‘Black Lives Matter’: March in L.A., Vandalism in Oakland

Oakland PD vandalized (OccupyOakland / Twitter)
OccupyOakland / Twitter

“Black Lives Matter” protesters took to the streets across California on Thursday night — as related protests in Dallas turned tragic as snipers shot eleven police officers, killing four.

The California protests were rowdy, but not deadly. In Oakland, demonstrators vandalized a police station and snarled traffic. The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

About 2,000 angry protestors marched through downtown Oakland, blocking traffic on Interstate 880 and pouring red paint on the front door of an Oakland police station in solidarity with two black men fatally shot by police officers this week in Louisiana and Minnesota.

Cars were backed up for hundreds of yards in both directions on the elevated downtown freeway after hundreds of protestors swarmed up the on-ramps around 8:45 p.m. and began dancing, playing music and spray-painting slogans on the pavement. Other protesters climbed to the top of a semitrailer that was stalled in the huge traffic jam.

“Burn it to the ground,” one protester wrote in black spray paint in the middle of the freeway.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports, demonstrators in L.A. gathered at City Hall.

Some were confronted by police who were determined to keep traffic flowing.

Demonstrations broke out nationwide in reaction to fatal shootings by police this week of two black men: Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile in Minneapolis.

President Barack Obama called for calm from abroad, while on a visit to Warsaw, Poland.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, will be published by Regnery on July 25 and is available for pre-order through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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