Oakland police chief backs officers

LITTLE ROCK — OAKLAND, Calif. - Oakland’s police chief Friday defended officers involved in a clash with anti-Wall Street protesters, saying they used what they believed to be the least amount of force possible to protect themselves.

Interim Chief Howard Jordan said he took full responsibility for the actions of his officers, whom protesters accused of injuring an Iraq war veteran during the clash Tuesday night. Scott Olsen, 24, remained hospitalized in fair condition with a fractured skull after police fired an object that struck him in the head, fellow veterans said.

Jordan’s comments came as protests continued in large cities across California, including in Oakland, where many protesters re-established camp outside City Hall despite previous police attempts at dismantling it. On Friday, the Oakland protesters announced a general strike for Wednesday where they will be urging banks and corporations to close for the day.

In San Francisco, hundreds of demonstrators maintained a tent city in a public plaza and in San Diego, 51 people were arrested as police cleared them from a park.

In Nashville, Tenn., state troopers cracked down after authorities imposed a curfew. Twenty-nine people were arrested and later released after a judge said the demonstrators were not given enough time to comply with the brand-new rule. They received citations for trespassing instead.

In Oakland, filmmaker Michael Moore addressed about 1,000 anti-Wall Street protesters in front of City Hall, saying the Occupy movement has changed the national discussion.

“When was the last time in the last few weeks you heard them talking about the debt ceiling?” Moore said.

Jordan said Friday that he and city staff have reached out to the protesters.

He also promised that allegations of misconduct and excessive use of force would be thoroughly scrutinized, saying in a statement that he was “concerned about the injuries to protesters and officers alike; the decision to use any level of force is never taken lightly, and certainly was not in this situation.”

Jordan said seven Oakland officers did not suffer any serious injuries during the clash Tuesday, just bangs and bruises from bottles and other objects that were thrown at them.

The object that injured Olsen has yet to be definitively established, as well as the person responsible for the injury. Olsen’s plight has become a rallying cry at Occupy protests around the world.

Farther south, police in San Diego descended early Friday on the encampment that housed demonstrators at the Civic Center Plaza and Children’s Park for three weeks. Dozens of officers and San Diego County sheriff’s deputies raided the site about 2:30 a.m .,declared an unlawful assembly and removed tents, canopies, tables and other furniture.

San Diego protester Chuck Stemke, a 32-year-old mechanical designer, said he awoke to a loud noise and looked out of his tent to see hundreds of police marching toward him in the darkness. He said demonstrators lost costly tents a few weeks ago in a similar raid.

“It was very intimidating,” he said. “There was a huge show of force.”

Authorities arrested 51 people who faced charges including illegal lodging, illegaldrug use and unlawful assembly. Twenty-four people were arrested on charges of blocking officers from performing their duties, police said.

Police said there had been complaints about unsanitary conditions created by human and animal feces, urination, drug use and littering, as well as damage to city property. They said demonstrators may return, without tents and other belongings, after the cleanup is finished.

In the Central Valley, officials planned to evict about 30 demonstrators from next to a Fresno County courthouse. The group agreed to officials’request not to set up tents at the site during their 20-day stay, and the county had so far been lenient with the encampment, protest spokesman Ruben Verdugo said.

But officials Friday gave notice that the protesters’ permit would expire at midnight Monday and that demonstrators faced jail time and $500 fines if they remained.

Information for this article was contributed by Terence Chea, Jason Dearen, Erika Niedowski, Meghan Barr, Doug Glass, Lucas L. Johnson II, Samantha Gross, Jonathan J. Cooper, Josh Loftin, Chris Grygiel, Ben Nuckols, Laura Crimaldi, Tracie Cone and Garance Burke of The Associated Press.