If you've been in the Bay Area more than a minute you should already know that Oakland loves a protest — or, should I say, protesters really like to shake shit up across the Bay. But, of course, residents are frustrated both by the idea that non-residents come to their city in order to vandalize it during some less than classy moments of demonstration — last month's May Day mayhem being a prime example — and that such vandalism has become part and parcel with the act of protesting. Newly elected Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf is, consequently, facing her first major challenge as she tries, like Jean Quan before her, to ride the line between supporting the right to peaceful demonstration and cracking down on the hooliganism that nighttime Oakland demonstrations are now synonymous with. Schaaf now has a "new approach" to dealing with demonstrators, which includes corralling protesters onto sidewalks and citing them for unlawful assembly after dark. Two weeks ago a couple hundred protesters took to the streets to protest that, and now as Matier and Ross report, activists will be "pushing back" against Schaaf's crackdown with another showdown this Friday night.

Organizer Cat Brooks and attorneys for local demonstrators met with Schaaf and Oakland Police on Monday, and she came out saying, "Libby is digging in her heels, for what reason I do not know."

She and her cohorts have vowed to take to the streets again this Friday because they say the new demonstration rules "violate the spirit of court-mandated crowd-control policies," and they were not able to reach a resolution with Schaaf.

And, like the May Day protest, this one will coincide with the massive First Friday/Art Murmur event downtown, wherein Oakland police are already stretched thin.

So this should be fun.

Previously: Oakland May Day Mayhem Leaves Many Smashed Storefronts, Smashed Cars