Occupy vandalizes Oakland again, calls for “class war”
City Hall doors damaged. Credit ABC KGO News.
For the second day in a row, Occupiers in the Bay Area conducted a disruptive march, last night causing damage to several businesses in Oakland.
On Saturday, 22 were arrested during a “Fuck Columbus” anti-colonialism anti capitalist march in San Francisco. Around 3 pm in broad daylight, they threw paint bombs with rocks in them at cops and vandalized cars and businesses yesterday. After several of the paint attacks, police made the arrests. Charges ranged from conspiracy to assault on a police officer.
Last night was billed as an “Afghan led” anti imperialist anti war protest, “Hoodies and Hijabs” march, commemorating the start of the war in Afghanistan 11 years ago. They started out around 7 pm with a few speeches in front of city hall, but then went on an hour run of vandalizing businesses in Oakland. About 200 people marched through the downtown area smashing windows and throwing paint along the way. According to KGO 810 News, they broke large plate glass windows of three banks along Franklin Street. Six windows were attacked at the Chase Bank on Franklin. Doors and windows of the City Hall were damaged, as was the AC Transit office and the police recruiting office. The group also broke windows at the Oakland Tribune. KTVU noted several businesses were damaged including Kaiser Permanente and that cars were vandalized as well.
There were no arrests last night.
In a rambling statement posted on the Occupy Oakland website, the “Afghans for Peace” accuse US soldiers of atrocities and multiple instances of desecration of the ‘Holy Quran”. They also claim the military has “Kill teams”. They call for US soldiers to “go AWOL, refuse to fight and start a revolt amongst your ranks”. They closed their statement with “say no to all wars, except class war”.
Occupy anti colonial anti capitalist “F–k Columbus” march results in 22 arrests
Police arrested 22 people during an ‘anti colonial, anti capitalist” “F–k Columbus Day” march in San Francisco. The march, which was advertised over the traditional Bay Area Occupy hashtags on Twitter and streamed on Occupy livestream, is part of a weekend of activities which included a call for a march against Mexican, Canadian, US embassies worldwide yesterday
The march today began from Justin Herman Plaza shortly before 3 and snaked through the financial district, disrupting traffic as they walked in the streets. The marchers were attired as a black bloc, dressed in black and carrying black anarchist flags.
As they marched, they vandalized cars, slashing the tires of one car and breaking the window of another. They also smashed a Starbucks window. About 15 minutes into the march, they began to throw flares and bags of paint with rocks in them at the police who were accompanying the march.
Updated video We’ve updated the video showing clearer shots of the action. At around :40 you can see a female throwing something at the police following by flipping them off. Something else is thrown at police at :51 causing one of the cops to have to wipe his eyes. At :54 you can see the paint bomb thrown against the building. 1;21 more paint thrown at police. and at 1:24 they hit a cop pretty hard and all over with a paint bomb. More is thrown at 2:02. Then at 2:06, a cop on bicycle appears to fall over or be knocked over, and is surrounded by marchers. That is when police move in and start making arrests.
You can still see full raw live stream recording here.
According to ABC News, a search of the arrested suspects’ backpacks revealed many were armed with weapons including: hammers, an ice pick, flares, more bags of paint containing rocks, and other weapons.
The 22 people were arrested on one or more of the following charges: conspiracy, riot, refusing to obey a lawful order from a peace officer and resisting, delaying and obstructing a peace officer, and assault and battery on a peace officer.
The marchers posted their intentions on Indy Bay calling for a “rowdy march” through the financial district to fight colonialism and capitalism. In addition they noted it was the 20th anniversary of the first black bloc march disrupting the Columbus Day parade in 1992.
Tomorrow, the group plans to march in Oakland commemorating the 11th anniversary of the start of the war in Afghanistan. Their statement accuses the military of having “Kill teams”, American soldiers of atrocities and “burning hundreds of copies of the Holy Quran”. It calls for American troops to rise up and “start a revolt in your ranks”. They have also called elsewhere for “autonomous creative disruptions of the Columbus Day parade” tomorrow.
Posters advertising the events and photos (by Steve Rhodes) of action today:
Occupy Smashy “FTP” march in the Mission District of San Francisco
Here is video from the attack on the Mission District on Friday night. In it you can see Occupiers in black bloc, attacking the local police station and as well as other businesses. More on the story here. “FTP” stand for “F–k the Police”.
Occupy SF: re-seizes building, occupier hits man in head with brick
Via ABC News from San Francisco-see video of incident here
About 200 Occupiers marched up from Van Ness and took over the building at 888 Turk Street about midday yesterday. They unfurled banners from the roof and invited others to come inside and join them. They tore down the fence around the building, and pried open the doors. They wanted to make the building an urban commune — in their words, “to reclaim and liberate it for the people.”
They had seized this building about a month ago, causing $25,000 in damages before they were evicted by the police. See the prior stories here and here
Around 5:30 pm, one of the Occupiers climbed on the roof and began throwing heavy metal pipes, bricks and other objects down on the police and crowd gathered outside the building. While several bricks were aimed at the officers on Turk Street, only one of the demonstrators was hurt when he was hit in the face by a brick. The man on the roof, Jesse Nesbit, 34, was arrested after he left the building and charged with felony assault.
The building was raided at 5 this morning, and protesters were peacefully evicted from the building. This time there was not as much damage as the prior occasion, although it included the destroyed fence and pried open doors. 26 protesters were arrested and charged with trespassing. Many were from out of the city, some from out side the state.
The building owned by the Catholic Church was in process of being prepared for rental, the money from which would to be used to provide income to assist low income high school students.
Citizen Journalist 