Oakland police arresting about 100 protesters

Police move in on Occupy Oakland protesters on Oak Street and 12th Street as tear gas gets blown back on them in Oakland, Calif. on Jan. 28, 2012. An unlawful assembly was declared as occupiers planned to take over an undisclosed building. / Bay Area News Group,AP Photo/The Tribune

Updated 11:13 PM ET

OAKLAND, Calif. - Oakland officials say police are in the process of arresting about 100 Occupy protesters for failing to disperse.

Police Sgt. Christopher Bolton says the arrests come after Occupy Oakland protesters marched through downtown Oakland a little before 8 p.m. Saturday, with some of the protesters entering a YMCA building in the city's downtown.

The arrests Saturday night come after 19 people were arrested in Occupy Oakland protests during the day.

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

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.

Police said the group started assembling at a downtown plaza Saturday morning, with demonstrators threatening to take over the vacant Henry Kaiser Convention Center. The group then marched through the streets, disrupting traffic.

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

The protesters walked to the vacant convention center, where some started tearing down perimeter fencing and "destroying construction equipment" shortly before 3 p.m., the release said.

Police said they issued a dispersal order and used smoke and tear gas after some protesters pelted them with bottles, rocks, burning flares and other objects.

Most of the arrests were made when protesters ignored orders to leave and assaulted officers, the release said. By 4 p.m., the bulk of the crowd had left the convention center and headed back downtown.

The demonstration comes after Occupy protesters said earlier this week that they planned to move into a vacant building and turn it into a social center and political hub. They also threatened to try to shut down the port, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.

In a statement Friday, Oakland City Administrator Deanna Santana said the city would not be "bullied by threats of violence or illegal activity."

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

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

The national Occupy Wall Street movement, which denounces corporate excess and economic inequality, began in New York City in the fall but has been largely dormant lately.

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 the mayor, 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.

[antoniof123]

At first I thought this was a picture of Syria?

Scary isn't it if we continue to go this direction there will be problems.

Looks like the US isn't going to get a free get out of jail card.

[Rick03466]

When do these self important parasite get it. The only thing their action do is steal from the American Tax Payer. They are in effect Economic Terrorist and should be treated as such. Mr. Obama has seen fit (despite his promise eliminate it) to Keep the Patriot Act time for him to use it! Send the parasite in the park to GITMO

[longtree-2009]

sounds more like a riot than protests. oakland should punish them with heavy fines as no doubt their jails cannot hold hundreds arrested for any length of time. without any police forces the nation would be in complete anarchy and each person would be subject to sexual assault, robbery, and worse. oakland should ask for the army national guard for assistance if it gets any worse with the occupy rioting.

[green_blue]

Just another example of the rich getting their way by having "the problem removed" and paying the Police to do their dirty work.

So much for Freedom of Speech, protest and the American People!!

[rightbehind]

The police are nothing more than thugs for the wealthy. They could less about civil rights. I say a round of layoffs would be good for state and county budgets.

[hesrperus99]

More state repression of the right to public assembly. No democracy in America today, just the rights of private property, held in an incresingly smaller number of hands. The power structure is bankrupt, and is bankrupting us all.

[streetswise]

The protesters did not, I repeat, Did Not throw anything at the cops. The fences were knocked down because of the kettling. They were trying to get around said kettling. Every time the cops said disperse, they did. Then the cops closed in and kettled them away from the direction they were dispersing to. Over and over again they did this.

[kryan74]

When will you fools learn that you do not change this country by battling the cops? How stupid is the occupy movement?

[naksuthin]

In Syria, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Tunisia, Tibet, India and the United States people are taking to the streets to send a message to their government that its not only the rich and powerful that have a right to be heard.
They have a voice too...and they will be heard.
If the blacks hand not taken to the streets to protest discrimination, I'm sure they'd still be sitting at the back of the bus today.
The American revolution was a violent response to an unfair British government. The Occupy movement is a similar response to an unfair economic and political system

[erichsh]

Assaulting police officers, throwing rocks, bottles, and flares, destroying equipment.... Way to go, OWS crowd! What a way to drive home your "message" - whatever that is, lol!

[naksuthin]

They are doing the same thing in the streets of Iran, Libya, Syria and Egypt.
And I applaud them.
The rich bring about change by bribing politicians to pass laws in their favor.
The poor bring about change by taking to the streets and getting people like you and I to pay attention to them

[askagain]

Time to send these people home. Let their parents care for them.

[askagain]

hypnotoad72 - Hadn't thought of that. Thanks.

[naksuthin]

They said the same thing about black civil rights protestors and the Anti Vietnam protestors back in the 60's .
Without the protests blacks would still be sitting at the back of the bus today and thousands of more young Americans would have died in a wasted war that we had no business fighting.