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California

Oakland cleans up after protesters vandalize downtown

Demonstrators with their faces covered break windows at a Wells Fargo bank during one of the May Day protests in Oakland on Friday.
Demonstrators with their faces covered break windows at a Wells Fargo bank during one of the May Day protests in Oakland on Friday.
(Ray Chavez / Associated Press)
By Harriet RyanStaff Writer 
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City workers cleaned up areas of downtown Oakland on Saturday that were vandalized during a protest against police brutality the night before.

Store windows were broken and at least one vehicle burned Friday night when some in a crowd of more than 300 became violent while marching to protest the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore.

Oakland police called in other agencies for assistance and more than a dozen people were arrested, according to a Police Department statement.

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A spokeswoman for Mayor Libby Schaaf said most protesters were peaceful and law-abiding and blamed “a small group of vandals who shielded themselves in these lawful crowds.”

“Our Police Department remains focused on bringing the perpetrators to justice and preparing for the possibility of any future demonstrations,” said spokeswoman Erica Terry Derryck.

For legal news, follow @latimesharriet

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Harriet Ryan

Harriet Ryan is an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Since joining the paper in 2008, she has written about high-profile people, including Phil Spector, Michael Jackson and Tom Girardi, and institutions, including USC, the State Bar of California, the Catholic Church, the Kabbalah Centre and Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin. Ryan won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting with colleagues Matt Hamilton and Paul Pringle in 2019. She and Hamilton won the Collier Prize for State Government Accountability in 2023. She previously worked at Court TV and the Asbury Park Press. She is a graduate of Columbia University.

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