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Frightening Police Crackdown on Occupy Oakland: Watch Video of Teargas and Bullets Thrown at Protesters
In to the small hours of this morning, many of us were glued to our computers following tweets and live-streams as "Occupy" protesters in Oakland, reconvening after their eviction (for, ironically, "health and safety issues"), were repeatedly teargassed and hit with rubber (or some other sort of "less-than-lethal") bullets as they marched back and forth, defiant.
Dozens of police in riot gear and hundreds of protesters supporting the Occupy Wall Street movement engaged in a game of cat-and-mouse in downtown Oakland on Tuesday, with authorities using tear gas to respond to demonstrators' repeated agitations.
The latest such skirmish came around 11:15 PDT in front of City Hall, where a haze of chemical smoke still hung in the air following several similar clashes at the site over the course of the night.It was the fifth time in about three hours that police a fired a volley of tear gas to disperse a crowd at the scene where ongoing tension has erupted into conflict throughout the day.
The number of protesters has diminished with each round of gas. About 200 remained late Tuesday, mostly young adults, some riding bicycles, protecting themselves from the noxious fumes with bandanas and scarves wrapped around their faces.
AlterNet's Joshua Holland was on the scene; here are just a few of his tweets over the course of the night. Read them from the bottom up.
- JoshuaHol Gas is thick. Whoah. 8 hours ago
- JoshuaHolMore flashbangs. Clouds of teargas moving down broadway.8 hours ago
- JoshuaHol 8 rounds teargas/ flashbangs deployed. Very nasty. #OccupyOakland
- JoshuaHolHalf of crowd now retreating down 14tg. Many remain.8 hours ago
- JoshuaHolTense. Something just set 100 people running.9 hours ago
- JoshuaHol This is a brave crowd -- everyone knows gas is coming but standing strong. #occupyOakland9 hours ago
- JoshuaHolCrowds holding peace signs. Gas forthcoming.9 hours ago
- JoshuaHol Again: if you do not leave now you may be subject to serious injury. Crowd boos.9 hours ago
- JoshuaHol Crowd chanting let's go Oakland!9 hours ago
- JoshuaHol Will we even get an order to disperse this time?9 hours ago
- JoshuaHol Approaching plaza.
There is ample video from the scene, including these two that shows teargas being thrown and a third, below, which shows "flashbangs." A fourth shows a man, who has been identified as a veteran, injured by a projectile which hit his head.
Tear gas:
"Flashbangs:"
A man hit by a projectile:
The office of the mayor, Jean Quan, has been inundated with complaints via facebook, Twitter,and a petition, for this shameful overreaction on the part of her police department.
