:( - Anne Bouey

What were they protesting? - Johnny from iPhone

Blah - Rodfather

Occupy Oakland, they say. They also trashed some kids's art exhibits & took the American flag out of the council chamber & burned it on the front steps. - Starmama from FFHound(roid)!

Nothing inspires the public to support your movement more than trashing a kid's art exhibition....... I guess... - Johnny from iPhone

I can understand their frustration, I've been on the wrong end of a police baton. But you must decide what you are about. Disrupt a bank or trash a mortgage lender or do something that has some connectiion to the 1%.. Hell burn a cop car but trashing City Hall misses the point and does absoluttely nothing to inconvenience the 1% - WarLord

I still think mask wearing anarchists have hijacked the protests. - Rodfather

That's terrible. I really hope it wasn't real Occupy people and just some crazies trying to glom on. - Heather

Rod, I would probably agree... but every organisation has a responsibility to regulate, discipline or reject those who act outside the movement's methods in the movement's name - Johnny from iPhone

Its open source movement, as such they have little ability to regulate control or discipline - WarLord

Johnny, you have all the answers, don't you? I live relatively close and I have no clue who they are or whether there is even an organization. You seem to assume there is one movement. - Rodfather

occupy never was a unitary orgainzation, it was idea based movement. - WarLord

Watching live video last night, I won't be so quick to assume it's the "protesters". They're not the ones with flash grenades and guns With so much police infiltration into these groups, it's not clear who is doing what, even with the anarchists rabble-rousing. Some of the stuff I saw last night, seemed targeted. City Hall was protected by cops. How could oo even get inside? - Anika

...I said on another thread that I'm very skeptical about "Occupy" because I don't really know who's behind them... and if they're tearing down art exhibits of school kids, my skepticism rises even more - .LAG liked that

Of course if you wished to discredit occupy wouldn't ake many people or much effort to make this kind of damage happen - WarLord

There have already been videos of people unsuccessfully trying to infiltrate and disrupt OWS, like the guy who got himself pepper sprayed while trying to incite violence. I hold judgment and I'm not of the mindset that a group is guilty of something if they don't disavow the actions of others who are "associated" with them. - Heather

I don't even care about Occupy. I find it a joke that all of a sudden these people give a shit when many more of us have been living under these conditions for decades. But the infiltration is there and in many cases is obvious. But I'm a child of *my* parents, so I may be a bit biased against the actions of police when it comes to "crowd control". - Anika

I have no answers, but I know if I was associated strongly with the Occupy movement I wouldn't want this type of stuff associated with something I support. I'm saying if this was done under the guise of the Occupy yet, as you say, the people responsible were not from or affiliated with the movement, then those in the Occupy movement should condem this action as well. It does nothing for the cause to let it stand unanswered... It's also not good enough to have a massive movement on one hand yet claim 'we're not organised' on the other when you have to take responsibility for something - Johnny from iPhone

+1 Anika - .LAG liked that

...I worry that "Occupy" will become a trigger for leaders (the 1%) to pass all kinds of laws that prevent peaceful people with real complaints from gathering in public. (for example, workers forming a picket line in a strike). And it will also become further justification for police departments to invest in even deadlier weapons and artillery—these departments used to exist to "serve and protect"...but now they look like paramilitary units. - .LAG liked that

Of course it will, .LAG, but again, those people don't care about that stuff because many of them probably have never had to deal with that stuff. It's below their paygrade, so to speak. - Anika

Police brutality & misconduct is very real and should be addressed. What upsets me is the disrespect shown to my city by outsiders and the absolute lack of anything being done or said about the problems we face in neighborhoods like mine. Some lip service is given to foreclosures & predatory banks but that's only a small part of what's wrong in Oakland. - Starmama from FFHound(roid)!

+1 (sadly) Starmama... :( - .LAG liked that

The children's art ripped off the wall happened at the YMCA, not city hall. - Starmama from FFHound(roid)!

I do recall people from the Occupy movement repeatedly repudiating destructive tactics, and I know this Occupy Oakland isn't the first protest in Oakland where it's claimed that anarchists did most of the damage, but I think people are going to believe what they want to be believe. - Victor Ganata from iPhone

I don't think of what's going on here as having anything to do with Occupy, anymore. It's devolved into something ugly that feels more like a siege than a liberation. - Starmama from FFHound(roid)!

This is unfortunate. I can't support this kind of thing. It sounds like this was not the work of the true Occupy protesters, based on a skim of what everyone has said here. - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)