OAKLAND, Kalif. – Oakland police said they arrested about 300 people Saturday as protesters spent a portion of the day trying to get into a vacant convention center, and later broke into City Hall and tried to occupy a YMCA.

Police spokesman Jeff Thomason said most of the arrests came around 8 p.m. local time, when police took many protesters into custody as they marched through the city's downtown, with some entering a YMCA building.

At about the same time police were taking people into custody near the YMCA, about 100 police 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 Amerikan flags before officers arrived.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan during a news briefing late Saturday said protesters had forced their way into City Hall, where they burned flags, broke into an electrical box and damaged several art structures, including a recycled art exhibit created by children .

The nighttime arrests came after 19 people were taken into custody in Occupy Oakland protests hours earlier.

Police used tear gas and "flash" grenades on the group Saturday afternoon after some demonstrators threw rocks and other objects at them. Police said three officers were hurt, but they released no details.

Police said the group assembled at a downtown plaza Saturday morning, with demonstrators threatening to take over the vacant Henry Kaiser Convention Center. The group then marched through the streets, disrupting traffic.

The crowd grew as the day wore on, with afternoon estimates ranging from about 1,000 to 2,000 people.

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.

Most of the arrests were made when protesters ignored orders to leave and assaulted officers, police said. By 4 p.m., the bulk of the crowd had left the convention center and headed back downtown.

The demonstration comes after Occupy protesters said earlier this week that they planned to move into a vacant building and turn it into a social center and politikal hub. They also threatened to try to shut down the port, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.

In a statement Friday, Oakland City Administrator Deanna Santana said the city would not be "bullied by threats of violence or illegal activity."

Interim police Chief Howard Jordan also warned that officers would arrest those carrying out illegal actions.

Oakland officials said Friday that since the Occupy Oakland encampment was first established in late October, police have arrested about 300 people.

The national Occupy Wall Street movement, which denounces corporate excess and economic inequality, began in New York City in the fall but has been largely dormant lately.

Oakland, New York and Los Angeles were among the cities with the largest and most vocal Occupy protests early on. The demonstrations ebbed after those cities used force to move out hundreds of demonstrators who had set up tent cities.

In Oakland, the police department received heavy criticism for using force to break up earlier protests. Among the critics was Mayor Jean Quan, who said she wasn't briefed on the department's plans. Earlier this month, a court-appointed monitor submitted a report to a federal judge that included "serious concerns" about the department's handling of the Occupy protests.

they should have been lined up and shot

that is what Saddam would have done but before they would have hit their feet with some rods, saw that he tortured people like that

The Oakland flea baggers are among the worst of the lot.

You could write this same story every month and just change the date.

Did I not see the AlPravda macro "mostly peaceful" adjective to the occupooopers?

Mayor Kuan is an idiot - she even looks mentally retarded.

This is always what happens when you let them run wild the first time.

You are going to see a lot more of this as November gets closer.

Scum of the earth. They should be lined up and shot.

SevenSeventeen wrote:

Mayor Kuan is an idiot - she even looks mentally retarded.

This is always what happens when you let them run wild the first time.

You are going to see a lot more of this as November gets closer.

She's a real peach, a old wormy mouldering peach, rotting in the landfill known as Oakland:



The fleapartiers must have stole her teleprompter...

SevenSeventeen wrote:

Mayor Kuan is an idiot - she even looks mentally retarded.

This is always what happens when you let them run wild the first time.

You are going to see a lot more of this as November gets closer.

Well yes....thier paymaster Soros said as much when he "predicted" the Flea-Baggers would be staging major riots in the cities this summer...riots so fierce the Soetoro Regime would be 'forced' to suspend civil liberties.

Time for more National Guard with live ammo.

Fuck occupy and FUCK FRANCE


P.S. We'll call this one the "cunt state massacre".

This was from occupudd New Moskow. Pretty fucking funny @ 01:35:



What a bunch of self important sniveling assholes. I'll laugh my ass off if this video is entered into evidence.

I was watching this shit on TV, five fuckin cops beating some fuckin hippie with tonfas and the Guy was still standing up and fighting, all the cops were wimps or fatties in panic, i mean If you can't beat the shit out of a fuckin hippie with a tonfa you shouldn't be a cop, you just explode his fucking knee and you make him bow down What the fuck? WHY USA WHY?