Early yesterday morning, police in full riot gear descended on the occupiers in Oakland, tossing smoke canisters and flashbang grenades, and shooting at them with rubber bullets. The protesters were peaceful and did nothing to instigate this. Here's some footage. At about a minute in, you'll see a protester being carried off who was shot in the face with a rubber bullet.
In this video, when protesters attempt to help a man lying injured in front of a police line, the police toss a flashbang grenade right in the middle of them. The injured man is a Marine who served two tours in Iraq. Edit: The man on the ground here is the same guy being carried away in the last video. It wasn't a rubber bullet, a tear gas canister hit him in the head. He's in the hospital with a fractured skull in critical condition. Doctors aren't sure whether he'll suffer permanent brain damage.
And here are cops tearing down the camp.
The crackdown is understandable. Protesters shut down Chase Bank a few days before (the black flags suggest anarchists). You got tens of thousands of people being forced out of their homes, but the moment you step into the home of the people doing the foreclosing, you get a tear gas canister shoved up your ass.
In addition, Google says that cops tried to get them to take down videos of police brutality from youtube. We got them scared shitless. Be prepared to see more things like this very soon.
Edit: Democracy Now covered Occupy Oakland today. If you don't watch this show regularly, there's never been a better time to start, they upload the show to their website and onto their podcast every day. Turn off the cable.
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