Occupy Oakland Mayhem: Escalating Violence, Flag Burning, Vandalism, Police Use Tear Gas to Control Riot, 300 Protestors Arrested (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on January 29, 2012
Occupy Oakland protestors, burning the American flag at yesterday's violent protest. Police used tear gas to try to gain control, and 300 were arrested
It’s gone from bad, to worse, to unbelievable in Oakland, California. The Occupy Oakland/Occupy Everything We Bloody Well Want to Occupy movement has skyrocketed to a new level of violence and destruction.
Yesterday, riot police had their hands full and were forced to use tear gas to disperse the out-of-control crowd, who were throwing burning flares and rocks, vandalizing buildings, and burning an American flag — at least 300 arrests were made. The Occupy protesters had gathered at a central plaza in Oakland and marched through the streets on Saturday, threatening to take over the vacant Henry Kaiser convention center.
Where is our supposedly caring, “hopenchange” president in the midst of all this destruction, all this chaos and anarchy and lawlessness in the nation he was elected to lead? Obama has immersed himself in the past in matters (like maligning the character of the Cambridge, Massachusetts police) that he had no business being involved in — so why is he now strangely silent? Where in the blue blazes is he now?
Fundraising and campaigning for reelection? Going to Disney World? Golfing? Singing at the Apollo Theater? Writing birthday cards to sitcom actresses?
Disgraceful.
Does ex-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi still embrace this “focused, spontaneous” movement? Does she and the White House still think this is a noble, peaceful movement?
RT: Occupy Oakland: Police use flash bangs & tear-gas against protestors | January 28, 2012
Reported by CBS News, 300 arrested in Occupy Oakland protests:
OAKLAND, Calif. — Dozens of police maintained a late-night guard around City Hall following daylong protests that resulted in 300 arrests. Occupy Oakland demonstrators broke into the historic building and burned a U.S. flag, as officers earlier fired tear gas to disperse people throwing rocks and tearing down fencing at a convention center.
Saturday’s protests — the most turbulent since Oakland police forcefully dismantled an Occupy encampment in November — came just days after the group said it planned to use a vacant building as a social center and political hub and threatened to try to shut down the port, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.
An exasperated Mayor Jean Quan, who faced heavy criticism for the police action last fall, called on the Occupy movement to “stop using Oakland as its playground.”
“People in the community and people in the Occupy movement have to stop making excuses for this behavior,” Quan said.
Some of the protestors at the Occupy Oakland demonstration yesterday
A tear gas canister explodes as police try to disperse the Occupy Oakland rioters
From Newsday, 300 arrested, flag burned at Occupy Oakland:
OAKLAND, Calif. – Dozens of police maintained a late-night guard around City Hall following daylong protests that resulted in 300 arrests. Occupy Oakland demonstrators broke into the historic building and burned a U.S. flag, as officers earlier fired tear gas to disperse people throwing rocks and tearing down fencing at a convention center.
Saturday’s protests — the most turbulent since Oakland police forcefully dismantled an Occupy encampment in November — came just days after the group said it planned to use a vacant building as a social center and political hub and threatened to try to shut down the port, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.
An exasperated Mayor Jean Quan, who faced heavy criticism for the police action last fall, called on the Occupy movement to “stop using Oakland as its playground.”
[...]
Quan said that at one point, many protesters forced their way into City Hall, where they burned flags, broke an electrical box and damaged several art structures, including a recycled art exhibit created by children.
She blamed the destruction on a small “very radical, violent” splinter group within Occupy Oakland.
“This is not a situation where we had a 1,000 peaceful people and a few violent people. If you look at what’s happening today in terms of destructing property, throwing at and charging the police, it’s almost like they are begging for attention and hoping that the police will make an error.”
Dozens of officers surrounded City Hall, while others swept the inside of the building looking for protesters who had broken into the building, then ran out of the building with American flags before officers arrived.
The protest group issued an email criticizing police, saying “Occupy Oakland’s building occupation, an act of constitutionally protected civil disobedience was disrupted by a brutal police response today.”
[...]
City leaders joined Quan in criticizing the protesters.
“City Hall is closed for the weekend. There is no excuse for behavior we’ve witnessed this evening,” City Council President Larry Reid said during a news briefing Saturday.
AP Raw Video (no audio): Occupy Oakland on the March, January 28, 2012
From Washington Post, About 300 arrested in daylong Occupy Oakland protests; police say some broke into City Hall:
Protesters clashed with police throughout the day, at times throwing rocks, bottles and other objects at officers. And police responded by deploying smoke, tear gas and bean bag rounds, City Administrator Deanna Santanta said.
Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan said about 300 arrests were made.
“These demonstrators stated their intention was to provoke officers and engage in illegal activity and that’s exactly what has occurred today,” Santana said.
The group assembled outside City Hall late Saturday morning and marched through the streets, disrupting traffic as they threatened to take over the vacant Henry Kaiser Convention Center.
The protesters walked to the vacant convention center, where some started tearing down perimeter fencing and “destroying construction equipment” shortly before 3 p.m., police said.
Police said they issued a dispersal order and used smoke and tear gas after some protesters pelted them with bottles, rocks, burning flares and other objects.
Michelle Malkin wrote this hard-hitting analysis last month — Port Whine: Big Labor’s Occu-punks:
Scruffy progressive protesters locked themselves together across railroad tracks, blocked traffic and shouted profanities at police on Tuesday in a coordinated “West Coast Port Shutdown.” Truckers lost wages. Shippers lost business. This is what the Occupy Wall Street movement calls “victory.”
Aging Big Labor bosses toasted one another from the sidelines as they declared the “rebirth of the labor movement.” What’s really going on? It’s an old-school power grab by a decrepit union wrapped in self-deluded social media do-goodism.
Peace-loving agitators wielding guitars and iPhones may earnestly believe they stood up to corruption and stood up for workers this week. A socialist website promoted the port shutdown as an expression of “solidarity” for the workers’ “struggle.” One Oakland, Calif., agitator decried “exploitation by capitalism” as the shiftless busily divided their work blockages into what they called — chortle — “shifts.”
In reality, it’s the young Occupiers who are being exploited as human shields for the economy-strangling agenda of the violence-prone International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). These ignorant punks are putting the “front” in “waterfront.”
Few remember now that the left’s three-month-long “Day of Rage” festivities kicked off in September at the Port of Longview, Wash. — a far cry from Goldman Sachs and the rest of New York’s financial district. Unionized longshoremen stormed the port there and took a half-dozen guards hostage. They damaged railroad cars, dumped grain, smashed windows, cut rail brake lines and blocked a train for hours while the ILWU and AFL-CIO cheered them on.
Click here to read it in its entirety.
You can jump in at any time, Mr. President.
About the author
They call themselves the 99%. But the 99% of Americans I know… 1) Don’t chant like drones. 2) Conduct personal hygiene 3) Are not full blown anti-Semitic Jew haters. 4) Sleep indoors. 5) Work instead of ask for hand-outs. 6) Don’t Leave piles of garbage and litter. 7) Don’t harass and vandalize local businesses.
Don’t defecate in plain view on the street. 9) Burn American flags. 10) Don’t allow conditions for the police to get double overtime pay.
[...] the decision to treat these thugs with kid gloves was the wrong call. Gee, who would have known?Frugal Cafe has much more, including videos of the chaos. [...]