(Image source: Los Angeles Times )

 

BY ANDREW CARTER

Occupy Oakland protesters turned violent on Saturday -- breaking into multiple buildings and burning an American flag.

Police fired tear gas and flash grenades at the protesters, then arrested 300 of them. The demonstration came after the group announced earlier this week its intentions to use a vacant building as a political hub.

The San Francisco Chronicle quoted a rally organizer after Oakland Mayor Jean Quan warned protesters about breaking the law.

“‘We've got to be careful and thoughtful in what we do, because repression is their business,’ Gerald Smith, one of the organizers, told the rally. ‘They live in fear of this occupation.’”

But the organizers weren’t careful enough. Things didn’t exactly go according to plan. CNN reports .

“But what they ended up doing is rushing into a YMCA, not a vacant building at all, there were many people inside working out and they say this crowd just bum rushed them.”

And around the same time Oakland Police were arresting Occupy participants at the YMCA -- the department’s Twitter page reported protesters at city hall.

“City hall, broken into by multiple individuals, secured and arrests being processed.”

Many close to the situation were quick to share their opinions. Mercury News quoted interim police Chief Howard Jordan.

“‘Their intent is to commit vandalism and cause problems,’ interim police Chief Howard Jordan said of the protesters. ‘Their intent is not to be peaceful.’”

And Occupy Oakland Media questions Oakland government.

“With all the problems in our city, should preventing activists from putting a vacant building to better use be their highest priority? Was it worth the hundreds of thousands of dollars they spent?”

The Oakland Local printed a piece by community activist Pamela Drake, who sees both sides.

“I say it’s time to stop besmirching our movement. It’s time to stop threatening our city. It’s time to stop having tantrums in or around our City Hall. … Have the police harassed [protesters] and arrested them for trivialities? I believe they have.”

Saturday’s protests were the most vicious since November when Oakland Police confronted an Occupy encampment.