Police raid Occupy SF
D Huw Richardson
The Guardian’s Yael Chanoff, who’s been hanging out at the Occupy SF Protest, filed this dispatch today after what appears to have been a long night of confrontations between protesters and police on Market Street. Here’s a snippet:
Around 1 am, protesters saw cops put on riot gear and bring out batons. They then marched up Main to Market and formed a line around the remainder of the physical encampment, blocking protesters from their belongings. As protesters sat on the ground, imploring the cops to leave their things alone and chanting “Join Us! You’re the 99 percent too!” DPW workers loaded everything into five trucks. Tubs of food were spilled on the ground as they dismantled the kitchen, taking donated food, water. and supplies (there was so much food in the kitchen that only hours before, protesters had begun turning away food donations).
It was 1:45 am when protesters began taking to the streets to block the trucks. About 20 ran in front of the line of trucks to link arms and stacked wooden pellets, which had been used to elevate the camp during the rain, to form a barricade. One man lay down in front of the truck, smiling with his banjo in hand. They yelled, “That’s not trash! Don’t throw it away!” Soon, about 250 protesters were linking arms, surrounding the line of trucks. A few brought over municipal trash cans and road blocks to form a barricade around the perimeter.
Protesters, apparently, tried to get officers to join the protest–Chanoff reports that many police had “conflicted” looks on their faces. Our news show, Crosscurrents, sent reporter Andre Torrez out to the protest site yesterday to speak with participants (audio above). This morning’s Forum on KQED also hosted an interesting discussion about the movement–why the media and mainstream liberal hierarchy has been so late to the party, and what potential the movement has.
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TAYLOR!