OAKLAND – Protesters inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement plan to rally again in downtown Oakland at 6 p.m. tonight, with some saying they will try to retake the encampment outside City Hall that police dismantled early Tuesday.

Several hours after the removal of the camp – which saw mass arrests but was largely peaceful – a downtown march turned into a protracted street confrontation between protesters and police officers, who set off tear gas and used shotguns to fire projectiles designed to inflict pain but not kill.

Police said they had to protect themselves from protesters who hurled rocks, bottles and paint, and ignored orders to disperse.

. . . Countering that message was Occupy Oakland protester Casey Jones, 28, who wore a T-shirt reading “thrash and burn,” and skateboarded up and down Broadway yelling, “Bring it on!”

“I’m all about the riot – we need to be violent,” he said. “We need more numbers. We’ll just keep marching on.”  He said anyone who passively resisted police efforts to remove them was “a pussy.”

“We did the whole peaceful thing,” he said, “and all we did was sit in the park and make it smell bad. We got nothing. Now I’m into organized chaos.”  (read more)