Oakland police arrested about 40 people at the latest demonstration Monday following last week’s death of an unarmed black man under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis.
A large youth-led protest and march with thousands of people had started earlier Monday at Oakland Technical High School at 4351 Broadway and ended in the downtown area. The action was a week after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on Memorial Day.
Then what Oakland police spokeswoman Officer Johnna Watson described as a second group of people separate from the youth-led march began throwing rocks and bottles at officers in the area of Broadway and Eighth Street.
Watson said officers declared an unlawful assembly order and then used tear gas to try to disperse the crowd. The group moved north to the area of Broadway and 14th Street, where officers surrounded the protesters and took them into custody, she said.
Along with the roughly 40 people arrested on suspicion of assaulting officers, Watson said many others received citations for not complying with the unlawful assembly order.
Many people on social media Monday night criticized the use of tear gas by officers following a peaceful demonstration that started with the high school students.
“I’m so proud of the youth & today’s peaceful protest in Oakland was huge testament to that,” one person wrote on Twitter. “It just makes me sick that after the protest the police decided to tear gas & and arrest teenagers.”
Watson said police late Monday night “are patrolling throughout the city of Oakland for safety to our citizens and preventing additional looting and destruction of our valued, vulnerable businesses.”