US begins crackdown on Wall Street protests

In Oakland,in a scene reminiscent of the antiwar protests of the 1960s,the police filled downtown streets with teargas late Tuesday to stop throngs of protesters from re-entering a City Hall plaza that had been cleared of their encampment earlier in the day. And those protests,which resulted in more than 100 arrests and at least one life-threatening injury,appeared ready to ignite again on Wednesday night as supporters of the Occupy movement promised to retake the square. Early Wednesday evening,city officials were trying to defuse the situation,opening streets around City Hall,though the encampment site was still fenced off.

But after about an hour of speeches,the crowd removed the fences. The number of protesters swelled to about 3,000,but the demonstration was peaceful. Leaders led a series of call-and-response chants. Now the whole world is watching Oakland, was one phrase that was repeated as passing cars honked in approval. The police had gone,compared with a heavy presence the night before.

The official protest broke up around 10 pm local time,peacefully,with protesters dancing,carrying American flags and generally celebrating what seemed to be a well-attended demonstration of some 3,000 people.

Shortly after the end of that protest,however,hundreds of demonstrators began to wander down Broadway,Oaklands central thoroughfare,in an unplanned march. The Oakland police,who had been absent during the protests at City Hall,began donning protective riot gear as demonstrators upped their rhetoric and tried to board Bay Area Rapid Transit trains. Several entrances to the BART system were closed,agitating protesters and adding to an increasingly tense atmosphere in Oakland,which had exploded in violence 24 hours before.

The impromptu march continued west toward Oaklands waterfront as it became more apparent that there was little central organising structure.

About 10.25 pm,a crowd of a thousand protesters arrived at Oaklands police headquarters and began milling about. Some tried to put garbage cans in the street,while others beseeched the crowd to remain peaceful. The Oakland police manned the front door of their headquarters and maintained a loose perimetre.

At midnight,a much diminished crowd of perhaps 500 marched back to Frank Ogawa Plaza,where violence broke out Tuesday night.

Across the bay,meanwhile,in the usually liberal environs of San Francisco,city officials there had also seemingly hit their breaking point,warning several hundred protesters that they were in violation of the law by camping at a downtown site after voicing concerns about unhealthy and often squalid conditions in the camp,including garbage,vermin and human waste. Early on Thursday,a crowd of hundreds continued to chant,wave flags and beat drums. Rumours circulated that police officers were massing but few were visible. Dozens of tents remained.

In Atlanta,Mayor Kasim Reed ordered the police to arrest more than 50 protesters early Wednesday and remove their tents from a downtown park after deciding that the situation had become unsafe,despite originally issuing executive orders to let them camp there.

The attitude I have seen is not consistent with any civil rights protests I have seen in Atlanta, Reed said,and certainly not consistent with the most respected forms of civil disobedience.

And while other,bigger cities,including New York,Boston and Philadelphia,have taken a more tolerant view of the protests for now officials are still grappling with growing concerns about crime,sanitation and homelessness at the encampments. Even in Los Angeles,where the City Council passed a resolution in support of the protesters,Mayor Antonio R Villaraigosa warned Wednesday that they would not be allowed to remain outside City Hall indefinitely.