deteriorate by the second week of the protests, with police, fire and medical responders reporting they were denied access to the plaza for service calls.
The city also said it had received reports of a sexual assault and a severe beating, and that sanitation had worsened a rodent control problem in the plaza. Officials also said the plaza was damaged by graffiti, litter and vandalism.
'STAND UP AGAINST REPRESSION'
But the move angered protesters, who accused the city of using heavy-handed tactics, and they assembled again in the afternoon for the march on city hall, vowing to retake the plaza.
As more than 1,000 people marched through the streets, a small group scuffled with police not far from downtown and several were arrested.
The bulk of the crowd headed for city hall. At Frank Ogawa plaza, police ordered protesters to disperse and were largely met with cooperation.
"I'm here because I'm incredibly sad and incredibly angry, protester Samsarah Morgan, 51, said. "I'm hoping our city government comes to their senses and stops dealing with us like a fascist state."
Morgan said she founded a "children's village" at the Occupy Oakland encampment and was worried about four children who had stayed in tents there.
Jeremy Tully, the 30-year-old employee of an Internet company who was handing out flyers for an upcoming Marxist conference in Berkeley, called the city's action an unnecessary show of force.
"I left work early today to come and stand up against the kind of repression that happened this morning," Tully said.
The protest was the Oakland version of the movement launched more than a month ago as Occupy Wall Street in New York.
The protesters are angry at government bailouts of big banks, persistent high unemployment, and economic inequality in the United States. Demonstrations have spread across the nation and overseas, although crowds remain relatively small in most cities.
Hundreds of demonstrators have been arrested in New York since the protests began. There have also been numerous arrests in other cities.
In the last week, Chicago police arrested about 130 protesters in Grant Park, the site of President Barack Obama's victory speech on election night in 2008, and another 15 people at a protest in Philadelphia.
(Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb, Emmett Berg and David Bailey; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)
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The use of our police force by our government to stop the protests is no different then what the monarchy of England did when they used their army to stop our founding fathers protest. But if we took off our blinders and looked around; we would find that corporations and special interest groups, have control over the elected officals; that are suppose to respond to what the people that voted them in want. And based on the numbers that are being given on the public support of these protests, if they would show-up at these demonstrations in mass; it would allow the chance for a peaceful resolution.
The corporations and special interest groups through their minions (tories) will use any means at their disposal to stop the citizens of the United States from controlling their government. It is funny in a sad way that we don’t see the similarities in the revolts that are currently happening or justed happen in the Arabic countries. The only difference in the attempt to stop the protesting by their citizens in those countries; is their military is used and we use our police force. But, they are both controlled by the government. We like them have been taught to fear our law enforcement. Which if studied, we would find that a large number of the ones that support the Occupy movement, but will not physically participate in protest demonstrations is due to fear of arrest. There also will be a group that fear the lost of their job if their employer learned that they participated in the protest.
I hope that people will recognize that if we don’t take our government back from the corporations and special interest groups (the one supplying large contributions to elected officals) there will be no future for our children. And it will lead to a violent confrontation as the have nots decide they have nothing to lose. It like cornering an animal, at some point they will consider themself dead and will fight knowing they have nothing to lose with the possibility they might win. Look at the history of the Civil War, more Americans died when we fought against ourselves, then any other war we been in.
We are a free nation, so we get what we asked for. Through our inaction we are giving our support in allowing our elected officals to give their loyalties to ones that give them large amounts of money. In the past this was call bribery, now it’s called a campaign contribution . But then again they made loan sharking legal (now it’s cheaper to use the Mafia for getting a loan). Whose interests do you think they had when they allowed this. As a nation we need to look at the laws that our elected officals have and are passing in our name; as to who do they really benefit.
Lets say that we the citizens of the USA do come together to protest the control that corporations and special interest groups have over the elected offical that we vote into office. We as a group must keep in mind that we are a very diverse group of people that have one common goal, to take back control of our government from the corporations and special interest groups. If we let our differences distract us from why we have come together for, we lose before we even get started. So it will not matter who is right or wrong in what our government should be doing, because none of our voices will be heard.
Keeping this from happening will be hard, since the minions of the corporations and special interest groups will try to start disagreements to cause division so to dilute the protests ability to bring the change in government. All the different groups of people are not heard; even when they are saying the same thing. But, as one large group our voice can not be ignored.
It won’t require corporate meddling to sow divisions. And reform will destroy itself as soon as it gets specific. Reform will suffer the same fate as every other party or political movement that has tried to buck the system. Too many people are dependent on it.
Just start to count the ways.
But I for one will vote for any politician who will tax the hell out of corporate profits, especially oil company profits. The oil companies in Libya are now armed to protect their investment. It they can claim that oil field workers are “patriots” for defending private enterprise, than the rest of the world should be wary that they could claim police powers for corporate activities anywhere. If they want police powers then any country they are active in should nationalize them all. The countries themselves should tear them apart. There are others articles today hinting at the same melding of public and private interests. How long will it be before they want to he power to tax? They already have the power to extort.
They can’t live in thin air.
They are creating a world where only the well-healed rule and the rest are redundant. And BS about the triumph of democracy will not matter unless you own stocks and even they are on a tenuous footing.
And I always thought Chavez was a little crazy?
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