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Occupy Oakland demonstrators on Tuesday night clashed with police who lobbed tear gas at least three times in futile attempts to fully disperse the more than 1,000 people who took to the downtown streets after an early-morning raid of the movement’s encampment.

The rolling protest came about 12 hours after hundreds of police from all over the Bay Area rousted about 300 people from the two-week old camp at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. Tensions escalated after protesters vowed to return to the plaza, which looked like a refuge camp that had been hit by hurricane with tents overturned and food, carpet, personal belongings and mounds of trash strewn on the lawn.

“We had to deploy gas to stop people from throwing rocks and bottles at police,” said Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan, adding that he was unsure about what other crowd control methods were used by outside police agencies. There were unconfirmed reports that flash-bang grenades and wood dowels were launched at protesters.

Following the pre-dawn raid, about 500 protesters initially met at the main branch of the Oakland library at 4 p.m. chanting that they would “reclaim” what they now call Oscar Grant Plaza, named after a 22-year-old man who was murdered in 2009 by BART police.

The demonstrators sparred with hundreds of police for more than six hours forcing police to close streets, re-route traffic and launch four rounds of bean bags into the crowd of protesters, hitting at least
two people.

At one of the most tense moments near Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, sparks from explosives thrown at police by protesters and tear gas canisters could be seen exploding over the scattering crowd.

The number of protest injuries were not immediately known, but there was an unconfirmed report from a first-responder on the scene that a protester was struck in the head by a tear-gas canister. Two officers were hurt when protesters splattered them with paint.

At press time, the crowd had not dispersed and an earlier Tweet by Occupy Oakland organizers gave locations where the group wanted people to congregate and urged demonstrators to “bring bottles.”

Chief Jordan said 102 people were arrested Tuesday, the majority taken into custody before dawn. Many were taken to Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and held on $10,000 bail each. Occupy Oakland organizers flooded Mayor Jean Quan and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office with demands the protesters be cited and released. Those arrested included people from as far away as Florida and Illinois, a city official said. Police said the protesters would likely be out of jail by Wednesday.

The Oakland Tribune (via the Santa Cruz Sentinel), “Occupy Demonstrators, Police Clash In Downtown Oakland” (via inothernews)

"The Daily Show"

JON (quoting from the Bible): The man who has two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.
SAMANTHA: No, no, no.
WYATT: What kind of Occupy Wall Street shit is that?

The Fox affiliate’s reporter and cameraman were caught in the middle of a melee between police and protestors. The reporter, Dick Brennan, took a nightstick to the stomach; his shooter was pepper-sprayed. From the video it appeared that protestors surged against metal barriers set up by police: at least one NYPD officer — wearing a white shirt — is seen wildly swinging his baton at protestors, landing blows.

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I would just say very generally, I think people are quite unhappy with the state of the economy and what’s happening. They blame, with some justification, the problems in the financial sector for getting us into this mess, and they’re dissatisfied with the policy response here in Washington. And at some level, I can’t blame them. Certainly, nine percent unemployment and very slow growth is not a good situation.

Federal Reserve chairman BEN BERNANKE, on the Occupy Wall Street protests, during testimony in front of a Congressional committee earlier today.

(via ThinkProgress.org)