Occupy Oakland "Peace" Movement Continues

On January 14th, Occupy Oakland protesters initiated a series of weekly marches. The press characterized them as "mostly peaceful" but being mostly peaceful is kind of like being a little pregnant. Witness the strategy for the marchers:

In a statement before the march, the Occupy Oakland Tactical Action Committee had called property such as police and media vehicles and equipment fair game for destruction by their followers "if you really must risk your freedom by doing something of that nature."
The group did ask its followers to refrain from damaging private property of any kind, including Oakland's small businesses, or conducting any frontal assaults on police such as throwing bottles. The group added that "fire is fun," and encouraged its followers that "if you want to burn something in the street (that isn't someone's car), more power to you."

Since the 14th, it seems the protesters have gotten even more peaceful. Check out this report from last night, when 200 people were arrested:

"Officers were pelted with bottles, metal pipe, rocks, spray cans, improvised explosive devices and burning flares," the Oakland Police Department said in a statement. "Oakland Police Department deployed smoke and tear gas."

It wasn't even spontaneous violence. These clowns came prepared with flares, pipes, and IEDs. Calling them "mostly peaceful" is like calling a serial killer "mostly law-abiding" because he drives under the speed limit.

Update: Here's a more complete piece. Apparently, the protest went on all day and into the night, and there were more like 300 arrests.

"These demonstrators stated their intention was to provoke officers and engage in illegal activity and that's exactly what has occurred today," Santana said. [...]

Quan said that at one point, many protesters forced their way into City Hall, where they burned flags, broke an electrical box and damaged several art structures, including a recycled art exhibit created by children.

She blamed the destruction on a small "very radical, violent" splinter group within Occupy Oakland.

"This is not a situation where we had a 1,000 peaceful people and a few violent people. If you look at what's happening today in terms of destructing property, throwing at and charging the police, it's almost like they are begging for attention and hoping that the police will make an error."

These morons aren't even making any demands, beyond that they be allowed to continue pillaging. It's simply violence and vandalism for the sheer amusement of it all.