Update: Hundreds March In Oakland; Windows Smashed At OPD, Fire Ignited Inside Courthouse
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- Hundreds marched in downtown Oakland Saturday night, demanding social justice and showing solidiarty for protesters in the streets of Portland who have been in a standoff with federal agents for more than a week.
While the majority of crowd peacefully protested, a handful of demonstrators turned violent, vandalizing Oakland Police headquarters and setting a fire inside the Alameda County courthouse, breaking windows and covering the building with graffiti.
The unrest continued late into the evening with some breaching the barricades that had been set in front of police headquarters at 7th Street and Broadway as of 11:39 p.m.
(AP Photo/Christian Monterrosa)
Earlier, police said that windows were broken and graffiti spray painted on their headquarters. Demonstrators also shot off fireworks and pointed lasers at officers and helicopters.
(AP Photo/Christian Monterrosa)
Windows were also broken at the federal building. At 10:30 p.m., a group of demonstrators were in the area of 17th & Lakeside, breaking windows and chanting racial slurs at residents.
Late Saturday night, police used bullhorns and large electric signs to tell the crowd to disperse. Several unruly protesters were arrested.
The marchers, carrying peace signs and banners proclaiming support for Portland protesters and Black Lives Matter, stretched for several blocks as they gathered at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza at 14th Street and Broadway early Saturday night.
(AP Photo/Christian Monterrosa)
The protest was organized by groups including the Wall of Moms Bay Area, Refuse Fascism Bay Area and Vigil for Democracy.
There were similar rallies throughout the U.S. in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York and other cities.
Demonstrators turned violent in Seattle. Police declared a riot Saturday following large demonstrations in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood and deployed flash bangs and pepper spray to try to clear an area near where weeks earlier people had set up an "occupied protest zone" that stretched for several blocks.
Via Twitter, police said they had made more than two dozen arrests for assault on officers, obstruction and failure to disperse. They also said they were "investigating a possible explosive damage" to the walls of the city's East Precinct police station.
Authorities said rocks, bottles, fireworks and mortars were thrown at officers as they attempted to clear the area over the course of several hours stretching into Saturday night. One officer was hospitalized with a leg injury caused by an explosive.
Earlier, protesters in Seattle broke through a fence where a youth detention facility was being built, with some people setting a fire and damaging a portable trailer, authorities said.
Thousands of protesters had initially gathered peacefully near downtown in a show of solidarity with fellow demonstrators in where tensions with federal law enforcement have boiled over during protests stemming from the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Meanwhile, a city dump truck was set on fire as protesters faced off with police in Virginia's capital during a demonstration in support of protesters in Portland.
Virginia State Police and Richmond police worked to clear the crowd of a several hundred demonstrators late Saturday. City police declared an "unlawful assembly" around 11 p.m., and what appeared to be tear gas was deployed to disperse the group.
Protesters had been planning for days the demonstration that was called "Richmond Stands with Portland," news outlets reported, in an apparent reaction to ongoing tensions between protesters and U.S. agents at the federal courthouse in Oregon's largest city.
