OAKLAND, Calif. – Oakland police said they arrested about 300 people Saturday as protesters spent a portion of the day trying to get into a vacant convention center, and later broke into City Hall and tried to occupy a YMCA.

Police spokesman Jeff Thomason said most of the arrests came around 8 p.m. local time, when police took many protesters into custody as they marched through the city's downtown, with some entering a YMCA building.

At about the same time police were taking people into custody near the YMCA, about 100 police officers surrounded City Hall, while others swept the inside of the building looking for protesters who had broken into the building, then ran out of the building with American flags before officers arrived.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan during a news briefing late Saturday said protesters had forced their way into City Hall, where they burned flags, broke into an electrical box and damaged several art structures, including a recycled art exhibit created by children .

The nighttime arrests came after 19 people were taken into custody in Occupy Oakland protests hours earlier.

Police used tear gas and "flash" grenades on the group Saturday afternoon after some demonstrators threw rocks and other objects at them. Police said three officers were hurt, but they released no details.

Police said the group assembled 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., police 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, police 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 Mayor Jean Quan, 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.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/28/occupy-oakland-crowd-grows-to-nearly-2000/?test=latestnews#ixzz1kpdsQjdO

Taze these A$$hats and put them in prison.

While I know there are problems in our country I don't see how criminal tresspass, vandelism, assualt, and other crimes justify what these bums are doing and have been doing in the name of making a statement. Lame but what is more lame is they will be out of jail before the paperwork can be thfough the systems.

I dunno, I think your right about them being out soon. I am hoping they were all charged with Felonies though that way it sticks on their record.

Funny how hard they and their Apologists try to make their Criminal Tresspass look like First Amendment Rights!

In a world where people who work hard and find it difficult to pay their bills and then there are thousands of empty building and homes is it little wonder why some people get angry.

The system has to change.

As Warren Buffet said " I would rather be safe than rich"

Buffet is a Horses Patoot!

I am sure that will make him have a major rethink.

That's why the Dork is suing the IRS,because he thinks his Taxes are too high?

Generalizing and calling the entire group bums and criminals just shows the lack of wanting to understand...you can say ya don't understand, when your name calling, it shows you really don't want to.

Everybody wants peace, no one wants to change their own mind...

Everyone wants to tell their neighbors how to live, no one wants to listen how they feel...

The Oakland cops are out of control and their department has serious issues and has for a very long time.

He didn't get to be the richest man in the world by being a laughing sport.

Turn them over to Sheriff Joe in Arizona!

I wanted to say something like that but you have done a far better job.

Some people refuse to look upwards.

It must make them feel better about themselves knowing that there are people worse off than them.....so sad...very sad people

Oakland cops are out of control....

Mayor Jean Quan vowed Wednesday to quickly reform the scandal-plagued Oakland Police Department after a frustrated judge threatened a federal takeover if it fails to quickly make good on changes agreed to nine years ago.

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson said he "remains in disbelief" that the department has failed to adopt the reforms.

Henderson's frustration with the pace of improvements was evident throughout a scathing five-page ruling issued Tuesday.

"This department finds itself woefully behind its peers around the state and nation," he wrote.

In his ruling, Henderson increased the oversight authority of a court-appointed monitor. Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan must now consult with the monitor before making important department decisions such as promoting and disciplining officers and changing policing policy and tactics.

Henderson ordered court hearings if city officials disagreed with the monitor's recommendations.

Quan and Jordan said a federal takeover wouldn't be necessary because Oakland's new leadership has made compliance with the settlement a priority.

"We believe that the expertise of the monitor, coupled with the new leadership in the Police Department and the city administrator's (office) and my commitment to further incorporate the requirements of the negotiated settlement agreement into OPD's culture, will move Oakland into compliance as quickly as possible," Quan said in a prepared statement.

The mayor, police chief, city manager and city attorney have all been in their posts for less than two years.

"The Oakland Police Department belongs to the community," Jordan said. "The path forward will be guided by an actionable plan."

Henderson said he will consider proceedings to appoint a federal receiver to run the department if the monitor submits a report this summer showing little improvement.

The judge appointed a monitor in 2003 to ensure the city complied with terms of a $10.5 million settlement of a lawsuit filed by victims of a notorious group of police officers known as "The Riders."

The group was accused of beating and framing suspects in the West Oakland area for years. One officer was acquitted at trial and criminal charges against two former officers were dismissed after two trials ended in hung juries. A fourth former officer remains a fugitive who disappeared after charged were filed in 2000.

The current monitor, Robert Warshaw, was appointed in 2010 and oversees the settlement with a staff of seven people.

The settlement included 51 specific reforms the department agreed to make within five years. Henderson noted Tuesday that he's extended the compliance deadline by years to little effect.

"Defendants have achieved full compliance with just over half of those tasks and, worse yet, have fallen in and out of compliance on some tasks, thus indicating a lack of sustainability," Henderson wrote. "The outstanding tasks are not minor formalities; instead, they are significant areas that go to the heart of any police department, including how internal affairs investigations are completed, how officers are supervised, and the use and reporting of force."

The judge was responding to a monitor's report submitted earlier this month that included "serious concerns" about the department's handling of the so-called Occupy Oakland protests. The monitor told the judge that officers' actions during the Occupy protests put even the small improvements made by the department in jeopardy.

"We were, in some instances, satisfied with the performance of the department; yet in others, we were thoroughly dismayed by what we observed," Warshaw wrote. "I cannot overstate our concern that although progress on compliance has been slow, even those advancements may have been put in doubt in the face of these events."

The monitor said the department's response to the Occupy protests will help determine whether police are making progress.

The mayor and police chief announced in December they were hiring an independent investigator to evaluate claims police used excessive force and improper tactics responding to the protests, which included several uses of tear gas, rubber bullets and "flash-bang" grenades on protesters.

One protester was hospitalized after being hit in the head with a flash grenade. At least one officer was demoted from lieutenant to sergeant for failing to report a subordinate blacking out his name tag.

Warshaw promised the judge a more in-depth analysis of the Occupy protests when he submits his next report sometime in July. Henderson said the results of that report may prompt him to take the extremely rare step of placing the department in a federal receivership, stripping Oakland of control of its police.

Henderson took the same extraordinary step with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's medical health care system. A receiver was appointed in 2006 to run the prison department's health care system after Henderson said CDCR failed to comply with a settlement agreement to provide adequate care to inmates. The court-appointed receiver, J. Clark Kelso, remains in charge of the health care system.

The mayor conceded Oakland police were moving too slowly to reform the department. But Quan said she and the new leaders will move Oakland into compliance as quickly as possible.

However, as the court has explained time and time again, words and promises are not enough, Henderson said.

"Indeed, each time a previous new mayor or city administrator or chief of police has come on board, the court was reassured that the individual was strongly committed to reforming the Oakland Police Department, and that a change in administration and leadership was all that was necessary to push the city into full compliance," the judge wrote.

http://www.governing.com/news/local/AP-Oakland-Police-Could-Face-Federal-Takeover.html

Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor and unlikely radical, has suggested that forcing rich investors like him to pay the same tax rate as his secretary might also help.

Occupy DC protesters gathered to demonstrate Saturday outside the 99th annual Alfalfa Club dinner thrown for high-level dignitaries, including President Obama.
The protesters marched from one of their downtown Washington home bases to the nearby Capital Hilton hotel, where the dinner was held.
Marching through the streets, the demonstrators chanted"Whose streets? Our streets!" and "We are the 99%," until they reached barricades outside of the hotel. Once at the barricades, protesters continued to chant and attempted to create a human blockadeto hamper the guests from entering the dinner.
The Alfalfa Club is an organization comprised of Washington VIPs suchas congressmen and business executives whom Occupy DC activists say personify the "1%" members of the movement have been rallying against since last year.
As guests arrived, they were forced to pass through the barricade and Occupy DC protesters. While police assisted them passing through, protesters continued to chant and started to throw glitter on the attendees. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut, and the other guests accompanying him wereamong those who were doused with the glitter.
"I am out here today dressed up as myself; middle-class, middle-aged PTA parent to show that the 99% includes regular people like me," Occupy DC protester Eric Lotke told CNN. "What we need to do is start listening to the people, and if we listen to the people, theywant the clean energy, they want the money out of politics, they want the health care, they want these things and they can't get them because there's a ruling class that wants things to be done differently."
The Occupy Wall Street movement began in New York in September and has spread across major cities worldwide as a call to action againstwhat protesters consider the unequal distribution of wealth.
Saturday's protest comesjust two days before the National Park Service is slated to end overnight camping at the Occupy DC sites.

Wait til May in Chicago. NATO and G`8 Summit will be in town.
Certainly potential for chaos and out of control-ness.

They threw GLITTER on people! That is so out of control.

Is there film of this? I'd really like to see Lieberman all sparkly.

I don't agree with OWS and much of what they're advocating, but it's kind of ironic how corporate thieves are still sitting in their offices on Wall Street while petty criminals are reaaaally cracked down on and demonized. Such a sad state of affairs.

Joe's another one who belongs in a cage rather than throwing people into cages.