By Luke Thomas
December 11, 2011
As many as 100 riot-clad San Francisco Police Department officers raided and dismantled an OccupySF encampment outside the Federal Reserve Bank at 101 Market Street today at approximately 4:20 am.
Fifty-five protesters were arrested for illegal lodging, police said. No injuries were reported during the pre-dawn raid.
“The police came out of nowhere,” said a citizen journalist who documented the raid live on Ustream. “I was standing here, literally just a few feet from here when they [SFPD] came running from around the corner, up the side in a mass attack.”
The citizen journalist said another protester/citizen journalist was allegedly arrested for documenting the raid, an apparent violation of constitutional First Amendment protections.
The protesters were provided with multiple police advisements; that they were illegally lodging and were subject to arrest, SFPD Officer Albie Esparaza said.
Today’s raid on the peaceful OccupySF protesters is the second forcible action by police in less than a week. On Wednesday at 1:30 am, the OccupySF encampment at Justin Herman Plaza was raided by SFPD under orders from Mayor-elect Ed Lee.
The Federal Reserve is quasi public-private banking cartel created in secrecy in 1913 and has become a potent symbol of the US financial debt crisis.
Luke Thomas
Luke Thomas is a former software developer and computer consultant who proudly hails from London, England. In 2001, Thomas took a yearlong sabbatical to travel and develop a photographic portfolio. Upon his return to the US, Thomas studied photojournalism to pursue a career in journalism. In 2004, Thomas worked for several neighborhood newspapers in San Francisco before accepting a partnership agreement with the SanFranciscoSentinel.com, a news website formerly covering local, state and national politics. In September 2006, Thomas launched FogCityJournal.com. The BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, New York Times, Der Spiegel, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, 7x7, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian and the San Francisco Weekly, among other publications and news outlets, have published his work. Thomas is a member of the Freelance Unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521 and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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Outside Federal Reserve are now closed.