OAKLAND, Calif (Reuters) ? City crews and protesters labored on Thursday to clean up graffiti, smashed glass and other debris that littered downtown Oakland after a day of mostly peaceful protests against economic inequality and police brutality took a violent turn.
Busloads of police in riot gear advanced on demonstrators overnight, firing tear gas to disperse hundreds lingering in the streets hours after protesters numbering in the thousands had forced a temporary shutdown of the busy Port of Oakland.
The clampdown appeared aimed at preventing protesters from expanding their foothold in the streets around a public plaza that has become a hub for demonstrations in Oakland, on the eastern banks of San Francisco Bay.
Later in the morning, the city said police officers from about 15 agencies had arrested more than 80 people, and that five civilians and three officers were injured in the melee. There was no immediate word on the type or severity of those injuries.
City crews pressure-washed graffiti declaring "kill cops" and "smash" from private and municipal buildings around the Frank Ogawa Plaza, a public square next to City Hall that protesters have used as a camp since last month.
Dozens of their tents continue to fill the plaza, and several demonstrators there blamed "anarchist youths" for Thursday's violence.
"Everything went beautiful until these guys (came) with scarves around their mouths, and then all hell broke loose. Our city just got demolished," said Johnny Allen, 60, a health-care provider sweeping debris from in front of City Hall.
But protesters on the scene said downtown streets were largely calm when a police force that had stayed at a distance throughout the day suddenly arrived at about midnight and ordered the crowd to disperse its "unlawful assembly."
The latest unrest in Oakland, which shot to the forefront of nationwide anti-Wall Street protests after a former Marine was badly injured in clashes last week, followed a day of rallies that drew some 7,000 activists at their peak.
TEAR GAS
Lined up shoulder to shoulder, police fired volleys of tear gas, forcing the demonstrators to retreat back into the plaza, then made a second charge with batons and tear gas about an hour later to push protesters further into the square.
Some protesters hurled tear gas canisters and rocks back at police as they fled. At least one protester was seen being carried away with an injury to his leg. Another who had been arrested, his hands bound behind him, lay on the ground with blood streaming down his face.
One arrested protester, Adam Konner, 29, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, said he didn't clearly hear a police announcement ordering "campers to move back to your tents," before officers rushed in.
"I was trying to figure what they were saying. I was trying to figure out if I could go back into the plaza," he told Reuters, recounting that he was knocked to the ground and restrained.
Earlier, the Port of Oakland was shut down for several hours after crowds marched on the sprawling facility. But demonstrators protesting a financial system they believe benefits mainly corporations and the wealthy failed in their efforts to cause widespread disruption to commerce as a whole.
Protesters also broke into an apparently abandoned building, set up a music system and danced outside. Police said they responded to the break-in and some fires and moved in shortly after midnight.
Calm was restored by late morning and the port -- the nation's fourth busiest maritime container-cargo hub with $39 billion in yearly imports and exports -- was back in full swing.
Occupy movement protesters sought to distance themselves from the vandalism and unruliness.
Some disagreements had flared overnight between a minority of protesters who set up trash-can barricades and wore face masks and others, often older demonstrators, who lectured about the need to keep protests peaceful and not provoke police.
A sign on a coffee shop with a shattered window offered an apology: "We're sorry. This does not represent us."
"It makes me mad but I'm still going to fight for my rights. I'm not going anywhere," said Perry Dera, a 31-year-old Oakland resident and protester.
(Reporting by Noel Randewich, Dan Levine, Lisa Baertlein, Peter Henderson and Jim Christie; Editing by Steve Gorman and Cynthia Johnston)
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