As part of the nationwide "We Won't Get Fooled Again" Day of Action, OccupySF has taken over a vacant building at 888 Turk (at Gough). The group says the building is owned by the Archdiocese of San Francisco and has been vacant for five years. According to KGO, OccupySF plans to turn the building into a social center and food bank. more ›

Mother Jones' Gavin Aronsen wrote a first-hand account of being apprehended at the Occupy Oakland mass arrest on Saturday, along with at least five other credentialed journalists and 400 protesters. Aronsen says this was in direct violation of Oakland Police Department's media relations policy, which states "media shall never be targeted for dispersal or enforcement action because of their status." more ›

A major pro-life march, the likes of which we haven't seen in recent years on a San Francisco promenade, is happening as we type. The cascade of Christians extends from Civic Center to the Embarcadero at present, all carrying signs like "I Regret My Abortion" and "Men Regret Lost Fatherhood." Also, there are tambourines, and nuns. more ›

We want to be supportive of the Occupy movement. We do. But as with all things (and like most Americans), we bore easily. But we're trying to stay alert and remain positive as we read about today's planned rallies at "at least two" homes — one in S.F.'s Bayview district, and the other in West Oakland — where homeowners are facing eviction due to foreclosure between now and January. At least this is more on-message than Saturday's weird attack on Tacolicious! more ›

Friend of SFist and dedicated Occupy SF participant Scott Rossi was on the scene at last night's big barricade event. Highlights include details about the crowd knocking down the barricades and an eye-witness account of conflict between members of SFPD. Below are some excerpts. more ›

Boing Boing has an interview up with a 22-year-old UC Davis student going by the name of W, who was one of the students sprayed in the now infamous pepper-spray attack last Friday. W explains that during the various protests last week leading up to Friday's incident, the students had previously taken part in some good dialogue with Lieutenant Pike, the officer seen flagrantly spraying the line-up of students with pepper spray. more ›

As the Second Alarm reports [via BoingBoing], a large crowd of student protesters and their supporters interrupted a press conference on Saturday afternoon with UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi and campus police, demanding a response regarding Friday's brutal pepper spraying incident, along with her resignation. Initially, Katehi refused to leave the building, allegedly intending to give the press the impression that the crowd was trapping her inside. more ›

Scott Olsen, the San Mateo marine and Iraq War veteran who was critically injured by a police projectile during the previous Occupy Oakland raid a few weeks back, released a statement this morning via oft-neglected Google Plus. He's on the mend but still regaining his speech with lots of therapy. He assures us we'll be hearing more from him soon. more ›

A Halloween-appropriate scene as Occupy Oakland demonstrators pause for a photo op at Broadway and 17th during a march on downtown Oakland this evening. A significant police presence was on hand earlier. Photo: Susie Cagle more ›

As a few SFist commenters noted, the person who was hit in the head with a projectile during last night's beanbag assault by Oakland police has been identified as Iraq veteran Scott Olsen. Olsen was the victim seen in the video being helped by several protesters before the police threw another projectile at them. more ›

Amongst the estimated 1,000 people who showed up outside the W yesterday to protest/holler at President Obama was prominent local Democratic fundraiser Susie Tompkins Buell. A good friend and major campaign supporter of Hillary Clinton, Tompkins Buell has had it up to here with Barack! And she's not going to take it anymore! Rather than lend her money in support of his fundraiser yesterday, as the Chron reports, she was outside with demonstrators waving signs that said STOP KEYSTONE XL, referring to an oil pipeline project from Alberta Canada to Texas that is now her pet project. more ›

OccupySF has been receiving notices of several violations from various authorities over the past several days, the biggest of which is the use of lead car batteries at the camp. The camp has been told by the fire department that by Monday, they'll need to be rid of their current power usage set-up, which consists of a car battery that's rigged "to an in-place bicycle as a way to keep laptops, cell phone, and other vital communications." more ›

As part of the national Occupy Wall Street march happening today, OccupySF will be meeting at 3:00 p.m. at the Federal Reserve Building at 101 Market St. "Bring yourself! Bring Freedom!" more ›

The OccupySF folks have come up with the first draft of what they call their "Home Grown flyer." They stress that it's not an official statement, but they would like it passed around far and wide. The drafting of the flyer, which addresses two questions: “Why are you here?” and “What are you doing about the police?,” coincided with the city serving the camp with three different sets of papers during the General Assembly yesterday. more ›

Friend of SFist, Scott Rossi, became a member of Occupy SF's Welcome Committee over the weekend, where he greeted newcomers at the group's camp at Justin Herman Plaza. As Scott notes, the camp has been "feeding, clothing, sheltering, keeping safe, and giving society’s most vulnerable members a sense of community and acceptance where formerly they had scorn and the cold concrete of Justin Herman Plaza." more ›

The current population of Occupy SF campers down in front of the Federal Reserve on Market Street appear interested in shifting things uptown a bit -- the Examiner reports on a request put in by some campers to move the party to Civic Center Plaza. One 22-year-old protester, Nicole Ghanbarzadeh says that the group, or some organizational force therein, had made the request to mayoral candidate and Supervisor John Avalos, but Avalos says he never received it. more ›

During yesterday evening's Occupy Wall Street protests (a.k.a. #OccupySF, if you're social media savvy), six members of the reportedly hundreds-strong group of protesters came prepared for an actual occupation—a cuddly sleepover occupation. Bay City News reports the six well-prepared protesters came armed with sleeping bags, pillows and a desire to sleep overnight on the floor of a Chase Bank branch on Market Street. more ›

The unfortunate souls who have to work today can not only enjoy some FOMO, along with commuting on a Sunday schedule, but they can also enjoy yet another BART protest. Fortunately, the protests have become more streamlined, for lack of a more exciting word, in recent weeks. Last week, there were no service disruptions. more ›

Slammed by noted activist and blogger Michael Petrelis as "a pathetic Sisters event more interested in being full of Kumbaya feelings and promoting two lame politicians," Saturday's Stop the Violence campaign, sparked by recent gay bashing incidents in the Castro, allegedly turned into more of a Dennis Herrera-for-Mayor-ish rally than an urgent call for action. Or not. more ›

SF Examiner is reporting that Anonymous, the group most famous for giving Scientologists a hard time, is focusing its attention on BART on Monday. As you might have heard, BART police shut down cell phone communications in anticipation of last Thursday evening's protest over the officer-involved shootings of Oscar Grant and Charles Hill. more ›

Breaking news regarding threatened protests on BART throughout August: No Justice, No BART, the website rallying point for last month's BART protest has posted details on another demonstration set for today's evening commute. In a blog post, which has subsequently been removed because the group wants to "mobilize without public announcement beforehand", organizers state they are planning to meet in Civic Center Station, on the platform at 4:30 p.m. Demonstrators hope to remain inconspicuous until just before the evening rush at 5 p.m. and plan to continue the demonstration until around 8 p.m. More details from a cached copy of the blog post below: more ›

The Environmental Council, a joint effort between 30 bay area organizations who all want a say in the America's Cup environmental impact report, is set to protest in front of City Hall this morning. The protests, which take place at 10 a.m. and lead up to a Planning Commission hearing on the draft EIR at Noon, are meant to raise awareness of some of the shortcomings the council's groups see with the draft EIR. more ›

Last night BART put out a rider alert warning passengers, "Protests may disrupt service as early as Thursday, August 11th" (that'd be today). The protests - more demonstrations in response to the officer-involved shooting of Charles Hill on July 3rd - don't have a specific date and time, presumably to make a bigger impact on an unprepared system. That said, the agency wants you to be aware that these protests are likely to disrupt train service during commute periods in August. Consider yourselves advised! more ›

Jesuit priest Stephen Kelly, 62, of Oakland, and Sister Anne Montgomery, 84, of Redwood City, were among a group of five senior peace demonstrators who were sentenced to federal prison in Tacoma, Washington, today. The group were all convicted of conspiracy, trespass, and destruction of government property in December and were facing up to ten years in prison for cutting through fences at Bangor Base on November 2, 2009, to get to an area containing ten Ohio-class submarines. more ›

This was the scene several minutes ago at 7th and Market where 70 or so people were marching for Tibetan liberation, screaming, "Shame on Chinese government," etc. Bringing up the rear: a Tibetan-flag-draped U-Haul truck. See below. more ›

After protesters refused to leave a UC Berkeley building, officers arrested 17 people who were demonstrating against budget cuts. more ›

Get your mind out of the gutter, we're talking about the Colbert Report's recurring Nailed 'Em segment which last night featured self-titled "independent journalist, media activist and web developer" Mark Burdett getting "nailed at a protest march in the anarchy capital of America: San Francisco." more ›

The Sit/Lie ordinance went into effect on Saturday, but Bay City News reports (via SF Appeal) that SFPD won't begin enforcing it until February after its officers have gone through training in January. They will also be running a public education campaign explaining the ins-and-outs of the law. more ›