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Oakland Shuts It Down for Mike Brown After No Indictment for Darren Wilson, 11/24/14: photos

by Dave Id
As expected, the grand jury tasked with determining if there was enough evidence for charging Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson with any crime for the murder of Mike Brown determined that there wasn’t probable cause. While the announcement that there would be no indictment of Darren Wilson was no surprise in a country where police frequently kill people of color and the poor with impunity, outrage over the verdict was not tempered. People in Ferguson and across the country rose up for Mike Brown and shut down freeways and city streets. In Ferguson, two police cars were burned as well as a number of local businesses. In Oakland, the I-580 freeway was shut down for over two hours and then protests continued downtown late into the night.
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[Photo: Looking west on 580, where hundreds of protesters ran up the Lake Park off-ramp to block the freeway.]


With the post-announcement release of information from inside the grand jury proceedings, it has been reported that Darren Wilson was the first witness from which the grand jury heard, St. Louis County District Attorney Bob McCulloch stacking the deck in favor of Darren Wilson escaping accountability from Day One. Further, it has been reported that Wilson told the grand jury that Mike Brown looked like “a demon” to him as he shot down Mike Brown in broad daylight in Ferguson on August 9, literally demonizing unarmed 18-year-old Mike Brown.


(Apologies for the low-quality nighttime mobile phone photos. But, better than nothing.)
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Dark spot in distance is as far as protesters made it, just before the Excelsior on-ramp. Protesters then turned back toward the Lake Park section of freeway.
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Eventually, Oakland police and the California Highway Patrol pushed protesters off 580 by Lake Park. The march then proceeded back down Lake Park, under the freeway, across Grand Avenue and up MacArthur Blvd, blocking the opposite direction of 580 before CHP had reopened either direction. A separate march of a hundred or more people joined the protest on MacArthur Blvd before the entire group marched up to block the freeway a second time.

Police attempted to reach the freeway by coming up through this crowd, but were forced to drive in reverse and leave when protesters refused to allow them through. Huge cheers went up when police reversed course.
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Eventually, police amassed enough force to push protesters off of the freeway again, with several arrests happening on the edge of the freeway.
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This line of police were from Freemont, Oakland police having put out a call for mutual aid. Officers behind the line were seen to be carrying pepperball guns, used later in the evening on protesters.

At one point, masked protesters found a covered trailer on a surrounding street and pushed it rapidly through the crowd towards the police line, forcing police to temporarily break the line in order to avoid being rammed by the trailer.
§Small fire gets going at 8th Street and Broadawy
by Dave Id
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This later became a larger bonfire as more found fuel was added to the fire.
§Starbucks at 8th & Broadway was demolished
by Dave Id
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Protesters went inside and were throwing pastries and other items from inside out into the street.

A Metro PCS mobile phone store at 9th & Broadway was also entered with product being carried out by protesters.
§Fire burns in what was once an SF Bay Guardian newsbox
by Dave Id
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The Bay Guardian was shut down in October by its new owner, San Francisco Media Co., after almost 50 years of producing left-leaning weekly news.
§Beer and liquor from Smart & Final was everywhere
by Dave Id
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Empty and full beer bottles were thrown at police from that point on in that area.
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Two rounds of tear gas were used during two of the charges. These were like the CS grenades used in the past, not the silent canisters, but with huge bomb-like booms. At least four of those went off, sending tear gas throughout the canyons of downtown buildings.
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Police also used pepperballs and flash-bang grenades.
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Victor Noir
Sat, Nov 29, 2014 12:24PM
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Wed, Nov 26, 2014 2:57PM
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