Police Brutality American Style =Oakland

A march to take over a vacant building by members of the Occupy movement in Oakland, Calif., turned into a violent confrontation with the police on Saturday, leaving three officers injured and about 200 people arrested. 

The clashes began just before 3 p.m. when protesters marched toward the vacant Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, the police said, and began to tear down construction barricades. Officers ordered the crowd to disperse,” the Oakland police said in a press release. 

Officers responded with smoke, tear gas and beanbag projectiles. 

Most of the arrests occurred in the evening, when large groups of people were corralled in front of the Downtown Oakland Y.M.C.A. on Broadway. At one point, one group of protesters broke into the City Hall building. 

On a livestream broadcast on the Web site oakfosho.com, dozens of protesters could be seen sitting cross-legged in darkness on the street in front of the Y.M.C.A. Their hands appeared to be bound behind them, while police officers stood watch. Occasionally the protesters sang or cheered. 

The events were part of a demonstration dubbed “Move-in Day,” a plan by protesters to move into the vacant convention center and use it as a commune-like command center, according to the Web site occupyoaklandmoveinday.org. 

“We were going to set up a community center,” said Benjamin Phillips, 32, a member of the Occupy Oakland media team. “It would be a place where we could house people, feed people, do all the things that we have been doing.” 

After a series of violent episodes, including a clash in which a Marine veteran of Iraq suffered a fractured skull when struck by a projectile in a confrontation with the police, Ms. Quan relented and permitted the protesters to return to the plaza. But two weeks later, in response to fears of renewed violence, she ordered the plaza cleared again. 

Mr. Phillips, who said he is a veteran of the United States Air Force, spoke Saturday night from his home on Grand Avenue where he had stopped to rinse tear-gas residue from his contact lenses. He described the scene in front of the Y.M.C.A. as “terrifying.” 

“This is disgusting, because this is not the way that America is supposed to work,” he said. “You’re supposed to be able to have something like freedom to assemble and air your grievances,” he said. 

“It’s bizarre,” he said of the police reaction. “It’s not something you expect to see in the United States, and we’ve seen it over and over in Oakland.”

Operation: American Democracy Reborn!!!

Thousands of protesters in Oakland, California, have shut down the city's port, the fifth busiest cargo facility in the United States, as they continued calls for a general strike to protest economic conditions and police brutality.


"At this time, maritime operations are effectively shut down at the Port of Oakland. Maritime area operations will resume when it is safe and secure to do so," a spokesman for the port said in a statement on Wednesday.

The mostly peaceful events had been marred by sporadic "scuffles and fistfights" between protesters. Some young, black-clad protesters had tried to break windows and spray graffiti on banks and markets, while other groups tried to prevent them from doing so.

"What been really striking is the almost complete absence of police presence. We have seen very, very few policemen and there were no policemen there when demonstrators were throwing rocks and breaking windows."

"It's almost like the police have withdrawn from the streets."

Teacher walkout

Local labour leaders, while generally sympathetic to the protesters, said their contracts prohibited them from proclaiming an official strike.

Craig Merrilees, a spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said about 40 out of 325 unionized port workers had stayed off the job.

"There was no call for a strike by the union," he said. City officials also said schools and government offices were remaining open.

Oakland school officials said about 360 teachers didn't show up for work, roughly 18 per cent of the district's teaching staff.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said in a statement that she supported the goals of the protest movement but the city has a duty to ensure public safety.


The protesters are part of the "Occupy" movement against corporate greed which, inspired initially by anti-Wall Street demonstrations in a New York park, has spread to other US and worldwide cities.

Activists in Oakland have been camping in a central plaza the northern Californian city since October 9.

But tensions in the city have been heightened since police used tear gas, batons and concussion grenades to clear the plaza on October 25, making 85 arrests and removing facilities set up by protesters including a kitchen, a library, medical supplies and bicycle-powered computers.

In response, supporters marched through the streets, and were confronted by police who used numerous rounds of tear gas, pepper spray, concussion grenades and rubber bullets, according to witnesses.

"They wanted to show that they could stomp out the Occupy movement," Boots Riley, a local musician and an activist with Occupy Oakland. "They wanted to use Oakland as an example."

In the melee, Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old former US Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq, was hit in the forehead by a projectile, causing a skull fracture and brain swelling.

Olsen remains in a critical condition and has been placed in a medically-induced coma. Doctors say they expect him to recover fully, according to a friend who served with Olsen in Iraq.

Quan has since apologised for the harsh action, visited Olsen in the hospital, and allowed protesters to re-establish their camp.

"I can't change what happened, but I'm committed to making sure that we have an open dialogue and that we change what happens in the future," she said.

The day after the police crackdown, Occupy activists decided to call for Wednesday's general strike, calling on workers and students to stay out of work and school and spend their day protesting against what they describe as economic inequality and police brutality.

Oakland: US Marine (Iraq War Veteran) skull fractured by Police in Oakland while exercising civil liberties...

Anti-Wall Street demonstrators held vigils for an Iraq War veteran seriously injured during a protest clash with police in California as some occupy encampments held out against orders from authorities to abandon sites in parks and plazas.


A crowd of at least 1,000 people, many holding candles, gathered Thursday night in Oakland in honor of 24-year-old Scott Olsen who is hospitalized with a fractured skull.


Protesters also held a vigil in In Las Vegas, which drew a handful of police officers. Afterward, protesters invited them back for a potluck dinner.


"We renewed our vow of nonviolence," organizer Sebring Frehner said.


The Marine veteran, who won medals in Iraq, has become a rallying cry for the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators across the nation, with Twitter users and protest websites declaring, "We are all Scott Olsen."


Joshua Shepherd, 27, a Navy veteran who was standing nearby when Olsen got struck, called it a cruel irony that Olsen is fighting an injury in the country that he fought to protect.

Despite the financial underpinnings of the protests, Olsen himself wasn't taking part out of economic need.

His friends say he makes a good living as a network engineer and has a nice apartment overlooking San Francisco Bay. Still, he felt so strongly about economic inequality in the United States that he fought for overseas that he slept at a protest camp after work.


"He felt you shouldn't wait until something is affecting you to get out and do something about it," said friend and roommate Keith Shannon, who served with Olsen in Iraq.


It was that feeling that drew him to Oakland on Tuesday night, when the clashes broke out and Olsen's skull was fractured. Fellow veterans said Olsen was struck in the head by a projectile fired by police.