Bay Area protesters attempt to block arrests

OAKLAND, California. – The California Highway Patrol released video Monday of how it worked to stop protesters from blocking highways and bridges — several protesters put their hands in pipes, secured by concrete in drums to prevent officers from expel them.

The video shows a man’s hand being pushed through a pipe and held with concrete inside a 55-gallon drum. An officer is seen unscrewing a screw to try to remove the man’s hand. The officer yells, “Let go! Let go of the bar!” several times and the man can be heard shouting, “Ow, ow, ow! The rebar is cutting me. Stop! Stop!”

Eventually, the man was freed from the barrel and taken into custody.

This is a form of “sleeping dragon” maneuver used by protesters to prevent their eviction from a site. The traditional sleeping dragon occurs when a series of protesters handcuff themselves together using PVC pipe, preventing police from simply using bolt cutters to break the handcuffs.

The man was one of nearly 40 pro-Palestinian protesters on I-880 and the Golden Gate Bridge who were arrested Monday by CHP officers, after blocking traffic for hours during the morning commute.

On the Golden Gate Bridge, protesters used their cars, equipped with chains hidden by pipes, to connect to each other. It took more than four hours to evacuate the scene and 26 people were arrested there.

Then, on Route 880 southbound, there were about 300 protesters and five of them were arrested after it took five hours to clear all lanes. Another protest on northbound Route 880, where demonstrators were tied to barrels, took seven hours to dissipate.

On Monday evening, a protest also took place at the Tesla factory in Fremont, where officers deployed pepper balls on the crowd. No one was arrested during the protest, Fremont police said.

The California Highway Patrol has released all the charges it will recommend to prosecutors, including unlawful assembly, refusal to comply with a lawful order, resisting, false imprisonment and unlawful arrest on a bridge.