Oakland police may face sanctions over handling of Occupy protestsReuters - Wed, 2nd May 201 04:22
AM
(Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the city of Oakland and its police department to submit a plan within a week to address a backlog of complaints stemming from their handling of Occupy protests, threatening sanctions if they fail to do so.
The mandate by District Judge Thelton Henderson follows the release of a report by an outside monitor that said Oakland police used "an overwhelming military-type response" to the demonstrations.
The report also confirmed, for the first time from an official source, that an Oakland police SWAT team member fired a beanbag round at an Iraq war veteran during clashes in October.Former U.S. Marine Scott Olsen was critically wounded by what protesters said at the time was a tear gas canister fired by police.
Olsen's case reinvigorated the Occupy movement against economic inequality, and the confrontations with police in subsequent protests turned Oakland into a focal point for the movement as demonstrators rallied against what they described as police brutality.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Oakland on Tuesday as part a nationwide movement against economic inequality. Demonstrators clashed with police, who fired multiple rounds of tear gas and flash bang grenades. At least nine people were arrested.
The Oakland Police Department has been subject to court-ordered external monitoring and review since the 2003 settlement of wha was known as the Riders case, in which four officers were accused of planting evidence, fabricating police reports and using unlawful force, according to the Oakland police.(Continued)
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