11 arrested at Occupy protest campsite in D.C.

US Park Police officers in protective gear clean up after Occupy DC protesters were forced to remove bedding and tents from a site a few blocks from the White House over the weekend.

Πηγή: Nation
By AP
Feb 6 2012

WASHINGTON - Eleven people have been arrested in Washington’s McPherson Square since Park Police began clearing tents from one of the nation’s last remaining Occupy protest sites, authorities said yesterday.

David Schlosser, a spokesman for the US Park Police, said one of those arrested was charged with felony assault on a police officer and assault with a deadly weapon. That person is accused of hitting an officer in the face with a brick Saturday night. The officer was treated at a hospital.

Three others were charged with assault on a police officer.

Schlosser said the site was mostly peaceful yesterday and officials were continuing to clear the park of tents and restore sanitary conditions.

The protesters vowed to continue their demonstration and urged followers to remain nonviolent.

The police said they were enforcing a National Park Service ban on camping. They are removing wood, metal, and other objects from beneath a big blue tarpaulin on a park draped around a statue in the center of the park.

After months of tolerating the protesters and protecting their right to sleep in the park, the National Park Service announced that it would enforce a camping ban. It took effect last Monday, although police did not immediately break up or otherwise disrupt the encampment.

The Washington demonstration is among the last remaining Occupy sites, enjoying special First Amendment protections because of its location on park service property. The rules permit protesters to remain onsite at all hours with tents, but bar them from camping or laying down bedding material.

Dozens have been camped since Oct. 1 in McPherson Square, just blocks from the White House.

Police arrest about 150 Occupy Oakland protesters

January 28, 2012: Oakland police deploy smoke and tear gas to stop protesters with the Occupy Oakland as they march through the streets of downtown Oakland, Calif.

Πηγή: Foxnews
By AP
Jan 29 2012

OAKLAND, Calif. – Oakland police say they arrested a total of about 150 people Saturday as protesters spent a portion of the day trying to get into a vacant convention center, and later broke into City Hall and tried to occupy a YMCA.

Police spokesman Jeff Thomason says most of the arrests came around 8 p.m. That's when police took about 100 protesters into custody as they marched through the city's downtown, with some entering a YMCA building.

Police say three officers were injured.Authorities were still tabulating the exact number of arrests late Saturday.

The nighttime arrests came after 19 people were taken into custody in Occupy Oakland protests hours earlier.

Police used tear gas and "flash" grenades on the group Saturday afternoon after some demonstrators threw rocks and other objects at them. Police said three officers were hurt, but they released no details.

Police said the group assembled at a downtown plaza Saturday morning, with demonstrators threatening to take over the vacant Henry Kaiser Convention Center. The group then marched through the streets, disrupting traffic.

The crowd grew as the day wore on, with afternoon estimates ranging from about 1,000 to 2,000 people.

The protesters walked to the vacant convention center, where some started tearing down perimeter fencing and "destroying construction equipment" shortly before 3 p.m., police said.

Police said they issued a dispersal order and used smoke and tear gas after some protesters pelted them with bottles, rocks, burning flares and other objects.

Most of the arrests were made when protesters ignored orders to leave and assaulted officers, police said. By 4 p.m., the bulk of the crowd had left the convention center and headed back downtown.

The demonstration comes after Occupy protesters said earlier this week that they planned to move into a vacant building and turn it into a social center and political hub. They also threatened to try to shut down the port, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.

In a statement Friday, Oakland City Administrator Deanna Santana said the city would not be "bullied by threats of violence or illegal activity."

Interim police Chief Howard Jordan also warned that officers would arrest those carrying out illegal actions.

Oakland officials said Friday that since the Occupy Oakland encampment was first established in late October, police have arrested about 300 people.

The national Occupy Wall Street movement, which denounces corporate excess and economic inequality, began in New York City in the fall but has been largely dormant lately.

Oakland, New York and Los Angeles were among the cities with the largest and most vocal Occupy protests early on. The demonstrations ebbed after those cities used force to move out hundreds of demonstrators who had set up tent cities.

In Oakland, the police department received heavy criticism for using force to break up earlier protests. Among the critics was Mayor Jean Quan, who said she wasn't briefed on the department's plans. Earlier this month, a court-appointed monitor submitted a report to a federal judge that included "serious concerns" about the department's handling of the Occupy protests.

London mayor: Most in riots had criminal records

Πηγή: AP

Sep 6, 2011

LONDON (AP) -- Three-quarters of those arrested in Britain's riots last month had criminal records, London's mayor said Tuesday, blaming the U.K.'s criminal justice system for failing to turn offenders away from crime.

"What was going to make you more likely to riot? It was previous contact with the police, and that's the problem that we need to tackle," Mayor Boris Johnson told the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee.

The four days of rioting, triggered by a fatal police shooting Aug. 4 in north London's Tottenham neighborhood, were the worst civil disturbances to hit Britain since the 1980s. Five people were killed and scores of stores were looted and buildings burned in several cities, including London and Birmingham.

The Ministry of Justice says more than 1,500 people have been arrested and have appeared in court to answer charges from the riots. Some 22 percent of them were aged 10 to 17, and 91 percent were male.

Johnson said three in four had a criminal record, but a full 83 percent of those arrested have had previous contact with police.

Johnson's comments echoed those of Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke, who said in an article in the Guardian newspaper that Britain's justice system was failing to deal with a "feral underclass, cut off from the mainstream in everything but its materialism."

"In my view, the riots can be seen in part as an outburst of outrageous behavior by the criminal classes, individuals and families familiar with the justice system, who haven't been changed by their past punishments," Clarke wrote.

Tim Godwin, the acting head of the Metropolitan police, said police initially focused on known offenders including gang members. As more suspects are arrested, he said the proportion of those with criminal records may decrease.

He added it was "absolutely essential" analyze the type of previous offenses committed by rioters.

"We have in London been seeking to speed up justice, make it more relevant, make it more relevant to communities, and that's something that we need to do," Godwin said. "The amount of people who have previous convictions does pose questions for us."