#Anonymous brings down Oakland PD website after cops gas protesters

Protesters retreat while police officers deploy teargas to disperse a crowd comprised largely of student protesters during a protest against police violence in the U.S., in Berkeley, California December 7, 2014 (Reuters / Noah Berger)RT

The fifth night of nationwide protests over the widespread failure of the system to prosecute white officers who kill unarmed black men and boys, culminated in hacktivist group Anonymous taking down the Police Department’s website in Oakland, California.  

The group was responding to the firing of tear gas at hundreds of protesters in the city. Police claimed they deployed tear gas in response to be targeted with what they called “explosives.”

https://twitter.com/DigitaShadow/status/541840443923648512

While recent police killings of two black men happened in New York and Missouri, tensions have boiled over on the West Coast.

In a second night of protests on Sunday, multiple injuries and arrests have been made in Oakland and Berkley. Acts of vandalism and rock-throwing by rioters started to take place as splinter groups broke off from the original peaceful march. Someone smashed a window of a local Radio Shack store, which escalated the situation.

According to Police Officer Jennifer Coats, one protester tried to stop the act of vandalism and received a hammer to the head.

According to a Reuters reporter on the ground, police made multiple arrests from a crowd that numbered well over 500.

Similar incidents were seen in Oakland, where people were seen walking on the roads and blocking traffic on roads and a nearby freeway. No conclusive arrest figures have yet been released for Sunday.

There is still no word if any protesters were injured in the violence. The only notable injury was an officer’s dislocated shoulder. However, at one point, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on a line of about 100 police in riot gear, pushing back against a crowd of 300-400 people.

It also reported other people being hit by tear gas – not just protesters.

Initial demonstrations in New York and Missouri started out peacefully, calling for police reforms as politicians appealed for calm. Others joined the protesters in calling for unity and a more representative political apparatus.

https://twitter.com/DefendWallSt/status/541829184092635138

Sunday’s unrest is only the latest incident in a series of protests which broke out across the country after a grand jury decision that acquitted a white New York City police officer of any wrongdoing in the death of Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black Staten Island resident, on July 17.

The incident, ruled a homicide by the medical examiner, was videotaped by a passer-by and put online. In it, the officer can be seen placing Garner in an illegal chokehold while a group of other officers force Garner to the ground. Garner, who reportedly suffered from asthma, died after repeatedly saying, “I can’t breathe” – a phrase that has become a rallying cry for the protesters.

The Garner decision came shortly after a Missouri grand jury decided not to indict a white police officer in the death of Michael Brown, 18, who was shot multiple times following a confrontation with police in Ferguson, Missouri despite being unarmed.

The Garner decision came shortly after a Missouri grand jury decided not to indict a white police officer in the death of Michael Brown, 18, who was shot multiple times following a confrontation with police in Ferguson, Missouri despite being unarmed.

http://rt.com/usa/212335-police-protesters-oakland-gas/

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