Occupy Oakland participant suffers internal bleeding after Police beating
A 19 year-old woman was hospitalized for internal bleeding, after being beaten by a police officer during Saturday’s Occupy Oakland protests, according to sources on the ground. The woman’s condition remained unknown as of Sunday morning.
After Occupy Oakland protesters threatened to occupy a vacant auditorium and make it a community center and shelter for the homeless, hundreds of police clad in riot gear and wielding a variety of weapons descended onto the Occupy Oakland procession Saturday in what was perhaps the largest face-off between police and protesters in the Bay area since the October 25 confrontation that left several wounded, including Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen.
The march was part of a day-of-action that Occupy Oakland organizers had called “Move-In Day,” where demonstrators meant to take over the Henry Kaiser Convention Center, a long-vacant auditorium with over 5,000 seats and one of many empty buildings in Oakland. Reports of upwards of 1,000 to 2,000 protesters gathered for the take-over.
As the original mid-day demonstration arrived at the Kaiser Convention Center, police began firing tear gas and flash grenades into the crowd. Demonstrators responded by taking down the fences that surrounded the abandoned building, and the police responded with another volley of attacks.
Protesters later reassembled and began to march down Broadway in the early evening, but they were met with police force. The police encircled marchers from two sides—reportedly using dozens of 10-seater vans to move throughout the downtown streets. They cordoned off the nearby streets and attempted to “kettle” hundreds of protesters. Protesters managed to avoid mass arrests by retreating back up Broadway.
At this time, a second kettling attempt was made on the corner of Broadway and 24th Street. In an attempt to avoid getting trapped amidst the barrage of police projectiles, an estimated 300 protesters took shelter in a YMCA building. Police surrounded the building and made mass arrests, converting local public AC Transit buses into jail transports.
At roughly the same time, a group of demonstrators broke into Oakland City Hall and burned two American flags.
In all, authorities arrested about 300 protesters, using rubber bullets, flash bangs, smoke grenades, beanbag guns, batons, and tear gas to suppress the demonstration.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who ordered the earlier police raid that led to the injury of Olsen, responded to claims of police violence by declaring: “The residents of Oakland are wearying of the constant focus and cost to our city… the Bay Area Occupy movement has got to stop using Oakland as their playground.”
Oakland City Council member Ignacio De La Fuente added, “It’s an escalation that in my opinion, basically amounts to domestic terrorism where people start taking buildings and costing the city an incredible amount of resources.”
Related posts:
