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Occupy Wall Street is heating up on both coasts.
January 31, 2012 2:56 AM

It's January, but the OWS movement certainly isn't cold:

Twelve protesters were arrested Sunday night on a march through Lower Manhattan to show support for Occupy protesters in Oakland, where a violent confrontation erupted on Saturday night between the police and demonstrators who tried to take over an empty convention center.

The crowd in New York, about 300 strong, occasionally surged into streets, and on at least two occasions someone in the crowd threw a bottle, apparently aimed at police officers who accompanied the march on foot and in vehicles. The police plunged into the crowd several times.

Three men were charged with assault and one with criminal weapons possession, the police said. Most of the rest of those arrested were charged with disorderly conduct. Three of the 12 people arrested were women. One officer sustained an injured finger.


Meanwhile, on the other coast, hundreds were arrested in Oakland:

About 400 people were arrested and three police officers were injured after a weekend protest by members of the Occupy movement in Oakland, Calif., turned into a violent confrontation with law enforcement officers that led to an assault on City Hall.

The clashes began about 3 p.m. on Saturday when protesters marched toward the vacant Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center and began to tear down construction barricades, and the violence extended into early Sunday. The Oakland Police Department said in a statement that the crowd was ordered to disperse after protesters "began destroying construction equipment and fencing."

'Officers were pelted with bottles, metal pipe, rocks, spray cans, improvised explosive devices and burning flares," the police statement said. Officers responded by firing smoke and tear gas canisters and beanbags, and they initially arrested 20 people.

Several hours later, some protesters broke into City Hall, the police said, although some of the demonstrators said they found the building's door ajar. Mayor Jean Quan surveyed the damage there on Sunday, and the city administrator, Deanna J. Santana, said at a news conference that the protesters had broken a window and damaged a historic model of the building. Flags were stolen, she said, and one of them was burned in front of City Hall.

Omar Yassin, 42, a member of the group's media committee, said the vandalism was "not something I would have done."

"But I do understand that people were enraged by the brutality that they had already seen," he said. "There were children in that crowd; there were families in that crowd."

And finally, OccupyWashingtonDC is getting ready to be evicted:

In the wake of a recent Congressional hearing on Occupy DC, misleading threats from Mayor Vince Gray about nonexistent "health" concerns in the park, and yesterday's taser attack that hospitalized a resident of the park, the National Park Service has given Occupiers in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza until 12:00 noon today until they will begin enforcing a no-camping ban. Occupy DC has begun preparing nonviolent resistance and is calling for all supporters to join them.

More here from the NY Times.


This is JANUARY! Imagine what the Spring will bring...

The movement continues...


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