OALKLAND POLICE FIRE TEAR-GAS AT OCCUPY WALL STREET PROTEST:
police fire teargas at Occupy Wall Street protestEarly morning police raid leaves US protesters' makeshift city in Oakland in ruins after complaints about safety and health issues
Associated Press,
guardian.co.uk,
Wednesday 26 October 2011
Hundreds of police swept into Oakland's Occupy Wall Street protest on Tuesday, firing teargas and beanbag rounds before clearing out an encampment of demonstrators.
In less than an hour, the 2-week-old, miniature makeshift city was in ruins.
Scattered across the plaza in front of City Hall were overturned tents, pillows, sleeping bags, yoga mats, tarps, backpacks, food wrappers and water bottles. Signs decrying corporations and police still hung from lampposts or lay on the ground.
Later on Tuesday, hundreds of protesters gathered at a library and marched through downtown Oakland. They were met by police officers in riot gear, and several small skirmishes broke out.
The protesters eventually made their way back to City Hall for a game of cat-and-mouse as dusk approached. Police later threw flash bang canisters and fired more teargas as the crowd dispersed up the street.
"It's really, really tense and I think the cops are trying to walk a fine line, but I don't think they are going to back down and neither are the demonstrators," said Cat Brooks, an organiser. "We're on the move. For now."
No one was injured during the Tuesday morning raid, Interim Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said. The plaza was "contained" at around 5.30am, city officials said.
Protesters had stayed awake through the night, waiting for the expected raid. Officers and sheriff's deputies from across the San Francisco Bay area surrounded the plaza at around 5am and closed in. Eighty-five people were arrested, mostly on suspicion of misdemeanor unlawful assembly and illegal camping, police said.
By midmorning, city workers had started collecting the debris. Some would be held for protesters to reclaim, the rest would be thrown away, the city said.
The Oakland site was among numerous camps that have sprung up around the country, as protesters rally against what they see as corporate greed. The protests have attracted a wide range of people, including college students looking for work and the homeless.
In Oakland, tensions between the city and protesters escalated last week as officials complained about what they described as deteriorating safety, sanitation and health issues at the site.
City officials had originally been supportive of protesters, with Oakland Mayor Jean Quan saying that sometimes "democracy is messy".
But the city later warned the protesters that they were breaking the law and could not stay in the encampment overnight. They cited concerns about rats, fire hazards, public urination and acts of violence at the site, which had grown to more than 150 tents and included areas for health care, child care and cooking.
"Many Oaklanders support the goals of the national Occupy Wall Street movement," Quan said in a statement on Tuesday. "However, 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."
There were reports of a sex assault and a severe beating and fire and paramedics were denied access to the camp, according to city officials, who said they had also received numerous complaints of intimidating and threatening behaviour.
Protesters disputed the city's claims about conditions at the camp. They said the protest was dominated by a spirit of co-operation that helped keep the site clean and allowed disputes to be resolved peacefully.
Lauren Richardson, a 24-year-old student from Oakland, complained that the dishevelled state of the camp following the police raid gave a false impression. She said volunteers collected garbage and recycling every six hours, that water was boiled before being used to wash dishes and that rats had infested the park long before the camp went up.
"It was very neat. It was very organised," Richardson said.
Volunteers at the medical tent erected on the site said paramedics had not been kept away.
On Thursday, the city ordered the protesters to vacate, though they did not set a deadline. Protesters said the number of people at the camp had dwindled since the city posted the letter, while those who remained understood they would likely face a confrontation with police.
So even a city as hippie-friendly and initially supportive of the OWS as peace-love-and-granola Oakland, CA finally felt a need to give these folks the heave-ho with a few cannisters of tear gas.
The "misrepresentation" of "peaceful" demonstration is clearly contradicted by the reported facts, even in this sympathetic piece, as it is reported they re-grouped tried to make reprisals that were put down by riot police.
I actually had some trouble finding this to post. Probably because the American media who are probably all wearing Occupy Wall Street buttons simply don't want to report it.
