Last night, several thousand protests marched on the port of Oakland,
temporarily bringing work there to a standstill:
Thousands of Occupy Oakland protesters descended Wednesday night on the Port of Oakland, but police said so far they have made no arrests and that the demonstration had largely been peaceful. [...]
We’re trying to do the best we can with the resources we have,” he said. The chief estimated the number of protesters at around 4,500, but local media reports put the number at about 10,000.
Isaac Kos-Read, the port's director of external affairs, said that maritime operations "are effectively shut down" because demonstrators are preventing goods from leaving.
It was a remarkable moment, and should have been the only major headline on Occupy today.
Unfortunately, a much smaller number of people clashed with police later on:
As many as 40 people were arrested in downtown Oakland early Thursday after what was mostly a peaceful day during the general strike Wednesday turned heated.
Late in the evening, protesters temporarily took over a vacant building, started fires in downtown and used homemade bomb launchers to fire M80s at police.
At 1 a.m. police had used tear-gas and flashbang grenades in attempts to clear the crowd from downtown streets. Some protesters tried to calm the situation by chanting "Don't throw (crap)" and yelling "Stand still the world is watching" but others continued to stand off with police and refused to leave despite police calling an "unlawful assembly" at midnight. [...]
Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan said there are about 70 people "determined to cause trouble and instigate a confrontation with police."
Police fired tear gas and flash grenades at this group. The Guardian has a detailed account. The Occupied Wall Street Journal has another account.
From pepper spray videos to campsite evictions to Scott Olsen, excessive use of police force against Occupy protesters has been key to the prominence of the movement in the media. It has also probably contributed to the widespread sympathy and support for the movement found in national polls.
If a small number of provocateurs are able to regularly hijack those headlines through their own clashes with police, then the 1 percent can start breathing a big sigh of relief. As such, more effectively dealing with those provocateurs is an important challenge facing Occupy Wall Street solidarity groups.