Police arrest nearly 300 Occupy Oakland protesters

The Occupy Oakland protests took a chaotic turn on Saturday night, with reports of protesters breaking into the City Council chamber, stealing an American flag, and then setting it on fire.

It was a hectic day of protesting, and the first clash between protesters and police since November. Throughout Saturday, police fired tear gas, smoke grenades and bean bag bullets to disperse crowds, who were reportedly throwing rocks, bottles and metal pipes at police officers.

After the chaos had ended on Saturday night, police had arrested upwards of 300 protesters. Following the protesters’ invasion of City Hall, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who came under fire for the heavy police action taken back in November, continued to decry the Oakland protests.

“This particular faction of Occupy … they’re very violent and I’m going to be asking for a lot more mutual aid,” Quan said. “They are hurting the neighborhoods by continuing to do this on Saturday nights.”

Oakland police say that a few of their officers suffered minor injuries, but reports from the protesters tell a different story. On the movement’s Twitter feed, Occupy activists say that more than a dozen protesters suffered burns and other injuries after being struck by flash bang grenades.

via CNN