Update, 10:45 p.m. About 150 people remain in downtown Oakland on Wednesday night after a huge protest earlier in the evening that included hundreds of people who marched from UC Berkeley to join in.
According to the Oakland Police Department, the crowd grew to 7,000 people after an initial rally at Frank Ogawa Plaza that began with a couple hundred participants at 4:40 p.m.
OPD said its officers initially “facilitated” the march through downtown, but smaller groups would at times splinter off from the crowd to vandalize businesses.
See Berkeleyside tweets from the protest.
According to OPD, “the crowd began assaulting officers” shortly after 8 p.m.: “The assaults included rocks, bottles, fireworks, M-80s, and Molotov cocktails. At this time, it was declared an unlawful assembly and announcements were made. One CS blast device was deployed to the general area of the crowd in attempt to deter the crowd from continuing to assault the officers. Simultaneously, mutual aid was requested from neighboring law enforcement agencies.”
One of those agencies was BPD.
OPD said, as of about 10:30 p.m., there had been multiple arrests and multiple citations in connection with “assaults on officers, vandalism (including looting of businesses, broken windows, graffiti, lighting objects on fire), and failure to disperse.”
One Oakland police officer was injured. OPD said it knew of no injuries to protesters. Scroll down to see the original story.
Original post, 7:32 p.m. Hundreds of protesters have hit Berkeley’s streets for the second night in a row to march down Telegraph Avenue and protest the election of Donald Trump.
Wednesday night’s march, organized by the group “By Any Means Necessary,” follows a UC Berkeley student-led march Tuesday night, and a day of protests around Berkeley on Wednesday involving high school students from Berkeley and Albany, and many other participants.
Follow along with the march on Berkeleyside’s Twitter feed. No account is needed to view the tweets. Berkeleyside intern Arielle Gordon-Rowe is on the scene.
Police have described the march as “peaceful,” but are advising locals to avoid its path down Telegraph.
Speakers gathered at 6 p.m. on UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza for an open mic session before the planned 7 p.m. march to Oakland’s Federal Building near 12th Street.
The purpose of the protest march is to defend immigrant rights, stop deportations, open borders, defend sanctuary cities and more, according to a flyer handed out Wednesday. See the twitter feed for up-to-date information.
As of about 7:30 p.m., the crowd was marching down Telegraph at 55th Street in Oakland.
Related:
Photo slideshow: Berkeley High walkout, protest march (11.09.16)
1,500 walk out of Berkeley High in election protest (11.09.16)
Tune in here to Berkeleyside’s 2016 election live blog (11.08.16)
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