OAKLAND, California?? Police decked in riot gear and armed with tear gas cleared out Oakland's anti-Wall Street encampment early Monday, the latest law enforcement crackdown amid complaints around the country of health and safety hazards at protest camps.
Protesters at the Occupy site appeared to put up little resistance, and officers led some away from the downtown plaza in handcuffs.
Some demonstrators gathered near the barricades and vowed to return. "I don't see how they're going to disperse us," said Ohad Meyer, 30. "There are thousands of people who are going to come back."
An update on the Occupy Oakland website said demonstrators would reconvene outside the city's main library at 4 p.m. Monday.
The independent news website Oakland Local carried a statement from the City of Oakland that explained officials "could not assure adequate public health and safety" in the area where demonstrators had gathered.
Dan Siegel, legal advisor to Mayor Jean Quan, confirmed in a Twitter post that he resigned his post overnight in protest at the city's decision.
The clearance action came a day after police drove hundreds of anti-Wall Street demonstrators from weeks-old encampments in Portland, Oregon, arresting more than 50 people.
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Oakland officials stepped up calls for an end to their city's encampment after a man was shot and killed Thursday near the plaza. Police issued a fourth cease and desist order Sunday night telling demonstrators they couldn't camp there.
Mayor Jean Quan had allowed protesters to reclaim the disbanded site after facing criticism following the Oct. 25 raid. The camp grew substantially afterward, although city officials said Sunday the number of tents had dropped by about 30 to 150 since Nov. 8.
"We came to this point because Occupy Oakland, I think, began to take a different path than the original movement. It was no longer about the pieces of the financial system or foreclosures or the unemployed," Quan said.
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"The encampment became a place where we had repeated violence and last week a murder," she said. "We had to bring the camp to an end before more people got hurt."
Not everyone in Quan's camp agreed. Dan Siegel, one of the mayor's top legal advisers, resigned over the decision to raid the anti-Wall Street protest encampment Monday morning.
Siegel, a civil rights attorney and longtime friend of Quan, worked as an unpaid adviser. He has been a vocal critic of Oakland police and also had opposed the Oct. 25 raid.
Siegel and Quan worked as student protest organizers at the University of California, Berkeley during the 1960s.
Quan confirmed Siegel's resignation at a news conference, simply noting that the pair has been known to disagree on issues.
Protesters would be allowed to return to the plaza after the tents were cleared out, but they wouldn't be allowed to spend the night, officials said.
"We've been consistent that they can use it as a free speech location," Quan said. "They can gather tonight, but no camping is allowed."
On Sunday, friends confirmed that an Iraq War veteran who was injured in the Oct. 25 raid, Scott Olsen, has been released from the hospital. Olsen, who suffered a skull fracture, became a rallying point for protesters nationwide.
Dottie Guy of Iraq Veterans Against the War said Sunday Olsen was released last week. He can now read and write, but still has trouble talking, she added.
Officials across the country have been urging an end to similar gatherings in the wake of three deaths in different cities, including two deaths by gunfire.
Demands for Oakland protesters to pack up increased after a man was shot and killed Thursday near the encampment site.
Protesters had said that there was no connection between the shooting and the camp. But police Sunday night identified the slain man as 25-year-old Kayode Ola Foster of Oakland, saying his family confirmed he had been staying at the plaza.
Police officer Johnna Watson said witnesses have told police that one of two suspects in the shooting had also been a frequent resident at the plaza. The suspects' names haven't been released.
Investigators suspect that the shooting resulted from a fight between two groups of men.
In the hours after the midnight Saturday eviction deadline in Portland, the anti-Wall Street protesters and their supporters had flooded the park area. At one point, the crowd swelled to thousands. As dawn arrived, riot police had retreated and most of the crowds had gone home, but protesters who have been at the two parks since Oct. 6 were still there, prompting one organizer to declare the night a victory for the movement.
"We stood up to state power," Jim Oliver told The Associated Press.
It didn't last. Police moved in later. An officer on a loudspeaker warned that anyone who resisted risked arrest and "may also be subject to chemical agents and impact weapons." Demonstrators chanted "we are a peaceful protest."
"We were talking about what we were going to do and then they just started hitting people. Seems like a waste of resources to me," protester Mike Swain, 27, told the AP.
One man was taken away on a stretcher; he was alert and talking to paramedics, and raised a peace sign to fellow protesters, who responded with cheers.
City officials erected temporary chain-link fences with barbed wire at the top around three adjacent downtown parks, choking off access for demonstrators as parks officials cleaned up.
Portland Mayor Sam Adams Sunday defended his order to clear the park, saying it is his job to enforce the law and keep the peace. "This is not a game," Adams said.
Officials said that one officer suffered minor injuries. Police had prepared for a possible clash, warning that dozens of anarchists may be planning a confrontation with authorities.
In other cities over the weekend:
? In Salt Lake City, police arrested 19 people Saturday when protesters refused to leave a park a day after a man as found dead inside his tent at the encampment.
? In Albany, N.Y., police arrested 24 Occupy Albany protesters after they defied an 11 p.m. curfew in a state-owned park.
? In Denver, authorities arrested four people as they forced protesters to leave a downtown encampment.
? In San Francisco, police said two demonstrators attacked two police officers in separate incidents during a march, leaving them with minor injuries. The assailants couldn't be located.
___
Associated Press writers Terrence Petty and Jonathan J. Cooper in Portland, Ore., Josh Loftin in Salt Lake City, Jim Anderson in Denver and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45286970/ns/us_news-life/
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