The U.S. Conference of Mayors, a nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more, is holding regular discussions about Occupy protests nationwide. In recent days, protests that sprung up as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York, Oakland, Portland, Denver, and some others were targeted with police crackdowns. Read more »

Officers from the Oakland Police Department and other regional law enforcement agencies raided the Occupy Oakland encampment early this morning, tearing down the protest site while activists and supporters milled about in the intersection at 14th and Broadway streets, chanting and shouting "Shame! Shame! Shame!"

Protesters had received eviction notices from the City of Oakland in the days before the raid, and word that a police crackdown was imminent traveled via Twitter and text message updates, bringing several hundred people out into the intersection beginning around 2 a.m. Read more »

I learned about how a handful of people could screw up a major demonstration back in 1984, when the Democratic National Convention was in San Francisco and a fairly large number of peace activists had arranged a protest called the "War Chest Tour." The idea was to draw attention to the fact that Democrats as well as Republicans got big campaign donations from defense contractors whose business was making war. Read more »

Having spent all day in Oakland Wedesday for the General Strike launched by Occupy Oakland, I knew something was wrong when I read reports like this one, which appeared in the San Jose Mercury News:

"Quan said she was happy the crowd -- which police estimate hit 7,000 people at one point -- protested all day with only a small amount of destruction and violence." (Emphasis mine.)Read more »

The grand finale of a day of rallies and marches scheduled for Oakland's Nov. 2 General Strike was a shutdown of the Port of Oakland, in which hordes of protesters accessed the property from different entry points, standing atop train cars and trucks while whooping and chanting. Clusters of groups blocking each gate of the sprawling property featured something different: Brass bands, small assemblies using the "human mic" style of communicating as a crowd, dance parties, and impromptu reunions.Read more »

From Steven T. Jones on the streets of Oakland:

The large crowd has been chanting "peaceful protest" as it moves back to the Plaza. That's in response to a small group that's been breaking windows at BofA, Wells Fargo and Chase. There's also been vandalism at Clorox and Whole Foods. The Chron reports that the vandals are mostly wearing masks.

But for the most part, it's peaceful and most of the activists are trying to avoid (and discourage) the behavior of a few.Read more »

Steven T. Jones reports from the streets of Oakland:

I'm at the intersection of 20th and Webster and a large march is going by, headed toward City Hall. The protesters are passing the Chase Bank branch that was such down earlier, and the windows of the bank are shattered. This happened sometime after the protesters who had blocked the bank entrance walked away.

There are signs on the broken window -- one says "We are better than this." The other says "This is not the 99 percent, sorry -- the 99 percent."

Read more »