More protests: Highway 24 blocked; vandalism, looting in Berkeley

[brooklynite]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Hundreds of protesters returned to East Bay streets on Sunday for a second night of raucous demonstrations against police killings of unarmed black men in Missouri and New York.

Sunday’s protest started out largely peaceful in Berkeley, but by 9 p.m. crowds had climbed past lines of California Highway Patrol officers onto Highway 24 in Oakland, where they blocked multiple lanes of eastbound traffic.

Even as the crowd chanted “peaceful protest,” a group of people jumped on top of two law enforcement vehicles and kicked at the sirens, and several set small fires nearby. Police eventually moved protesters away from the cars, one of them damaged by fire.

A crowd of about 100 demonstrators moved east on the freeway toward Claremont Avenue while several hundred more protesters followed on the streets below. A little after 9 p.m., CHP officers in riot gear released tear gas and began herding protesters off the freeway. Officers arrested 8 people.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Protesters-plan-more-action-Sunday-after-a-night-5941613.php

[Uponthegears]

1. I have question

When cops can kill you . . . when the courts will not vindicate you . . . when politicians abandon you . . . when the press villainizes you . . . when the majority condemn you . . . what other choice is there but self-defense?

[840high]

7. Looting is not self defense.

[7962]

2. I guess as long as you're chanting "peaceful protest" you can do anything.

Once again, not winning anyone to the cause when people continue to act like this. The average person sitting at home needs to be on the side of reigning in out of control police. They see vandalism and looting and they'll just shake their head and change the channel.
These idiots are HURTING THE CAUSE!!!!

[liberalhistorian]

4. That's not what I saw

on videos of the Berkeley protests. I saw nonviolent young people, many with their hands up, getting roughed up as the heavily armored police just moved in on them. But I guess it's easier to just believe whatever the corporate media says rather than do your own thinking.

[7962]

5. So I guess the businesses that were damaged didnt happen?

Its possible you'll see whatever you want to see and conveniently ignore what you dont want to see.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/cops-injured-berkeley-protests-over-eric-garner-death-turn-violent-n263216
"..a Trader Joe's, a Radio Shack and a Wells Fargo Bank were vandalized along with "numerous" police cars."

[Uponthegears]

3. Not a "cause"

When you are the victim, it's not just a cause. When you're the person who gets called out for not walking on the sidewalk when a person who doesn't look like you would be allowed to pass on by; when you're the person who gets ordered over to the cop car so you can "learn who's boss;" when you're the person who a cop thinks he can grab like a disobedient 2 year-old; when you're the person who a prosecutor knows he/she can humiliate and a grand jury will hold it against you, it's not about a "cause." When you're the wife, mother, son, or daughter of a person lying dead in the street of one of the most racist nations on earth and you know with close to 100% certainty that justice will not be done, it isn't about convincing middle-of-the-roaders to change the way they look at you, or the way they vote, so that one day your great-great-grandchildren will live in a "better world." It's about refusing to bow down even a day longer.

[NobodyHere]

6. I hope these people voted

If not then they have no right to complain bout current circumstances.