Occupy protests in Oakland and New York: a weekend of police clashes

Oakland

Saturday's Occupy Oakland, planned as a day of building, became a day of battling, when police responded with force to protesters' attempts to take over a vacant city-owned building, an act organisers admitted was "completely illegal."

"Move-In Day" had been billed as a celebration of the occupation and conversion of a vacant building into a political and community centre. On Saturday afternoon, occupiers thought they would be settling in, not shielding themselves.

But a series of tense and tenser skirmishes around the streets of Oakland concluded in a crackdown that left more than 400 people in jail, including reporters with police-issued press passes.

The day began with a long and confused march around police blockades. Occupiers arrived at their building shortly after 2pm: the sprawling 100-year-old Kaiser Convention Center, out of use since 2006.

Though the targeted building was kept secret in the lead-up to the action, many, including press and the police, had guessed correctly for weeks prior. Some protesters pulled down chain-link fences many yards in front of police, who responded by firing tear gas into the crowd.

A few blocks away and a half-hour later, the battle escalated, as protesters with shields made of plastic garbage cans, wood, and corrugated metal advanced and retreated in a strange and savage 15-minute dance along Oak Street until police pushed them onto a westbound street using crowd control weapons familiar to Occupy Oakland: teargas, stun grenades, and less-lethal shotgun projectiles.

Many witnesses confirmed plastic and glass bottles, food, rocks and at least two chairs were thrown at police. Police say improvised explosive devices and flares were also thrown at them, but have not yet provided evidence.

Occupy reconvened at 5pm to take another vacant building. They moved on the foreclosed Traveler's Aid Society, a building they had attempted to take on 2 November before a crackdown ensued. This time, no one got inside. Two security guards and "one woman in a suit, talking frantically on the phone" kept Occupy at bay, according to activist Nikolas Koehler. The last time Occupy tried to take Traveler's Aid, 100 people were swept up in the mass arrests.

The march continued north, to an empty lot and small park where Occupy Oakland had attempted to set up camp back in November. Police quickly swarmed and contained the majority of the approximately 800 protesters in the park area, only declaring an "unlawful assembly" after the crowd was trapped.

According to their crowd control policies, Oakland Police must provide an exit from an unlawful assembly, and a warning with sufficient time for dispersal before chemical agents are used and arrests are made. The kettle quickly boiled over.

"People started yelling: 'Get the shields, make a wedge, break the kettle,'" Koehler said. "The one big shield approached the cops, and teargas and flash bangs were deployed while cops used batons to attack the people with the shield."

Fleeing teargas but still trapped, people pulled down chainlink fences and scurried out through underground parking garages in order to make an escape back to the streets. I waited as long as I could in the stinging air before crossing the previously fenced-in property; police held their lines, preventing people from leaving any other way. From kettle to boil was only seven minutes.

The march moved on towards the third vacant building, but was continually headed off by police until being kettled again by a YMCA. I ran to the top of the stairs at the entry to see the teeming crowd below, pushed on both sides by advancing police lines. A few feet behind me, witnesses say employees opened the doors for them. "People were begging to be let in," said witness Max Allstadt. "I didn't hear or see anyone break in, and when I turned around, the doors were open."

People streamed into the YMCA, seeking refuge – 100 of them were arrested there, and more than 200 others were contained and arrested outside. As police gave chase, one grabbed me hard and shoved me several feet across an entry way, into a crowd of people. When I asked to where I could safely leave, he said nothing.

I and five other members of local and national press were swept up in this. I heard no dispersal order – only an announcement to "submit to the arrest."

It was a less harrowing experience than my last arrest reporting on Occupy Oakland, which landed me in jail for 15 hours. This time, I was only detained for about 40 minutes in official credentials. My arresting officer turned off my audio recorder three minutes in.

Every few minutes, as an officer continued to fill out my arrest report – "failure to disperse from the scene of a riot" – I insisted again on speaking with a sergeant. When officers took my photo with my name and information on a placard, I asked that they also include the press passes hanging around my neck. One looked nervous.

As a sergeant cut my plastic handcuffs, he told me my release was "discretionary" and a "favour", because my police-issued press pass had expired at the end of 2011. "Technically you're not press tonight," he said, though my other credentials are valid through 2012. Officers escorted me to the edge of the perimeter, a block away from the arrests. Other reporters were not so lucky. Gavin Aronsen of Mother Jones magazine spent a few hours detained, and Yael Chanoff of the San Francisco Bay Guardian newspaper spent the night, and faces arraignment on charges.

A spokesperson confirmed to me again later that Oakland police department has a policy of allowing reporters to be present during arrests, and a special operational plan for the day included these instructions to officers.

While hundreds were arrested, a few dozen occupiers destroyed property on the ground floor of city hall. The city says they broke in, but witnesses say that's not so. "The doors were unlocked and propped open," Gratz said. "Somebody said: 'City hall is open to the public, let's go in!'"

Police arrived 20 minutes later, after occupiers had already vacated the building.

More than 24 hours after their arrests, many charged with failure to disperse from an unlawful assembly were still waiting in jail, yet to be booked. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan called the police response "very measured" but conceded a "small percentage of mistakes" may have been made.

Occupy Oakland vowed to fight on for another day and another building. "We're not stopping until we have a home," said one organiser at the 29 January general assembly.

"We obviously are never going to defeat the 101st airborne division on the streets," said anthropologist and anarchist David Graeber, addressing that general assembly. "Where we win is when we are able to convince the 101st airborne division not to shoot us."

For Occupy Oakland, and the reporters attempting to cover it, not being shot would at least make a good start. We thought the fire on the streets of Oakland had died down since the fall, but it's just been raging quietly – and it will only be getting fiercer. It remains to be seen if protesters and police might revisit the tactics they employ in street battle. As each wins or loses a street, a block, a building, all are losing the war of public relations. Susie Cagle

New York

Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters took part in a raucous march through New York City on Sunday night in response to the Oakland arrests. The march was part of a coordinated, nationwide action that involved similar demonstrations in at least 20 other cities.

A dozen protesters were arrested in New York; most were charged with disorderly conduct. Three men were reportedly charged with assault and another with a criminal weapons charge. The NYPD said one officer sustained a finger injury.

New York City's Occupy contingent began its march in lower Manhattan's Washington square park shortly after 7pm. With drums beating, protesters exited the park while repeating an Occupy Oakland chant: "Rise up, shut it down, Oakland is the people's town."

Approximately 300 protesters zig-zagged through the city for over three hours, at times moving into traffic and sprinting down the street.

Bottles were thrown. At the intersection of 2nd Ave and 13th St a glass bottle was hurled in the direction of the police. It exploded on the concrete without hurting anyone. National Lawyers Guild observer Daniel Shockley said a flying bottle nearly struck him in the head on 14th St, between Park Ave and 2nd Ave. Meanwhile another bottle was reportedly tossed on 9th St, between Avenues B and C. Gothamist reporter Christopher Robbins tweeted: "Protester next to me throws bottle ducks down into crowd. NYPD swoop in, arrest wrong guy, thrower gets away."

The mood of the march was confrontational and explicitly directed at issues of police brutality and abuse. Protesters chanted "from Oakland to NYC, stop police brutality," "racist, sexist, anti-gay, NYPD go away," and "fuck the police." Some protesters swore directly at individual police officers.

Protester Bryan Hudson, 18, said he was fed up with the New York City police department. Hudson is from East New York in Brooklyn, one of the most impoverished neighbourhoods in the five boroughs, where rates of controversial police stop-and-frisks are among the highest in the city.

"They're always stopping and frisking minorities for no reason at all," Hudson – an African American – said.

A significant number of participants marched with their faces covered by bandanas or balaclavas, encouraging others to join them in the street. Some dragged and threw various debris into roadways in an apparent attempt to slow down their police pursuers. One young woman with a bandanna over her face flung a trash bag into the road, narrowly missing a police officer's face as he chased a separate protester.

Prominent live stream journalist Tim Pool was assaulted by one masked protester who attempted to physically stop him from filming. A scuffle ensued, with some onlookers attempting to remove the young man's mask. Police intervened as Pool yelled for his assailant to be arrested. It was unclear if police managed to make an arrest.

The reason behind many arrests Sunday night were unclear. Occasionally the police would allow protesters to move through the streets uninterrupted. At other times demonstrators would be arrested while walking on the sidewalk, as police had ordered them to do.

The march concluded at Tompkins Square Park at approximately 10.30pm. A number of protesters stretched out on the ground, while others played music and talked. Dozens of officers monitored the situation as a police helicopter circled overhead.
Ryan Devereaux