Occupy DC becoming increasingly violent, police say

Citing injuries to five people outside the Washington Convention Center on Friday night, the mayor urged the demonstators to show restraint so that their protests are not discredited by violence.

“We will not tolerate behavior that jeopardizes public safety,” Gray said.

Lanier said in a statement that the protesters have become “increasingly confrontational and violent toward uninvolved bystanders and motorists.”

Four of the injured people appear to be protesters themselves. A fifth injured person was a 78-year-old woman who was knocked down while attempting to get around the Occupy DC’s blockade of a dinner for a conservative group Friday.

“That is no longer a peaceful protest,” Lanier said.

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson visited the Occupy DC group in McPherson Square on Monday evening after the group marched on police headquarters and city hall.

In an exclusive interview with The Washington Examiner, he compared the occupy movement to the Civil Rights Era sit-ins.

“All of it is occupying for economic justice. Dr. King’s last act on earth was to come to Washington and to occupy the Mall and put the focus on economic justice,” Jackson said. “He said it’s alright for the wealthy to get wealthy but not at the expense of poor people.”

The Occupy DC protesters took aim at Lanier and her department’s conduct in the investigation of a driver of a silver Lexus who struck three demonstrators Friday. Protesters provided a second police report Monday that they say shows that a fourth person was injured by the silver car minutes earlier.

Police did not charge the driver in the second incident, saying the demonstrators jumped in the path of the Lexus, which had a green light.

The injured protesters, instead, were cited for walking against a “Don’t Walk” signal and obstructing traffic.

Occupy DC protesters said Lanier is deliberately misleading the public and they called for a full investigation.

“The injuries cited by police were perpetrated by others against peaceful Occupy DC protesters – making today’s police statement all the more dishonest,” the group said in a statement.

A police spokeswoman said she could not say whether officers were investigating to see if the two incidents are connected.

The demonstrators on Friday were protesting a dinner hosted by Americans for Prosperity, a group allied with the conservative billionaire Koch brothers.

<p><span class=”BodyCopy”>Lanier said the Occupy DC movement had been relatively peaceful since it started on Oct. 6, but has grown increasingly violent. She said the protesters were using their own young children at the front of the blockade, including putting them in traffic.</span></p> <meta http-equiv=”content-type” content=”text/html;&#10;charset=ISO-8859-1″/><title/><table style=”float: right; border-collapse: collapse;&#10;background-color: aliceblue; padding: 5px 0pt; margin: 5px 15px&#10;5px 0pt; width: 290px; font-family: arial; font-size: 11px;&#10;line-height: 12px; border: 1px solid #efe1ab; box-shadow: 5px 5px&#10;5px #cccccc;” border=”0″ cellpadding=”0″ cellspacing=”0″><tbody><tr style=”font-size:14px;line-height:15px;color:darkred;”><td><strong>Videos<br/></strong></td> </tr><tr style=”font-size:12px;”><td> <li><a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=mpDsogOy2IU”><span style=”font-weight: bold;”>Occupy DC: “Let’s start a riot!”</span><br/></a></li> </td> </tr><tr style=”font-size:12px;”><td> <li><a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpDsogOy2IU” target=”_blank”>”<span style=”font-family: Times New&#10;Roman; font-size: x-small;”><span style=”font-size:&#10;11pt;”>Intentionally Blocking Traffic/putting little children in the street”</span></span></a><a href=”http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/topics/prince-georges-county-public-schools”/></li> </td> </tr><tr style=”font-size:12px;”><td> <li><a href=”http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/topics/prince-georges-county-public-schools”><span style=”font-family: ‘Times New Roman’;”/></a><a style=”font-weight: bold;” href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXXf56JhTbs” target=”_blank”>”Blockading people from leaving the Convention Center”</a><a href=”http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/topics/prince-georges-county-public-schools”/></li> </td> </tr><tr style=”font-size:12px;”><td> <li><a style=”font-weight: bold;” href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prgkEAuSQT0″ target=”_blank”>”Demonstrators blockade doors and injure attendees”</a><a href=”http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/topics/prince-georges-county-public-schools”/></li> </td> </tr></tbody></table>