This is what democracy looks like when push comes to shove.
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Oct. 25, 2011, Oakland CA -- Hundreds of Occupy Oakland demonstrators filled the intersection of Broadway and 14th Street, until police fired flash grenades and tear gas to disperse them.
Oct. 25, 2011, Oakland, CA -- Some of the protesters picked up the tear gas canisters and threw them back, sliding them at police under the barriers. A woman flashes a peace sign at the police, instead.
January 20, 2012, San Francisco -- At Occupy Wall Street West, this man was taken into custody by SFPD officers in front of Bank of America at 555 California Street.
March 20, 2004, San Francisco -- In an apparent show of force, San Francisco police officers marched single-file through the middle of a large group of Black Bloc anarchists, who were preparing to start their breakaway protest march, one year after Operation Shock and Awe and the start of the current war in Iraq.
Observing this, I could not help but notice there was a strange air of ritual about it, like Roman gladiators saluting the emperor before the fight.
By leaving their helmets and clubs on their sides and marching single-file straight through the heart of the anarchist crowd, the cops were essentially taunting, daring and disrespecting them. The anarchists were probably aware that touching an officer first would be sufficient grounds for immediate arrest -- which would, no doubt, mean the planned march could be shut down before it got started -- so instead they responded by stepping back to raise their hands in Nazi salutes, showing their contempt for the police in kind.
No one on either side made a sound.
Along with the word ‘fascist,’ the Nazis got this gesture from the Romans, who more often used it while swearing an oath of allegiance, which the Nazis adapted into a salute.
In 1859 the salute was part of a scene painted by the French artist Jean-Leon Gerome (1824-1904), titled Ave Caesar! Morituri te salutant! (Hail Caesar! We who will die salute you!). The scene showed gladiators giving something like this salute to a Roman emperor.
March 19, 2004, San Francisco -- This woman was leading an anti-war protest march of mostly Black Bloc anarchists down Market Street when a police officer demanded that she get out of the street and onto the sidewalk. When she refused, he began shoving her over toward the sidewalk so she shoved him back. After a struggle in which bystanders attempted but failed to pull her free, he arrested her for misdemeanor assaulting an officer.
March 20, 2004, San Francisco -- After chasing the anarchists around the downtown area during their break out protest, police surrounded a group of them, then began arresting those encircled. Their comrades, seen here, attempted to provoke the cops into chasing them, presumably hoping to break the police line enough for those being detained to escape.
March 20, 2004, San Francisco -- The anarchists' tactic was partially successful, when the cops lunged for a man who then slipped back into the crowd. His comrades shoved an officer, as another man with a skateboard and video camera struggled to get out of the way. Most of the police line held, however, so the trapped demonstrators joined the 124 people arrested at protests by SFPD throughout that weekend.
March 19, 2005, San Francisco -- A Black Bloc anarchist ran through a line of San Francisco motorcycle cops, as they attempted to corral about 50 protesters to keep them from interrupting traffic, destroying property or rending whatever makes up the fabric of everyday, ordinary life here in 'Baghdad by the Bay.'
Aug. 14, 2000, Los Angeles -- Black Bloc anarchist demonstrators sang worker songs near the Staples Center during the Democratic National Convention.
Jan. 14, 2009, Oakland CA. -- Black Bloc anarchists start riot after a mostly peaceful demonstration against the killing of Oscar Grant III, a 22-year-old Hayward man who was unarmed when a BART police officer shot him in the back and killed him on the previous New Year's Day. Several cell-phone cameras were in the vicinity of the shooting, so Grant's killing soon became a YouTube phenomenon. Former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle, 27, was arrested on Jan. 14 and formerly charged with Grant's murder. Here, after a peaceful demonstration had ended, Black Bloc anarchists begin the vandalism by smashing the windows of a downtown business.
Jan. 14, 2009, Oakland CA. -- The anarchists quickly smashed windows and vandalized shops but then ran off for other targets without grabbing any loot. They left that to local youth, some of whom stayed a bit too long and ended up arrested by Oakland police.
July 8, 2010, Oakland CA. -- Violence, vandalism and looting broke out in Oakland after a peaceful protest against the verdict from the trial of former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle had ended.
Mehserle, 28, faced a murder charge or manslaughter, but was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in a Los Angeles courtroom for shooting to death Oscar Grant, 22, on New Year's Day of 2009.
Mehserle is white and Grant was an African American.
Grant was lying face down on the pavement as Mehserle and the other officer pinned him to the ground. Mehserle then drew his service pistol and shot him in the back, killing him.
Mehserle's defense was that he'd meant to draw his Taser but drew his pistol by mistake. The jury apparently believed him, convicting him of involuntary manslaughter, meaning essentially that he didn't intend to murder Grant but was reckless or careless enough in his actions that a man was killed because of those actions.
Although the verdict is a rare instance of a police officer being convicted at all for an on-duty killing, Grant's family and many in the crowd clearly wanted a murder conviction.
The protest against the verdict ended peacefully at 8 p.m. Soon after, a phalanx of Oakland police officers in riot gear attempted to clear the street from the southern direction up Broadway at 13th Street but a crowd of angry protesters blocked them and wouldn't let them pass.
While the police were partially blocked by the large crowd of angry protesters, looters wearing Oscar Grant masks broke the windows of a FootLocker store then grabbed new shoes and ran, while several people threw bottles and other objects; so police announced that they'd declared the gathering an "unlawful assembly," demanding that the demonstrators get off the streets.
Many in the crowd refused to comply.
After an OPD Sergeant on the scene ordered the street cleared again, the line of officers began to advance and shoved the line of citizens in front of them with batons.
When the citizens resisted, chaos ensued and the officers began making arrests.
Police eventually cleared the intersection all the way up Broadway well past 14th Street and arrested at least ten people in the process. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that at about 10 p.m. a group of Black Bloc anarchists broke from the others and went north on Broadway, smashing windows and cars and looting. The newspaper further reports that somewhere between 50 and 100 of them were arrested.
January 20, 2012, San Francisco -- After initially being repelled by SFPD, they being in riot gear and using pepper spray, these Occupy protesters found another way into this abandoned hotel on the Franklin Avenue side at the intersection with Geary Blvd.