Oakland Police Arrest Demonstrators Marching Against Protest Clampdown

By Associated Press

26 May 15

olice made arrests as demonstrators marched in downtown Oakland on Sunday, against the city’s new get-tough policy for monitoring street protests. It was the second such gathering in as many days.

Officers watched closely on Sunday night as the protesters marched several blocks, starting at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Spokeswoman Johnna Watson said about 100 to 150 marched before organisers ended the event, and then a group of 15 to 20 started another protest.

Watson said there were no reports of injury or vandalism, but four people were arrested and another 19 received citations.

A night earlier, dozens of protesters were arrested or cited for ignoring police orders to disband their protest.

The Oakland Tribune reported on Sunday that police cited a new policy by the city’s mayor to force protesters from the street to the sidewalk, after Oakland experienced several violent demonstrations in the past year. Oakland has hosted rallies in the streets for years, but the mayor said the new policy was needed to combat damage to property and violence.

Mayor Libby Schaaf said earlier that existing policies and laws allowed police to clear streets of protesters. Many businesses along the city’s automobile sales district were badly damaged by protesters who broke away from the main demonstration on 1 May. Businesses also sustained heavy damage during protests arising from the deaths of unarmed black men in police custody in Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere over the last two years.

Tensions rose anew in Oakland on Thursday when protesters marched in honour of black women killed by police across the country. But organisers said they were surprised when police pushed them off the streets and on to the sidewalks, citing the mayor’s new policy. No one was arrested on Thursday.

Organisers then called for another protest on Saturday to demonstrate against the new policy.

“You can’t run roughshod over people because they’re protesting your oppression,” said Cat Brooks, an organiser of both protests. “You can’t push us off the streets.”

Further protests over the new policy were planned, Brooks said.

Rachel Lederman, a lawyer with the National Lawyers Guild who helped Oakland craft its crowd-control policies, said the new tactics appear to violate the guidelines.

“It doesn’t make any sense because saying that marches have to be on the sidewalk has absolutely no relationship to impending property damage that might occur,” Lederman said. “Obviously that would happen on a sidewalk, not a street.”

The mayor did not respond to a request for comment.