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After midnight, Oakland police described that up to 600 people took part in what they described as "violent & destructive protests."
www.ktvu.com
Oakland Police report 600 to 700 people in violent demonstrations
Published 4 hours ago
Updated 43 mins ago
Oakland
KTVU FOX 2
article
Multiple fires set at downtown Oakland demonstrations. (Photo: Oakland Police Department)
OAKLAND, Calif. - The latest wave of civil unrest reached downtown Oakland late Wednesday night.
Police say multiple fires were set, including at the Alameda County Superior Courthouse. But many appeared to be small fires in the streets, although at least one car was torched.
After midnight, Oakland Police reported that 600-700 people took part in "violent & destructive protests."
Damage included dozens of windows being smashed and multiple businesses being vandalized, said police.
Authorities reported that some protesters threw objects at officers, but none was hurt.
Several arrests were made, said police.
Hours earlier, authorities reported that demonstrators briefly overtook Interstate 580, but then exited the freeway from the Grand Avenue off-ramp.
Police on Twitter asked "agitators" to stop throwing items and using laser pointers against officers near police headquarters.
In addition, they reported illegal fireworks were being set off. As the night wore on, things seemed to escalate. Shortly before 10 p.m., police said the "agitators" within the crowd had attempted to set a business on fire at 8th and Broadway streets, but that officers and the fire department had intervened in time to prevent further damage.
Demonstrators marching at Broadway and 17th in Oakland.
By 10 p.m., police said there were broken windows and garbage cans set on fire along Broadway.
Several businesses, including Luka's Tap Room & Lounge on Broadway at W. Grand Ave., had just removed plywood from their windows following the unrest from the George Floyd protests back in June.
A nearby Target store had recently reopened after being ransacked during those same demonstrations.
Oakland Police Department spokeswoman Officer Johnna Watson said as many as 300 demonstrators gathered at Frank Ogawa Plaza as unrest continued in other parts of the country after the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
An officer,
who has since been identified, shot Blake seven times in the back on Sunday. Blake, who is Black, may be permanently paralyzed from the shooting, but was listed in stable condition at the hosptial.
Oakland police said demonstrators and officers faced off in the area of 7th and Washington streets.
Towards the beginning of the evening, OPD tweeted to ask that those attending the evening demonstrations be respectful of the community and to local businesses in the area and to protest peacefully.
Police had also indicated they support demonstrators' rights and reached out via Twitter to allow organizers to facilitate a safe space for the demonstrations. They asked protesters not to cross barricades.
Earlier this summer a
federal judge granted an injunction against OPD in how they conduct crowd control policy. As part ot the ruling, tear gas, flash bang grenades and other less-than lethal projectiles like rubber bullets are effectively banned, with exceptions for cases where police need to prevent injury or substantial property damage.
OPD, clad in riot gear, had
controversially deployed tear gas on a group of Floyd protesters near police headquarters back on June 1. The group was an offshoot of an earlier youth organized protest that gathered and marched from Oakland Technical High School.
The department said some in the group were throwing rocks and bottles at officers and preparing Molotov cocktails. They used the gas just ahead of an imposed curfew. It was not clear if the youth had evacuated the area in time, although OPD maintaned they did.
It was not clear who the organizer or organizers were for Wednesday evening's events.
The 19th St. BART station issued a tweet just before 10 p.m. to say the station was closed due to a civil disturbance. BART has ended its service at 9 p.m. since the pandemic began.
A flashpoint in Kenosha was reached Tuesday, when during a third night of unrest, a 17-year-old boy seen toting a semi-automatic rifle from multiple vantage points on social media videos, shot and killed two demonstrators and injured a third.
Kyle Rittenhouse of Antioch, Illinois was
taken into custody Wednesday on suspicion of first-degree intentional homicide.
Meanwhile, downtown Minneapolis saw the
looting of several businesses Wednesday night after a homicide suspect turned a gun on himself. Confusion and rumors circulated online that it was police who shot and killed the suspect. Minneapolis' mayor, with cooperation of the police department, was quick to produce surveillance video that showed the graphic shooting was in fact a suicide.