SAN FRANCISCO — The Oakland Police Department may have violated a 2003 agreement for handling street protests when it descended on an Occupy Oakland street protest Tuesday night, say lawyers affiliated with the National Lawyers Guild. That group, which is offering legal advice to protesters arrested Tuesday, helped draft the 2003 policies on how to manage crowded protests, including appropriate use of rubber bullets, tear gas and other less-than-lethal forces.
Rachel Lederman, a San Francisco solo who is affiliated with the National Lawyers Guild, said that the OPD violated “pretty much every aspect” of the Crowd Control and Crowd Management Policy, a 23-page police training document created as part of a class action settlement in a 2003 case brought by protesters at an anti-Iraq War gathering at the Port of Oakland.
