Officer Injured, Tear Gas Used On Oakland Protesters
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- An officer has been reported injured Wednesday night as thousands of
people demonstrated in Oakland for the second night of protests over the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, according to police.
Tear gas has been deployed, an unknown number of arrests have been made and the demonstration has been declared an unlawful assembly after Molotov cocktails, bottles, rocks and firecrackers were thrown at officers in riot gear starting around 8 p.m.
Police cars have also been destroyed, according to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office.
A large fire was set in the roadway at the intersection of Broadway and 17th Street, and numerous others have been set nearby. Broken windows and spray paint have been reported at numerous locations throughout the downtown area and Chinatown.
Demonstrators have been arrested on suspicion of a number of different crimes, including assaults on officers, lighting things on fire, looting businesses and vandalism, according to police.
Around 9:15 p.m. police announced the closure of Telegraph Avenue from the 1700 block to the 2100 block. The California Highway Patrol also closed the Broadway off-ramp from northbound Interstate Highway 880 for more than half an hour.
As of 9:33 p.m. police could be heard telling protesters to disperse from the loudspeaker of a helicopter.
The protest started around 5 p.m. Wednesday when hundreds gathered at 14th Street and Broadway chanting "not our president." Members of the crowd carried signs saying "Pussy grabs back," "Donald Trump is a rapist" and "Secede .CalExit."
Police estimated that the crowd grew to roughly 7,000 people, saying that traffic in the area was being impacted and asking drivers to use alternate routes. By 10:30 p.m., however, the crowd had dwindled to roughly 150.
On Wednesday afternoon Oakland police were still assessing vandalism on several businesses after about 250 protesters marched through downtown in a demonstration that started late Tuesday night and carried on into Wednesday morning.
As those protesters walked into traffic on state Highway 24, a woman suffered major injuries when she was struck by a vehicle, California Highway Patrol officers said.
The driver pulled over, but the protesters attacked her car and broke out a back window, according to the CHP.
A number of fires were set on Telegraph Avenue and Broadway, and firefighters were called in to extinguish them. That first protest had largely died down by 3 a.m., however.
This was the second consecutive night of protests and vandalism to rock the city since Tuesday's election. Occupy Oakland has already called for a third protest starting at 5 p.m. Thursday in Frank H. Ogawa Plaza.
Elsewhere in the Bay Area, another anti-Trump protest began at 5 p.m. Wednesday in San Francisco at Powell and Market streets, and led to delays on a number of MUNI lines as it moved through the city.
San Francisco Police Officer Grace Gatpandan described the march as nonviolent Wednesday evening, saying that no arrests had been made and no dispersal order has been issued.
According to the Berkeley Police Department, a third group of protesters was headed south on Telegraph Avenue from Dwight Way around 7:10 p.m. By 7:49 p.m. they had moved into Oakland, police said.
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