Update – Occupiers return to Oakland tonight and try to retake camp – Police and Riot Squads fire flash bang grenades to hold back protestors: (SF Gate) — Supporters of Occupy Oakland clashed with police this evening while trying to retake an encampment outside City Hall that hundreds of police officers had cleared out 12 hours earlier.

A crowd of about 400 people marched from the public library at 14th and Madison streets toward Frank Ogawa Plaza at about 5 p.m., promising a confrontation with police, who had the plaza barricaded.

The crowd grew as protesters marched around several downtown streets, but police kept demonstrators away from the former Occupy Oakland encampment outside City Hall at 14th and Broadway.


There were some violent exchanges, although by 6:40 p.m. most of the protesters were simply marching.  Earlier, when officers in riot gear went to arrest one protester, about 50 more surrounded them shouting, “Let him go, let him go.”

Protesters threw turquoise and red paint at the riot police officers’ faces and helmets. Some led the crowd in chanting, “This is why we call you pigs.” Protesters trying to fight with police were clubbed and kicked in return.

Police shot flash-bang grenades over the protesters at Eighth and Washington streets to try to get them to disperse.  (read more)

HatTip – Freedom 1781 and Patriot Dreamer:  (SF Gate) — Police swept through Occupy Oakland’s encampment in a plaza outside City Hall and a second, smaller camp nearby early today, arresting 85 people who were protesting as part of a nationwide movement against economic inequality and corporate greed.

City officials said they had been forced to clear the encampments because of sanitary and public safety concerns.
Several hundred officers from numerous law enforcement agencies began making arrests shortly before 5 a.m. and removing tents and makeshift shelters at the Occupy Oakland protest at Frank Ogawa Plaza near 14th Street and Broadway.

By 5:05 a.m., the bulk of the arrests had been completed, and arrestees were led away in plastic handcuffs. Most were arrested for unlawful assembly and illegal lodging, police said.
The police action in front of City Hall involved hundreds of officers from at least 10 law enforcement agencies, including the California Highway Patrol, the Alameda County sheriff’s office and various East Bay police departments. Squads of officers had assembled at the Oakland Coliseum before traveling downtown in convoys.

Officers in riot helmets began arriving in force and formed a line in the street adjacent to the plaza while motorcycle officers shut down the street. Some protesters began shouting, “Cops, go home!”

Protesters pulled a metal trash container into the middle of the intersection, and officers quickly pushed it to the side of the road.  (read more)