Plainclothes cop pulls gun on police brutality protesters in Oakland

An undercover cop aims a gun at demonstrators in downtown Oakland.

Image: @NBCNews

By Patrick Kulp

A plainclothes police officer who had been gathering intelligence from protests in downtown Oakland Wednesday night aimed a gun at demonstrators after he and his partner were reportedly attacked by members of the crowd.
More than a hundred demonstrators took to the streets of Berkeley and Oakland Wednesday evening to protest two separate grand jury decisions, in Ferguson and Staten Island, both of which declined to indict white police officers in the killings of unarmed black men. Perhaps due to the oncoming rainstorm, the protest had a much smaller turnout than earlier in the week, when crowds of hundreds shut down a major freeway.

See also: Eric Garner protesters shut down Berkeley's Interstate 80

The Wednesday night scuffle apparently broke out after protesters identified the two plainclothes officers, who were California Highway Patrol agents. The officers made one arrest during the incident, for felony assault on a peace officer. Another arrest was made nearby by CHP, though unrelated, for public intoxication.
KTVU reported that one of the demonstrators yelled "Hey, they're undercover, they're cops!" The officers, whose faces were masked in the style of the protesters who tend to incite violence, began walking away. The crowd followed, and one of the officers reportedly pushed a protester aside; the protester pushed the officer back.
In a press conference, Chief Avery Browne, CHP Golden Gate Division Commander, said the man who was arrested had punched one of the officers in the back of the head after pulling off his hoodie, which lead to the scuffle on the ground. A woman, Chief Browne said, also came out of the crowd and kicked the officer in the head, who was treated for "soft tissue injuries of the head" and "concussion-like injuries." She has not yet been apprehended, though police are working to identify her.
As the crowd was advancing on the officers, one apparently identified himself as police, tried to move the crowd back with his baton and, when it didn't respond, drew his service weapon, panning it across the crowd. (A reporter on the press call who said she was on the scene disputed that the officer identified himself, as plainclothes protocol requires when making an arrest.) The crowd then began to disperse and more police arrived on the scene.
There were reports on Twitter that the officers themselves were inciting the crowd to violence, which Browne unequivocally denied, saying they were there to gather intelligence on those committing crimes and to protect peaceful protesters.