Occupy Oakland protests degenerate into chaos

A protest that shut down the Port of
Oakland to show the broadening reach of the Occupy Wall Street
movement ended in violence when police in riot gear arrested dozens
of protesters overnight who broke into a vacant building, shattered
downtown windows, sprayed graffiti and set blazes along the way.

   At least four protesters were hospitalized Thursday with various
injuries, including one needing stitches after fighting with an
officer, police said. Several officers were also injured but didn't
need hospitalization.

   "We go from having a peaceful movement to now just chaos,"
protester Monique Agnew, 40, said early Thursday.

   Protesters also threw concrete chunks, metal pipes, lit romancandles and molotov cocktails, police said.

The far-flung movement of protesters challenging the world's
economic systems and distribution of wealth has gained momentum in
recent weeks, capturing the world's attention by shutting down one
of the nation's busiest shipping ports toward the end of a daylong
"general strike" that prompted solidarity rallies across the U.S.

   Several thousands of people converged on the Port of Oakland,
the nation's fifth-busiest harbor, in a nearly five-hour protest
Wednesday, swarming the area and blocking exits and streets with
illegally parked vehicles and hastily erected, chain-link fences
afterward.

   The Port of Oakland reopened after Wall Street protesters
removed a blockade. Port officials say workers are returning to
their jobs and operations have partially resumed.

   Supporters in New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and elsewhere
staged smaller-scale demonstrations. Each group said its protest
was a show of support for the Oakland movement, which became a
rallying point when an Iraq War veteran was seriously injured in a
clash with police last week.

   The larger Occupy movement has yet to coalesce into an organized
association and until the port shut down had largely been limited
scattershot marches, rallies and tent encampments since it began in
September.

   Organizers in Oakland viewed the strike and port shutdown as a
significant victory. Police said that about 7,000 people
participated in demonstrations throughout the day that were
peaceful except for a few incidents of vandalism at local banks and
businesses.

   Boots Riley, a protest organizer, touted the day as a success,
saying "we put together an ideological principle that the
mainstream media wouldn't talk about two months ago."

   His comments came before a group of protesters broke into the
former Travelers Aid building in order to, as some shouting
protesters put it, "reclaim the building for the people."

   Riley, whose anti-capitalist views are well documented,
considered the port shutdown particularly significant for
organizers who targeted it in an effort to stop the "flow of
capital."

   The port sends goods primarily to Asia, including wine as well
as rice, fruits and nuts, and handles imported electronics, apparel
and manufacturing equipment, mostly from Asia, as well as cars and
parts from Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai.

   An accounting of the financial toll from the shutdown was not
immediately available.

   The potential for the chaos that ultimately erupted was not
something Riley wanted to even consider.

   "If they do that after all this ..." said Riley pausing
cautiously, then adding, "They're smarter than that."

   But the peace that abided throughout a sunny warm autumn
Wednesday, as protesters hung a large black banner downtown that
read: "DEATH TO CAPITALISM," did not last as a cool midnight
approached.

   Occupy protesters voicing anger over a budget trim that forced
the closure of a homeless aid program converged on the empty
building where it had been housed just outside of downtown.

   They blocked off a street with wood, metal Dumpsters and other
large trash bins, sparking bonfires that leapt as high as 15 feet
in the air.

   City officials later released a statement describing the spasm
of unrest.

   "Oakland Police responded to a late night call that protesters
had broken into and occupied a downtown building and set several
simultaneous fires," the statement read. "The protesters began
hurling rocks, explosives, bottles, and flaming objects at
responding officers."

   Several businesses were heavily vandalized. Dozens of protesters
wielding shields were surrounded and arrested.

   Protesters ran from several rounds of tear gas and bright
flashes and deafening pops that some thought were caused by "flash
bang" grenades. Fire crews arrived and suppressed the protesters'
flames.

   Protesters and police faced off in an uneasy standoff until the wee hours of the morning.

   In Philadelphia, protesters were arrested earlier Wednesday as
they held a sit-in at the headquarters of cable giant Comcast.

   In New York, about 100 military veterans marched in uniform and
stopped in front of the New York Stock Exchange, standing in loose
formation as police officers on scooters separated them from the
entrance. On the other side was a lineup of NYPD horses carrying
officers with nightsticks.

   "We are marching to express support for our brother, (Iraq war
veteran) Scott Olsen, who was injured in Oakland," said Jerry
Bordeleau, a former Army specialist who served in Iraq through
2009.

   The veterans were also angry that returned from war to find few
job prospects.

   "Wall Street corporations have played a big role in the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan," said Bordeleau, now a college student. He
said private contractors have reaped big profits in those
countries.

   A New York Post editorial on Thursday called on protesters
camped out in Manhattan to leave or have police evict them. "What
began as a credible protest against bank bailouts, crony capitalism
and the like has, in large measure, been hijacked by crazies and
criminals," it said.

   In Boston, college students and union workers marched on Bank of
America offices, the Harvard Club and the Statehouse to protest the
nation's burgeoning student debt crisis. They said total
outstanding student loans exceed credit card debt, increase by $1
million every six minutes and will reach $1 trillion this year,
potentially undermining the economy.

   "There are so many students that are trying to get jobs and go
on with their lives," said Sarvenaz Asasy, of Boston, who joined
the march after recently graduating with a master's degree and
$60,000 in loan debt. "They've educated themselves and there are
no jobs and we're paying tons of student loans. For what?"

   And among the other protests in Oakland, parents and their kids,
some in strollers, joined in by forming a "children's brigade."

   "There's absolutely something wrong with the system," said
Jessica Medina, a single mother who attends school part time and
works at an Oakland cafe. "We need to change that."