Hundreds of protesters demonstrated in well organized, peaceful marches in Oakland and San Francisco on Saturday as part of a national event dubbed Millions March. The San Francisco march included a mass "die-in" near Union Square during a busy shopping day for the district, complete with a large police presence, and the Oakland protests devolved, per usual, into some scattered vandalism after dark that day. Protests have continued into Monday, as the Chron reports, with a group that gathered outside Oakland Police headquarters at 7 a.m. in downtown Oakland, and some who made it onto the I-880 freeway, blocking traffic during this morning's commute.
Protesters formed human chains with signs that said "Black and Breathing" and "Every 28 Hours a Black Person Is Killed By Police Or Vigilantes," temporarily blocking traffic at Broadway and 7th Street in Oakland. Oakland police made an undisclosed number of arrests this morning in connection with those protests.
During Saturday's protest in San Francisco, marchers made their way up Market Street from the Ferry Building as they did on previous weekends, ending on the steps of City Hall with a brief stop at Union Square. Rumors that there was going to be an effort to topple the Christmas tree in the middle of the square did not pan out, but police in riot gear were out in full force, nevertheless, protecting the tree and blocking access to the square, as CBS reports. Speaking on Monday, police spokesperson Sergeant Monica MacDonald said that SFPD "did not make any civil disobedience arrests related the the protests this weekend."
Millions March protests also occurred simultaneously in New York and D.C.
A separate protest occurred in Berkeley, where an anonymous group of artists hung effigies of lynched black people on the UC Berkeley campus, as KRON 4 reports. The group later claimed responsibility for the life-size cardboard effigies, which were removed by police Saturday morning.
The protest in Oakland on Saturday led to some broken windows at the Whole Foods near Lake Merritt, as well as a nearby Radio Shack, as the Chron reports, but the number of demonstrators was fairly small at that point.
It's unclear what more may be to come in the way of protests Monday night. In New York, Occupy Wall Street is organizing a "Mansion Shutdown" event this evening in order to protest outside a holiday party being thrown by the mayor at Gracie Mansion.
Below, another shot from this morning's demonstration in Oakland.
Blackout Collective and allies shut down the Oakland Police Department #ShutItDown #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/UR2Jk3r9oR
— Vanessa Raditz (@VanessaRaditz) December 15, 2014