Occupy Portland Protesters Push Back After Camp Closures

By Associated Press

14 November 11

Hundreds march through the streets past police after two encampments are shut down. Demonstrators regroup to figure out their next move.

everal hundred protesters, some wearing goggles and gas masks, marched past authorities downtown Sunday, hours after riot police forced Occupy Portland demonstrators out of two encampments in parks.

Police moved in shortly before noon and drove protesters into the street after dozens remained in the camps in defiance of city officials. Mayor Sam Adams had ordered that the camps be shut down Saturday at midnight, citing unhealthy conditions and the increasing number of drug users and thieves.

More than 50 protesters were arrested.

After the police raid, the number of demonstrators swelled throughout the afternoon. By early evening, dozens of officers brandishing nightsticks stood shoulder to shoulder to hold the protesters back. Authorities retreated and protesters broke the standoff by marching through the streets.

Demonstrators regrouped several blocks away, where they broke into small groups to discuss their future. Some were advocating occupying foreclosed homes; others wanted to move onto the Portland State University campus or to the shores of the Willamette River.

Police Chief Mike Reese told KGW-TV it had been his plan to take the parks in a peaceful manner.

"Our officers have performed exceptionally well," he said.

On Sunday at an impromptu news conference, the mayor defended his order to clear the parks, saying it is his job to enforce the law and keep the peace. "This is not a game," Adams said.

In other cities over the weekend:

-- Friends confirmed Sunday that Scott Olsen, an Iraq war veteran who suffered a skull fracture during a police raid on the Occupy Oakland encampment, had been released from the hospital. Olsen was injured Oct. 25, and Occupy supporters around the country had rallied around his plight.

Also Sunday, police said that a man slain Thursday near the encampment had indeed been staying there; he was identified as Kayode Ola Foster, 25, of Oakland.

And for the third time in three days, Oakland city officials warned protesters that they did not have the right to camp in the plaza in front of City Hall and that they would face immediate arrest.

-- In Salt Lake City, police arrested 19 people Saturday when protesters refused to leave a park a day after a man was found dead inside his tent at the encampment.

-- Police in New York arrested 24 Occupy Albany protesters after they defied an 11 p.m. curfew in a state-owned park. They were charged with trespassing.

-- In Denver, authorities forced protesters to leave a downtown encampment and arrested four people for interfering with officers who removed illegally pitched tents, police spokesman Sonny Jackson said.

-- In San Francisco, police said two demonstrators attacked two officers in separate incidents during a march.