Steven T. Jones reports from the streets of Oakland:
I’m at the intersection of 20th and Webster and a large march is going by, headed toward City Hall. The protesters are passing the Chase Bank branch that was such down earlier, and the windows of the bank are shattered. This happened sometime after the protesters who had blocked the bank entrance walked away.
There are signs on the broken window — one says “We are better than this.” The other says “This is not the 99 percent, sorry — the 99 percent.”
The broken bank windows are the only expression of violence or anger I’ve seen. (UPDATE: Windows have now been broken at Band of America, Whole Foods, Clorox and Wells Fargo. It’s a small group of black bloc protesters who are doing the vandalism.)
The entire day, there have been no police around. The Occupy Oakland people are doing traffic control on their own, diverting cars around the streets.
In the absence of police, a few people have been able to shut down the banks. It’s been a real demonstration of people power.
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