Yesterday evening Occupiers in Berkeley's Civic Center park, like so many Occupiers before them, received an eviction notice. Citing increased crime in the park, Berkeley Police gave the campers a 10 p.m. deadline to pack up and leave the park without incident. While many of the roughly 100 protesters in the park left voluntarily, about two dozen hung out to continue protesting what they saw as an unfair eviction, leading to yet another overnight clash between protesters and local police.
As Occupy videographer OakFoSho (who you may remember from his livestream of the December 12th Oakland Port shutdown) told NBC Bay Area, police removed tents and cleared out the area in three "hit-and-run" raids starting around 6 p.m. yesterday, despite the 10 p.m. deadline. At least one occupier, who was arrested and cited with obstruction of justice, claimed he was hit in the face by police who also confiscated his camera as evidence.
Since December 15th, Berkeley Police have issued 46 citations to campers for drinking in public, open containers, smoking in a park and other violations, the Chronicle reports. An attempted rape was also reported last night.
View more videos at: http://nbcbayarea.com.
[Chron]
[Oakland Tribune]
[NBCBayArea]