Related
Stories
- Police close down Occupy Portland
- Oakland port opens after clashes
- Fatal shootings near Occupy camps
 |
| Oakland protesters, among the largest of the Occupy groups, briefly closed down the city's port |
Police have
moved into a camp set up by Occupy protesters in Oakland's Frank Ogawa Plaza,
dismantling tents and reportedly arresting 20 people.
The raid
comes after police issued eviction warnings to the protesters.
Many
demonstrators appeared to have left the camp and moved to an intersection,
according to reports in local media and on Twitter.
A similar raid
ended with police in riot gear arresting 50 people in Portland, Oregon on
Sunday evening.
Police
declared the Oakland plaza a "crime scene" shortly after Monday
morning's arrests and cleared media from the area.
Hours
before the raid, a legal adviser to Oakland Mayor Jean Quan resigned, at 02:00
via Twitter, saying he supported Occupy Oakland.
The protest
has been marred in recent weeks by repeated outbreaks of violence and a
shooting incident.
'Crime
scene'
Police
calls for protesters to "cease and desist" increased after the
shooting of 25-year-old Kayode Ola Foster near the plaza on Thursday evening.
Foster's
family confirmed to police that he had been a frequent resident of the Occupy
Oakland encampment.
Oakland
police said witnesses have told them that one of two suspects in the shooting
stayed at the plaza, but they have not released the names of either suspect.
Even as
officials blocked the streets around the camp, some demonstrators said they
would return.
"I
don't see how they're going to disperse us," Ohad Meyer, an Oakland
resident told the Associated Press. "There are thousands of people who are
going to come back."
Johnna
Watson, a police spokeswoman, told reporters the area was now a crime scene.
"We
don't want anyone to go through where we have to document property," she
said.
Mayor Jean
Quan and other officials reportedly toured the plaza with police after it had
been cleared.
Ms Quan has
come under criticism for her handling of the last attempt to clear the
protesters, in which a Iraqi war veteran was wounded.
Scott
Olson, 25, suffered a skull fracture on 25 October and became a rallying point
for protesters across the country.
'No riot
here'
In
Portland, Mayor Sam Adams, ordered the camp to be shut down on the grounds that
"crime, especially reported assaults, has increased in the area around the
camps".
 |
| Police arrested protesters in Oakland who remained inside the camp, but most had left before dawn |
Using
loudspeakers, police warned that anyone who resisted orders to leave the parks
and surrounding areas risked arrest and "may also be subject to chemical
agents and impact weapons".
Demonstrators
chanted "We are a peaceful protest", "I don't see no riot here,
take off your riot gear" and "The whole world is watching".
The protest
began peacefully, witnesses said, but there were confrontations and shouting as
police in riot gear attempted to move people out of the squares.
Police also
moved in to evict protesters camping in the cities of Denver, Colorado, and
Salt Lake City, Utah, on Saturday.
Seventeen
people were arrested in Denver, police said.
Occupy Wall
Street is in its second month of protest against corporate greed and economic
inequality.
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