#BlackLivesMatter Protesters Block Entrance To Oakland Police Headquarters; 25 Arrested
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- Police arrested 25 protesters Monday morning who chained themselves to the Oakland Police Department headquarters and shut down nearby streets to call for the end of police killings of unarmed black people.
The protest started around 7:45 a.m. at the police building at 455 Seventh St.
KCBS reporter Holly Quan was at the scene where she said at least three groups were represented in the protest and had locked arms in PVC piping across Broadway.
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Police initially hung back and appeared to be assessing the situation, but then made at least seven arrests by 9 a.m. when the amount of protesters had swelled to about 200. By noon 13 had been arrested.
The arrested protesters will face charges of blocking a public building and resisting arrest, according to Oakland police spokeswoman Officer Johnna Watson.
Bolt cutters were used to remove chains from headquarters doors. The glass door to one entrance was broken by police tools while officers cut the protesters free, she said.
The group is "extremely well organized" and has been communicative with police, Watson said. But since the police headquarters is a public safety building, the ability to access it is important, she said.
California Highway Patrol officers advised drivers to avoid Interstate Highway 880 if possible because of protesters affecting the highway ramps near downtown Oakland.
Alameda police said drivers should also avoid the Posey Tube between Oakland and Alameda because of the protest.
Protesters cited the recent deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in Staten Island in New York as examples of police brutality against unarmed black men.
After grand juries declined to indict the officers involved in both deaths, protests have sprung up nearly every day the past few weeks in Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco and elsewhere in the Bay Area.
As Oakland enters its fourth week of protests following a grand jury's decision not to indict Ferguson, Missouri, police Officer Darren Wilson for shooting and killing black 18-year-old Michael Brown, organizer Cat Brooks said demonstrators had finally reached Oakland police headquarters after previous marches were blocked before they could reach it.
"There's a war on black people and the police are the army in that war," Brooks said. "We are on the precipice ... of a new civil rights movement."
The protesters said every 28 hours in the U.S., a black man is killed by police, private security or a vigilante.
Today's action was organized by black leadership, including the groups BlackOut Collective, Onyx, Black Lives Matter and Black Brunch, which had previously organized actions that shut down the West Oakland BART station and marches through Oakland's Rockridge neighborhood.
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