Police Evict Occupy Portland Protesters, Arrest 3 Men With ‘Explosives’
- Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:18am by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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PORTLAND, Ore. (The Blaze/AP) — Police drove hundreds of anti-Wall Street demonstrators from weeks-old encampments in Portland and arrested more than 50 of them, as authorities in Oakland, Calif., warned Occupy campers that a similar crackdown was coming.
Portland police moved in shortly before noon Sunday and forced protesters into the street after dozens remained in the camp in defiance city officials. Mayor Sam Adams had ordered that the camp shut down Saturday at midnight, citing unhealthy conditions and the encampment’s attraction of drug users and thieves.
(Photo: AP)
More than 50 protesters were arrested in the police action, but officers did not use tear gas, rubber bullets or other so-called non-lethal weapons, police said.
According to Oregonlive.com, three men apparently affiliated with the movement were arrested with “explosives” identified as large fireworks in glass jars designed to act as shrapnel:
Inside the car, the deputy also found a number of firecrackers and two commercially made mortars inside glass canning jars, designed to be fired into the area during professional pyrotechnic displays. One was found in the floorboard of the vehicle, and the other was allegedly in Luff’s jacket.
The deputy also found two gas masks, protective eye goggles and a safety helmet. All three men told the deputy that they had spent the night at the Occupy Portland demonstration, and they brought the mortars and safety equipment to the demonstration in preparation of the expected confrontation between police and protesters Sunday morning.
The three had been at the demonstration during the confrontation Sunday morning and had left about an hour before the vehicle was stopped. During that confrontation, a police officer was injured by a firework, but the three men denied being involved in the incident.
When asked about the explosives, the three men told authorities that they knew the canning jar would explode, causing glass shrapnel to fly and possibly cause injury.
Occupy Oakland (Photo: AP)
Occupy Portland (Photo: AP)
After the police raid, the number of demonstrators swelled throughout the afternoon. By early evening, dozens of officers brandishing nightsticks stood shoulder-to-shoulder to hold the protesters back. Authorities retreated and protesters broke the standoff by marching through the streets.
Demonstrators regrouped several blocks away, where they broke into small groups to discuss their future. The Oregonian reported that numbers began to thin out by mid-evening.
In Oakland, city officials warned protesters for the third time in three days that they do not have the right to camp in the plaza in front of City Hall and face immediate arrest. Police did not respond to requests for comment on whether officers were preparing to forcibly clear the camp.
Protesters said the main plaza was abuzz with rumors of imminent police action, and campers were discussing what to do and how to safeguard those who decided to stay.
“Oakland is not afraid. We’re not afraid of our tents being taken away, of the movement being stymied,” said Shon Kae, who is part of the group’s media team.
A live video feed posted on the Internet by protesters of the encampment showed many protesters milling as 4 a.m. PST Monday but there were no signs of imminent police action.
The warnings were similar to those issued before officers raided the encampment on Oct. 25 with tear gas and bean bag projectiles. More than 80 people were arrested.
A day later, Mayor Jean Quan allowed protesters to reclaim the disbanded site after facing criticism for her handling of the city’s response, as protesters highlighted that an Iraq War veteran had suffered a serious head injury during the police raid.
On Sunday, friends confirmed that the veteran, 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.
The camp has grown substantially since the Oct. 25 raid, although city officials said on Sunday the number of tents has dropped by about 30 to 150 since Nov. 8.
Officials across the country have been urging an end to similar gatherings in the wake of three deaths in different cities, including two 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 are being sought and their 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.
Choya Adkison, 30, said police moved in after giving demonstrators a false sense of calm. They thought they had time to rest, relax and regroup, she said
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.
Police Chief Mike Reese told KGW-TV it was his plan to take the parks in a peaceful manner and that’s what happened.
“Our officers have performed exceptionally well,” he said.
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 Terry Collins in Oakland, Josh Loftin in Salt Lake City, Jim Anderson in Denver and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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Comments (145)
JACKTHETOAD
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 8:24amNah. I think there should be a party called the Common Sense Party. These folks would actually sit down, figure out their wages and expenses and actually LIVE WITHIN THEIR MEANS, instead of defaulting on bill after bill, then crying about it. I’m sure no one was forced to make idiotic financial decisions and then have to pay the price for it, let alone CRYING LIKE BABIES that those mean ‘ol banks hammered them into the financial dirt. You can’t rape the willing.
Report Post »I_Hate_Libs
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 8:16amDon‘t take out loans and don’t use the banks to protect your money and they will not make any money. But if you take out a loan then don’t cry about having to pay it back with interest.
Anyone But Obama 2012!
Report Post »thegodfather
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 8:16amNO!..Say it isn’t so! I demand this park be declared a national monument…to ignorance, filth, and BO. Maybe a statue, in the shape of a tent…with “jazz hands” rising up from inside…wiggling in the wind.
Report Post »capitalismrocks
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 8:05amThese idiots don’t get it, if they want to live in a filthy lawless world, then move to the middle of nowhere, form a commune and die in their own filth there…
If they can’t live with society, or our political system, nothing is stopping them from getting together, and forming their own “Occupy Town” where they can live without laws, police, soap and they can steal, rape and chant Che to each other until they all die of disease.
Report Post »George Patton
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 8:58amTo them it is not about living how they want….its about forcing YOU to live how they want!
Report Post »Taquoshi
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 11:54amThank you, George, for saying what I was thinking. If these people truly did want to live in third world conditions, there are plenty of opportunities to do so in many parts of the world. But they want to drag the rest of us along with them. No, thanks.
Report Post »fatsomann
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 1:06pmThanks from me too, George Patton. FREEDOM OF CHOICE, obviously a foreign concept to OWS.
Report Post »Cold War Vet
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 7:24pm2 CAPITALISMROCKS
I and many, many of my friends and family completely agree with you! Almost everyone I know!
Report Post »stormerwasright
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 8:01am“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….
Report Post »Just sooo precious…Hey Mike ! They didn’t ask you to “talk about what you were going to do…” They told you to LEAVE! Did we learn a lesson little children? Like, you’re not the center of the universe?
Unix
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 8:40amLOL, great hair!
Report Post »tbeachhead
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:49amThey didn’t pay for the tents…how brave not to be afraid to have something taken away that you didn’t pay for in the first place.
Report Post »theothertoolbox
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 8:38amI would really like to see all the litter and filth left behind by these “environmentally conscience” protesters, wouldn’t you?
Report Post »pamela kay
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 5:27pmThese OWS are well funded. They are not paying for anything. This is a well organized movement and is not what it appears to be. It was developed to cause chaos, a Crisis” if you will. One that shouldn’t be wasted by the progressives. Don’t think that it will be over if they have to leave temporarily, it is just starting to snowball.
Report Post »Founding Father2
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:48amThese guys show the DEVOLUTION of our society and us as humans. There was a special put together on this by a Tea party group: http://www.americanparchment.com/video/2011/nov/occupation_devolution.html
This just shows how low we have gone.
Report Post »ares338
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:46amDottie 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.———-
Report Post »This guy couldn’t talk before he got whacked on the noggin. It’s time to take out the trash. It’s been stinking long enough.
ThoreauHD
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:45amWhat a bunch of psycho’s. I want to find the people paying them. Because some of those idiots are getting paid to do this.
Report Post »5headspro.com
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:45amYea, just like the tea party… only without it being just like the tea party, LOL…..
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:49amIndeed, and I still am wondering when Mr Obama will send in the Fed’s to support the protesters and their violent actions; somehow I can just see it occuring, troops sent to protect the radicals and rebels who want to overthrow the Republic by the POTUS who is doing the same.
Report Post »demint.disciple
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:52amYeah, did you notice that the Police and parks dept. have to clean up most of the mess ?
Report Post »Seneca264
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 8:12amThe joke may be on you. Don’t be surprised if something like this happens when election time approaches.
Report Post »db321
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 2:47pmHey Demint.Disciple – why did Jim not throw his hat into the Presidental ring – I hope he has a chance to be VP – I really like his conservative, and moral values.
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:45amYou may have removed the hippies, but they’re still filthy, smelly lazy, worthless beings somewhere else.
Report Post »dantom
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:42amWhat a suprise Portland a liberal mecca must have some adults there.
Report Post »BONETRAUMA
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:37amlooks like a TEA Party.
Report Post »Clownshoes
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:54amuntil your realize that at the TEA Party event all the protesters would have jobs and none would be getting arrested…
Report Post »pylgrym47
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 8:22am@ Clownshoes – AND wouldn’t leave all that trash behind for others to clean up.
Report Post »Charlie Justice
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:36amOh Dear…that looks EXACTLY like the TEA party.
Report Post »IAMMADDOG
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 11:22amOnly to the uninformed.
Report Post »Taquoshi
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 12:03pmUh, Charlie, where all the Tea Party arrests made? And where were the fireworks in Mason jars, guaranteed to spray sharpnel into the crowd? How about the lack of permits, or the unsanitary conditions? I missed those at the Tea Party events. Would you kindly either post the links or tell us which papers reported on them so we can all know?
Report Post »Cold War Vet
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 7:29pm@ TAQUOSHI
The jury’s out on this one. Charlie Justice is just a subhuman bottom-feeding inbred liberal progressive commie troll loser flinging its feces into the conversation. Like a fly, the world is a better place without it!
Report Post »Cold War Vet
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 7:33pmDue to an error in identifying a name, I retract my previous comment…
Report Post »Cold War Vet
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 7:36pm@ CHARLIE JUSTICE
Please accept my apology for misidentifying you on that last post. It was NOT intended for you!
Report Post »RichNGadsden
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:36amHoorah! Maybe the other cities responsible for allowing these morons to ruin local small businesses will collectively remove their heads from their collective asses and force more bulldozing. Okay, I know they used a front loader in Portland, but you get the picture.
Report Post »On The Bayou
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:36amHere`s the dirty little secret as Rush says that they will not tell you, Van Jones and his boss in the White can see this OWS is not going like they had hoped. It`s turning into a parasite for the entire nation to see. And Obama owns OWS. Under the radar the leaders of these rallies have been giving the green light to the Democratic leaders of these cities to end them.
Report Post »investlite
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 8:09amUnfortunately rush is wrong. This is part of the plan. They want to get shutdown, to allow for multiple things. first, they will relax the rules around protests. second, they will use this as a rally cry to come back strong, hard, and violent in the spring. they’ll call it the “american spring”.
Report Post »Unix
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 8:43amSing it loud: Springtime for Hilter in Germany!!! I can’t wait until the srping when this thing really gets out of hand, eh?
Report Post »On The Bayou
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 10:01amI didn`t say Rush said this, I was using his frase “Here`s The Dirty Little Secret ” As far as the rest of this violent spring in this country bring it on.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:35amIt will be worse… next time!
Report Post »PATRIOTGRUNT
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 8:30am@ LUKERW : You mean like just before the 2012 elections. When the the real pigs behind this whole thing (OWS) so called movement come out . Like SEIU- UAW- AFL-CIO– FPO-NEA and all of the rest of the alphabets. They will create so much crap that “ THE ONE ” will be “FORCED ” to declare “ MARTIAL LAW ” to save the USA ?. Practice Makes Perfect. Get to know your community. Who the Teachers- Police- Fireman-County-City workers are . Majority of these people will be looking to get what you have. Its the Union not the country that matters to these people.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 9:51am@PATRIOTGRUNT
Report Post »Exactly… and if there is Martial Law, maybe US & UN troops… but I worry more about the time between the Vote and a New President, when the leaders see their future and have nothing to loose!
RLTW
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 12:52pmI believe this was an exercise/rehearsal designed to build, connect and create small unit cohesion for the spring offensive, they now have until May Day to plan and prepare the next ignorant wave of anti-American BS.
Report Post »The_Almighty_Creestof
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:35amCould have done the same thing by dropping leaflets announcing a 3 hour “buy one get one free” special at Starbucks.
Report Post »Carter John
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 3:05pmThey would have to have the money for the first one though.
Report Post »drago
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:34amIn almost every interview ive seen with a protester, all they seem to care about is their tents……mindless amoebas……
Report Post »demint.disciple
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:50amThat‘s because they don’t know why they are there or even what the are supposed to be protesting..
Report Post »Unix
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 8:58amLOL Drago, man, dude, I coined the amoeba reference – you owe me royalties, hehe!
Report Post »PATRIOTGRUNT
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:34amBeat Them, Evict Them_____ Beat Them , Evict Them____ Beat Them , Evict Them and Beat Them Some More. Enough is Enough. Go Home you goons.
Report Post »demint.disciple
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:34amYes Elija you look great ,perfect for a good job. This movement is over when we say it is over.. You just don’t realize that yet.. We’re letting you play your little game but when WE say you are finished playing, you are finished , trust me..
Report Post »Tired_of_The_Liberal_Spin
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:32amFinally!!!!
Report Post »SpankDaMonkey
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:32am.
I Love the second picture, Dude has that what did I do look…….
C’mon Man, a line of Police dressed head to toe in Riot Gear, and you and your Hoodie are gonna be Hero’s. Yep! That ought to get you laid………….
Report Post »Unix
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 9:00ammore like Zero’s, ya…
Report Post »PingPongPing
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:27ampeaceful protest? yea right….
Report Post »grudgywoof
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 7:24amBack to the mental institute with the lot of ya! The party’s over kids now go home and take a shower!
Report Post »Bill Rowland
Posted on November 14, 2011 at 12:30pmand go by the emergency room and get your vacinations and your rabies shot
OMG
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