Occupy Oakland protesters try to push way into City Hall

 Occupy Oakland protesters attempted to enter Oakland City Hall Thursday to confront city officials about what they call continued harassment by Oakland police at Occupy Oakland actions.

The action was called by the Interfaith Tent at Occupy Oakland to address 12 arrests made Wednesday night at an ongoing vigil protesters have held in the plaza since Nov. 29.

The vigil began after police removed several encampments throughout Oakland over the course of several weeks in November, including a large encampment at Frank Ogawa Plaza where religious leaders founded the Interfaith Tent.

Several dozen protesters gathered in Frank Ogawa Plaza at 2 p.m. and attempted to enter City Hall shortly after, but found the doors to the building locked.

Many in the crowd banged on a side door to City Hall on 14th Street demanding to be let in, chanting "let us in" and "shut down City Hall."

Police briefly opened the doors and one city official informed protesters that someone would come out to speak with them but they had to "calm down" first.

Protesters responded by pushing on the two police officers blocking them from entering, and the officers managed to shut the door and lock it once again.

Leaders from the Interfaith Tent gathered on the opposite side of the building and called city officials to negotiate a meeting.

Oakland police Sgt. Serg Babka came out of City Hall to address the growing crowd, and told members of the Interfaith Tent that a group of three representatives would be allowed to enter the building and meet with Arturo Sanchez, assistant to City Administrator Deanna Santana, and Mayor Jean Quan's Chief of Staff Anne Campbell Washington.

Quan and Santana were in a closed-door meeting and unavailable, Babka said.

Samsarah Morgan, Nichola Torbett and Patricia St. Onge, all members of the Interfaith Tent, entered City Hall to meet with city officials.

A smaller group remained at the entrance on 14th Street while a larger group gathered outside the front doors of City Hall and several members of the group spoke about their recent experiences with Oakland police and to address their demands for the city.

Rev. Kurt A. Kuhwald, a Unitarian Universalist Minister with the Starr King School for the Ministry at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, read five demands that the Interfaith Tent had for city officials.

He said that the group was calling for the release of all arrested in the plaza Wednesday night and for all of their citations to be removed, and all confiscated property to be returned.

In addition, Kuhwald said, "We want police to stop harassing vulnerable people on this plaza," and called on city officials to respect the Occupy movement.

Photographer Adam Katz spoke to the group as well, and said he had recently been released from Santa Rita Jail after being held overnight.

Katz said he arrived at the plaza late Wednesday after learning of a police action there on the Internet and was attempting to take a photo of police when they told him to get back.

He said he complied with police demands and moved backwards, but was arrested anyway.

"After they finally told me where they wanted me they arrested me immediately after," Katz said.

He said he was held zip-tied in a police vehicle for several hours with other protesters before being booked into Santa Rita Jail and held on $5,000 bail.

He said police told him they had seen him around at the protests while he was in custody.

"The city feels certain people are maybe more vocal," Katz said, and said he thinks that police are targeting particular activists at protests.

The National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area Chapter released a statement Thursday also charging that police had targeted particular individuals for arrest for no apparent reason.

Oakland police said Thursday that 12 were arrested Wednesday night and each was charged with resisting arrest.

Police said that the city had revoked the protesters' permit to operate a vigil and erect a teepee in the plaza because the area was being used to distribute food without the necessary health permits, that things like sleeping bags, blankets and coolers were being stored at the plaza, and that some protesters were sleeping in the plaza.

"Recent incidents have demonstrated that the teepee and table attract nuisances and illegal activity," Oakland police spokeswoman Johnna Watson said.

When the three representatives of the Interfaith Council emerged from City Hall today, they were hopeful that they had opened a dialogue with city officials.

"We have a long way to go," Torbett said, but said that Washington had offered to help get jailed protesters released.

The three called for a cultural shift in the city government, and particularly in the Police Department, to work more closely with protesters and build trust between the two groups.

"We recognize that it's challenging for everyone to step outside of our experience in order to create a common sense of unity but we are all committed to working toward that," Morgan said.

Torbett said that their first priorities would be the release of arrested protesters before working on changing the culture of the city government, and called for "an increased willingness on the part of our elected officials to listen more than they speak."

They said another meeting was tentatively scheduled for Monday, but that protesters would continue their vigil in the plaza, and that so long as structures are not erected, no permit was required for them to do that.

Some protesters in the crowd said that they still wanted to erect structures such as teepees and umbrellas, and Morgan said that they would bring those concerns to city officials and that no decisions would be made without the full consensus of the general assembly.

However, just as they were concluding their remarks, police allegedly arrested two of the remaining protesters at the 14th Street entrance to the building.

A crowd rushed from the front of City Hall to find out what happened, and witnesses there said police pulled the two inside the building. One protester, Annie Fanelli, said she saw the two men taken outside and put in a police car.

The three Interfaith leaders scrambled to add their names to the list of protesters they are asking officials to release.