Oakland Mayor Quan Says Occupy Protesters Using City As 'Playground'
OAKLAND (KCBS)— Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said she has had it with a small, violent fringe element within the Occupy Oakland protests and claimed it is using the city as a "playground."
Quan spoke Monday in an interview following another chaotic round of street protests in which police units from surrounding areas were on hand to support the cash-strapped city's police department.
"They're taking away resources from my city and creating a situation where it's making it more difficult for me to keep the city safer," Quan said.
KCBS' Doug Sovern Reports:
Charles Pine, head of the Recall and Restore committee, said the mayor still doesn't get it.
"This was not a playground. That's the wrong word. This was a battlefield," he said.
Pine remembered another street scene in November where the mayor actually tried to negotiate when protesters attempted to take over an old building. Then in December, the mayor said she wasn't sure The Port of Oakland could be defended from even a few protesters.
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"So why are we surprised with that kind of talk that the street thugs who are a small portion of Occupy, apparently the dominant portion, are able to do what they do," he asked.
City Hall reopened to the public again Monday with security guards inside and a strong police presence around Frank Ogawa Plaza.
A total of 409 people were arrested on charges ranging from failure to disperse and vandalism on Saturday night according to Oakland's Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan.
Jordan spoke Monday afternoon and denied claims by the protesters that it was the police who turned violent first.
Jordan claimed commotion about Saturday's 'Move-In Day' event started about a month ago when they started to advertise on their website that the intent of this march was to occupy a building.
"They were intent on confronting the police, fighting us. They brought a lot of homemade self-defense equipment with the intent of defeating any attempt by us to prevent them from getting into a building," he said.
Jordan said the police were protecting property and that protesters intentions were to enter that property.
"We saw a much more aggressive, volatile situation. They have thrown liquids at our officers. When we deployed tear gas, they picked it up and threw it back at our officers. The demeanor of the crowd was much more volatile in the past."
When asked about protesters who claim that it is reasonable self defense to throw a canister back at police Jordan said that is "not accurate."
"When we got there we gave them an opportunity to leave. We gave several dispersal orders. Most normal citizens don't want to stand and face off with police and throw things at them," he said.
Jordan added that when police ask you to leave, that's an opportunity to do just that.
"That's not an opportunity to confront police or run at them in order to accomplish any kind of mission. That's an assault on an officer," Jordan said.
Some protesters claimed that there wasn't a fair opportunity to disperse and that tear-gas would follow.
Jordan said that it's OPD policy to read the dispersal order verbatim. Jordan claimed to have reviewed a video of the protests in which 15 dispersal orders were in one particular incident.
Jordan said of over the 400 arrested, 35 percent were from Oakland.
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