Oakland Welcomes The New Year With A Night Of Joyous Rebellion

The march began moving north on Telegraph, hoping to swing through Uptown before heading to the jail, unlike previous years. A sound system blasting hip hop led the crowd to the Fox Theatre, where people held the intersection at 19th St. The police kept a large presence around the march, with cars on all sides and several walking directly behind us. Here, the first bottle was thrown at a police cruiser that reversed frantically to avoid it.

Photo by Dave Id

The march then pushed forward, soundtrack in tow, turning on 20th St. back down Broadway. Every trash can along the way was pillaged for bottles and then tossed into the street–it seems many businesses did not heed the city’s warning about not putting out the trash. Graffiti appeared on several buildings, some still boarded up from previous attacks. Cops stationed at an entrance to the 19st St BART Station took dozens of bottles before letting off a flash bang. Undeterred, the march continued south as even more bottles rained down upon the police monitoring us from in front.

A brief confrontation occurred when a trash can, emptied of it’s contents, was hurled an unmarked police car, which then swerved into the crowd as an officer attempted to grab the thrower, but was unsuccessful. After this, OPD began reading a dispersal order for the crowd, but nonetheless the party atmosphere remained strong.

Photo by Dave Id

The party was cut short when out of nowhere, dozens of officers rushed around the corner of 14th St, charging the march and snatching several people. The officers that were following the march pushed people off of Broadway and onto the sidewalk near Latham Square. A different group of cops rushed in from the 15th St entrance of the plaza, forcing people to disperse north on Telegraph. Fireworks were shot into the air as a much smaller march headed back to Uptown.

Elsewhere, several people reconvened directly at the jail on 7th St, where more fireworks were shot in the air while others wrote graffiti. Some inmates flashed their lights to the crowd outside. Suddenly, sheriffs ran outside and shot projectiles at the crowd, rumored to have been pepper-balls. With the objective of celebrating New Year’s with the inmates accomplished, and the escalating repression in the streets, people headed home, or perhaps to their post-demo parties.

Demonstration outside of LAPD headquarters with projection.

People take the streets in San Francisco.

Rally outside of federal prison in New York City.

Anarchists rally in Mexico City.