Written by: Carey Wedler at theantimedia.org
OAKLAND, CA- A Wednesday night protest in Berkeley ended after an undercover California Highway Patrol cop pulled a gun on attendees. Earlier in the evening, between 100 and 200 protesters gathered to continue protests that started last week over the lack of indictments in the police murders of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
The protest started on the University of California Berkeley campus and participants marched to Wheeler Hall, where businessman Peter Thiel was giving a talk–coincidentally on the effectiveness of the nation-wide protests. Protesters were not allowed in the auditorium but eventually forced their way in.
By the time the crowd thinned out to between 30 and 50 people, the protest had made its way to Oakland. It was there that demonstrators discovered two undercover cops, who were dressed as civilians and wearing bandanas over their faces.
Protesters began yelling
“Hey, they’re undercover, they’re cops!”
A protester and Berkeley resident who identified himself only as “Dylan” reported that he pulled a bandana off of an officer’s face:
“I’m a white man, and I pulled off (the officer’s) mask, but they punched a black man…He got arrested.”
According to KTVU News,
“The two policemen started to walk away, but the protesters persisted, screaming at the two undercover cops. One of the officers pushed a protester aside. The man responded by pushing back and then the officer tackled him to the ground, handcuffing him.
The crowd, incensed, began to gather around them. The second officer pulled out his gun and pointed it at the crowd. More officers quickly arrived and dispersed the crowd.”
A Reuters photographer captured the officer pointing his gun. Storify reported that the officer also pointed his gun at the camera.
Oakland police reported in a press conference that the undercover officers were California Highway Patrol (CHP).
Police are claiming that an officer was assaulted, which allegedly prompted the arrest and drawing of a gun. After the incident, more officers converged on the scene.
The mostly peaceful protest did see several protesters throwing rocks as businesses, one of which shattered the glass of a T-Mobile store. A Chase bank was also targeted and according to the City of Oakland, looting was reported in a small business area in downtown. Storify posted screen shots of tweets alleging the cops had been banging on store fronts before they were outed.
Nightly demonstrations have turned violent in the San Francisco Bay area, where police tear gassed, pepper sprayed and beat protesters and where other demonstrators shut down freeways.
The CHP is no stranger to police brutality and controversy. An officer recently resigned after beating a woman on the side of the road during a traffic stop. They arrested 150 police brutality protesters who blocked a highwayon Monday night.
Wednesday’s protest was organized by the activist group, By Any Means Necessary, which aims to see “killer cops” jailed and charges against protesters dropped. More details are expected to emerge.
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Source: http://theantimedia.org/undercover-cop-draws-gun-oakland-police-brutality-protesters/
Who do we call to protect us when our protectors have turned against us?
Start our own ‘police’ force? xD
al chapulin colorado
Start a new political party, and overthrow congress in the next vote. American politichans have been robbing you all of freedom, liberty, dignity and a functioning state ever since the 60’s.dont by into the 2 party bullshit, make a change become truly democratic and thereby take back the power to the people.
Amen
Christian, a Democracy is Mob Rule This country began as a REPUBLIC, and needs to go back to that form of government. In a Democracy, New York, California, Illinois and all the states with large popuations of ignorant people win. Check out your terms.
They said that the two cops were being surrounded, and notice the picture, his finger is not on the trigger. Did he fire? No. So how exactly have our protectors turned against us. As Aaron down below says, “he’s protecting his fellow officer making an arrest and if you notice he doesn’t even have his finger on the trigger. He has no intention of shooting any one, he’s using it as a deterrent.”
Note they were wearing bandannas, dressed in civi, and were reportedly “banging on store fronts.” Is it possible they were trying to cause property damage to blame on protesters?
This link has the tweets from the OPD Police Lt confirming he did not know undercover CHP Officers were deployed on Oakland streets as well as the photo with the gun pointed directly at the camera.
https://storify.com/CourtneyPFB/undercover-cops-outed-and-pull-gun-on-crowd#publicize
This link has the tweets from OPD Lt confirming he did not know CHP had deployed undercover officers on their streets. It also has a photo with the gun pointed directly at a camera….
https://storify.com/CourtneyPFB/undercover-cops-outed-and-pull-gun-on-crowd#publicize
Let’s ignore everything that happened for a second except what we see in the picture. Based on that alone, the officer should be sent back to training camp or let go altogether. No legitimately trained gun user would ever hold their gun gangster style, and only poorly trained users (most cops, actually) would lead with their muzzle. The problem with pointing a gun AT someone’s face (other than the obvious gun rule #1, don’t point it at anything you don’t intend to shoot) is that you can’t see them fully any longer, and in this picture he’s definitely blind to his targets hand movements completely – the gun is in his field of view. More sophisticated forces that are trained in detaining suspects are not going to lead with their muzzles, you’ll notice they have them pointed down at 4 or 5 o’clock at the suspects legs or hips so their field of view is not impeded.
My God Dark Space! Are you REALLY that much of an Idiot that you will draw conclusions for everything that happened there from one split second in time caught on a photograph? God help the person on trial when you serve on jury duty!!!
For those of you saying he shouldn’t hold his gun like that as well as everyone who thinks cops are evil, there is nothing wrong with this picture, he’s protecting his fellow officer making an arrest and if you notice he doesn’t even have his finger on the trigger. He has no intention of shooting any one, he’s using it as a detterent.
The point of the article was to point out that these officers are the ones who were trying to instigate a riot. They did not participate in the protests with a desire to contribute. They wanted to give the PEACEFUL protesters a bad name that is perpetuated in the media with each looting. Try not to focus on what they did in reacting to the protesters realizing they were not part of the cause, but on the fact that their intentions were to pose as part of the group just to cause dissent and a bad name. Police Officers going undercover to make the Peaceful Protest wrongly acknowledged as just a bunch of people trying to loot again. COINTELPRO being applied to modern day protests.
Just Like Aaron says … He’s got his finger strait and off the trigger(demonstrating positive control, and he is trained and applying weapon safety and discipline… regardless of what you believe to be rule #1),and he’s not intending to shoot anyone. He simply is using a show of force to create stand off from other potential threats to his fellow officer who is detaining an already violent protester. Go lay hands on an undercover cop in Iran and see if he thinks twice before lighting up the whole crowd with an automatic weapon for it. Sure we’ve got some problems in our country ,but its not that bad. People getting hateful and violent toward our officers is only escalating the situation, and does not fix it.
wow .. the violent offender if you read it stated he pushed back after being pushed by the officer when leaving the crowd after being made out as infiltrater.. stop defending these shit head cops.. oh your brother in arms
The straight finger is a common practice to prevent accidental discharge. You are an ignorant fool if you don’t think he was prepared to fire that gun at the first available opportunity. That pig was ready to kill the first person that took a step in his direction and say it was in an “aggressive manner” and that he pissed himself in fear for his life. Why don’t you just go back to your 9-5 and wait for them to come round you up into your local FEMA camp you defenseless, ignorant, wondering sheep.
So a cop, without his bosses knowledge or approval infiltrated a massive group of protestors. Gets found out and says he was being surrounded by the same group of ppl he infiltrated and cries foul and pulls a gun ppl. Exposing an agent of deceit is not assault. If your first reaction is to defend this behavior then you need to analyze yourself. Ppl are being wrongfully beaten, arrested and harassed at disparaging rates. We need help and you defend the ppl with guns and badges abusing and bullying citizens as they see fit. Shut up and help or just shut up.
no correction he’s using it as intimidation. there’s a big difference obviously you just watched Fox news or another Mainstream saw the picture and decided you know all the details and the enviroment
Like i am looking at this photo he has an angry crowd around him and his partner is making an arrest. Yes it is intimidation because duh that is how he is deterring them like really get off your natural news .cum and stop running with every conspiracy theory out there.
Obviously, you hate police officers!! You are an idiot.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with intimidation if done properly and for the proper reason, such as restoring peace and order or protection of self or others. Would you rather the cop do an impersonation of George McFly? “Hey, now, guys. Come on.”
Go make an appointment with your proctologist for your cranial extraction!
It seems most people commenting on this post are missing the point. Its not about the gun, its about undercover cops posing as protesters instigating riots..
http://imgur.com/gallery/o63KXlD
Check out the Link for a different view of the picture.
Wanted to repost this to help FYI readers and to help bring back the lulz to activism…..
Don’t “out” undercover cops. As tempting as it is to simply call undercover cops out, there is a better use for them once they are identified. Photograph them and troll them. Stand near them and discuss fictitious people or plans. Lead them to believe that the majority of the protest is getting ready in the lobby of a hotel across town and will be marching to meet the group they are embedded with. If they take the bait, you have successfully divided their forces and increased the safety of the other protesters. You are really only limited by your imagination here.
That is how you have to do it. Thank you.
There is a problem here. Guess no one is seeing it. These protesters are fucking it up. Just because your a group doesn’t make it right for you to smash windows out and act like fucking idiots. People have businesses, people sell kids toys at a local toy store or an ecig vendor opening up a new store, and protestors come along and smash out windows and loot.. Yeaaahhh. No. You losers doing this are giving this organization and what its for a really shitty name. Stop fucking robbing and destructing property.. Otherwise no one will listen.
I agree with you fully (see my post above) this does more to hurt the movement then help. However, in every protest you will always have “bad actors” and often, you’d be shocked to know, there is LEO (law enforcement) among the bad actors spurring them on to help damage the message trying to be made. So yaaaaa people, act like you got some sense when protesting please! The roles have now reversed, don’t look to your government or LEO for the example of honor, WE must be the examples of truth and integrity and we can’t do that if we acting like criminals victimizing the very people we claim to be standing up for! There’s plenty of ways to bring the lulz to protesting and activism and,honestly, what got me into all this in the first place but robbing our brothers and sisters trying to eat ain’t the way IMO. And even stores like Walmart,McDonalds,etc yes they are “evil” etc etc BUT normal people still depend on these places to eat and survive so until we have a systemic reform and complete overhaul, these are necessary evils unfortunately and shouldn’t be targeted in this way (there are plenty of productive ways to try and hurt them however but that’s another topic)
Clearly you have no read the article. In the article it said that the officers were banging on the windows. Although it said that a few were throwing rocks that doesn’t mean that they were looting. Going back to the officers banging on store fronts, they were obviously trying to make it look like the protesters were doing more damage then they were already causing. That or trying to cause a riot instead of a peaceful protest. The fact that their superior didn’t know that they were there makes it even worst. Anything that happened those officers should be just as liable.
+1 for the cops this time.. I would pull a gun out if you were smashing my windows and looting my neighborhood vendors…
You people are fucking stupid especially RICHARD! The picture is actually proof of the only possible evidence… That we’ll know…
it is of my opinion that all weapons should be equipped with video so that when ever a military or law enforcement brandishes his or her weapon it automatically alerts the public officials that a life threating crime is being committed live via satellitee to remove any doubt of misuse by any one in the event of taking or saving lives I am olaskey