OAKLAND (Reuters) – Police fired tear gas at hundreds of Occupy Oakland protesters who tried to take over a shuttered convention center on Saturday, arresting 19 people in the latest clash between anti-Wall Street activists and authorities in the Bay Area city.
Three officers were injured during the confrontation, which police said erupted when the crowd began destroying construction equipment and tearing down fencing at the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center in downtown Oakland.
“Officers were pelted with bottles, metal pipe, rocks, spray cans, improvised explosive devices and burning flares,” the Oakland Police Department said in a statement. “Oakland Police Department deployed smoke and tear gas.”
The scuffles marked the latest confrontation between police and Occupy activists seeking to regain lost momentum in their movement against economic inequality after authorities cleared protest camps across the country late last year.
Occupy Oakland organizers had vowed to take over the fenced-off building to establish a new headquarters for their movement and draw attention to homelessness in a move seen as a challenge to authorities who have blocked similar efforts before.
“The one percent have all these empty buildings, and meanwhile there are all these homeless people,” protester Omar Yassin told Reuters at the scene.
Near the convention center, several dozen police officers declared an unlawful assembly