Occupy Oakland: Police Use Teargas, Flash Grenades

Police said they used teargas Occupy Oakland protesters pelted near Lake Merritt and warned them with bottles, rocks, burning flares and other objects

At about 3:45 p.m., the crowd still had not dispersed around the intersection of Jackson Street and 12th Street.

Occupy Oakland protesters say they will gather outside City Hall on Saturday, march to an undisclosed vacant building and commandeer the space as a social center and political headquarters for the movement.

Police have used tear gas and "flash" grenades to break up hundreds of Occupy protesters after some demonstrators started throwing rocks and flares at officers and tearing down fencing.

 

Police declared the intersection an unlawful assembly area and began running toward protesters with their shields.

Three officers were hurt and 19 people were arrested, the Oakland Police Department said in a release. No details on the officers' injuries were released.

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

Occupy organizers said the plan today was to go to a vacant building that was to be their new home. Once they reach their destination, organizers had planned to kick off a two-day "Oakland Rise-up Festival" to celebrate the establishment of the movement's new space.

Police were in the process of arresting about 100 Occupy protesters for failing to disperse Saturday night, hours after officers used tear gas on a rowdy group of demonstrators who threw rocks and flares at them and tore down fences.

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.

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

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

Global protest against corporate greed turn violent, police fire

Global protest against corporate greed turn violent, Police fire tear gas, water cannons in Rome
 

 

ROME -- Italian riot police fired tear gas and water cannons in Rome on Saturday as violent protesters hijacked a peaceful demonstration against corporate greed, smashing shop and bank windows, torching cars as violence broke and hurling bottles.
Elsewhere, Tens of thousands nicknamed "the indignant" marched without incident in cities across Europe, as the "Occupy Wall Street" in New York, began in Canada and spread to cities across the U.S. moved Saturday to Asia and Europe, linked protests linked up with long-running demonstrations against European governments' cost-cutting and failed financial policies in Europe austerity measures. The protest in the Italian capital, which left dozens injured, Part of worldwide protests against corporate greed and austerity measures.
Black smoke billowed into the air in downtown Rome as a small group of violent protesters broke away from the main demonstration Saturday.

 

Police force as some 100,000 protesters were expected a day after Premier Silvio Berlusconi survived a confidence vote in Parliament. Italy is rapidly becoming a focus of concern in Europe's debt crisis.
Clad in black with their faces covered, protesters threw rocks, bottles and incendiary devices at banks and Rome police in riot gear. With clubs and hammers, they destroyed bank ATMs, on fire and assaulted at least two news crews from Sky Italia. the TV reported. Others burned Italian and EU flags.
“People of Europe: Rise Up!” read one banner in Rome. Some activists turned against the violent group, trying to stop them and shouting “Enough!” and “Shame!”
Protesters also set fire to a building, causing the roof to collapse, reports said. The Defense Ministry denied reports it was one of its offices.
In Paris, marchers shook their fists and shouted as they passed the city’s historic stock exchange, before congregating by the hundreds outside the ornate City Hall.
“Stand up Paris! Rise Up!” protesters shouted. “Sharing will save the world!”
Several hundreds more marched in the German cities of Berlin, Cologne and Munich and the Austrian capital of Vienna, while protesters in Zurich, Switzerland’s financial hub, carried banners reading “We won’t bail you out yet again” and “We are the 99 percent.”
In New York, hundreds marched on a Chase bank to protest the role banks played in the financial crisis, and demonstrations culminated in an “Occupation Party” in Times Square.
Several hundreds more marched in the German cities of Berlin, Cologne and Munich and the Austrian capital of Vienna, while protesters in Zurich, Switzerland’s financial hub, carried banners reading “We won’t bail you out yet again” and “We are the 99 percent.”
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange spoke to 500 demonstrators outside St. Paul's cathedral in London

Turnout was light in Asia, where the global economy is booming.
In Sydney, around 300 people gathered Saturday, cheering a speaker who shouted, "We're sick of corporate greed! Big banks, big corporate power standing over us and taking away our rights!"
No to nuclear power!" marchers chanted as they held up banners.
"More people agree with these protests than actually take part," said Professor Mary Bossis of the University of Piraeus."There is anger, there is rage ... but what it takes to overturn the current situation is missing," she said.