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Michael Kink, leader of a coalition of union and community groups, said he thinks the New York protests will continue through winter, though enduring the weather will be "tough."
"The intention is to stay but I wouldn't say stay forever," Kink said. "At least right now the city is not in showdown territory but in work-it-out territory."
The occupation in New York has morphed since it started. By day, the park fills up with hundreds of supporters and tourists, with police keeping close watch.
At night, the encampment is mostly quiet as protesters crawl into sleeping bags, in contrast to the all-night activity that characterized the occupation's early days.
In Oakland, near the site of the police raid, businesses were open Wednesday and little damage was visible other than two cracked windows. One resulted from a projectile fired by police, said Mike Porter, a 24-year-old Pleasant Hill protester who was charged with disorderly conduct, loitering with no ID and remaining at the scene after it had been declared an illegal assembly.
He spent about 15 hours in jail and could hear the chants of evening protesters from his cell. "I came back down as soon as I got out," he said.
Porter decried the repeated use of tear gas and flash grenades, saying it was lone actors — "one moron" at a time — who broke the peaceful protests to lob a bottle at police in riot gear.
Tasha Casini, 22, said police shot her in the thigh with a rubber bullet during the raid. She said she and other demonstrators tried to retake the plaza after the "second or third order to disperse," and that she had tried to help a demonstrator who had been knocked unconscious by a projectile fired by police.
The police crackdown inspired Leandra Johnson, a 36-year-old mother of five from El Sobrante, to take to the street Wednesday with a sign that said "We Have the Right to Peaceful Assembly."
"Last night is the reason I'm here today and it'll be the reason I'm here tomorrow," she said.
Oakland officials insist that they tried to work with the campers and got nowhere.
Across the bay in San Francisco, the occupy camps remain at Justin Herman Plaza South. But the city has threatened to arrest protesters who camp overnight, citing "evidence of excrement, urine, and vomit" in a park with some 300 protesters.
All told, there have been an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 arrests in dozens of American cities since the Occupy movement began.
In Atlanta's Woodruff Park early Wednesday, more than 50 people were arrested, including a state senator.
Tensions flared between Mayor Kasim Reed and the protesters in recent days after the mayor canceled a hip-hop concert because it lacked plans for security and crowd-control.
In San Diego, where protesters handed flowers to patrolling police, authorities say protesters can stay in a public plaza but their tents and other property must be removed because they are blocking the pedestrian right of way.
In Denver, where about 5 inches of snow fell overnight Tuesday, the cold has thinned the ranks of demonstrators. "It has been brutal," said Jason Roth, a spokesman for Occupy Denver.
Back in Los Angeles, even protesters like Everett said they don't know when the protests will end.
"Victory is different to different people," he said.
kate.linthicum@latimes.com
lee.romney@latimes.com
christopher.goffard@latimes.com
Los Angeles Times staff writers Geraldine Baum in New York, Tony Perry in San Diego, Maria L. LaGanga in San Francisco, Richard Simon in Washington and Michael Muskal and Stephen Ceasar in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
"The intention is to stay but I wouldn't say stay forever," Kink said. "At least right now the city is not in showdown territory but in work-it-out territory."
At night, the encampment is mostly quiet as protesters crawl into sleeping bags, in contrast to the all-night activity that characterized the occupation's early days.
In Oakland, near the site of the police raid, businesses were open Wednesday and little damage was visible other than two cracked windows. One resulted from a projectile fired by police, said Mike Porter, a 24-year-old Pleasant Hill protester who was charged with disorderly conduct, loitering with no ID and remaining at the scene after it had been declared an illegal assembly.
He spent about 15 hours in jail and could hear the chants of evening protesters from his cell. "I came back down as soon as I got out," he said.
Porter decried the repeated use of tear gas and flash grenades, saying it was lone actors — "one moron" at a time — who broke the peaceful protests to lob a bottle at police in riot gear.
Tasha Casini, 22, said police shot her in the thigh with a rubber bullet during the raid. She said she and other demonstrators tried to retake the plaza after the "second or third order to disperse," and that she had tried to help a demonstrator who had been knocked unconscious by a projectile fired by police.
The police crackdown inspired Leandra Johnson, a 36-year-old mother of five from El Sobrante, to take to the street Wednesday with a sign that said "We Have the Right to Peaceful Assembly."
"Last night is the reason I'm here today and it'll be the reason I'm here tomorrow," she said.
Oakland officials insist that they tried to work with the campers and got nowhere.
Across the bay in San Francisco, the occupy camps remain at Justin Herman Plaza South. But the city has threatened to arrest protesters who camp overnight, citing "evidence of excrement, urine, and vomit" in a park with some 300 protesters.
All told, there have been an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 arrests in dozens of American cities since the Occupy movement began.
In Atlanta's Woodruff Park early Wednesday, more than 50 people were arrested, including a state senator.
Tensions flared between Mayor Kasim Reed and the protesters in recent days after the mayor canceled a hip-hop concert because it lacked plans for security and crowd-control.
In San Diego, where protesters handed flowers to patrolling police, authorities say protesters can stay in a public plaza but their tents and other property must be removed because they are blocking the pedestrian right of way.
In Denver, where about 5 inches of snow fell overnight Tuesday, the cold has thinned the ranks of demonstrators. "It has been brutal," said Jason Roth, a spokesman for Occupy Denver.
Back in Los Angeles, even protesters like Everett said they don't know when the protests will end.
"Victory is different to different people," he said.
kate.linthicum@latimes.com
lee.romney@latimes.com
christopher.goffard@latimes.com
Los Angeles Times staff writers Geraldine Baum in New York, Tony Perry in San Diego, Maria L. LaGanga in San Francisco, Richard Simon in Washington and Michael Muskal and Stephen Ceasar in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
