<p>Dozens of police maintained a late-night guard around City Hall following daylong protests that resulted in 300 arrests. <br /><br /></p>.<p>Occupy Oakland demonstrators broke into the historic building and burned a US flag, as officers earlier fired tear gas to disperse people throwing rocks and tearing down fencing at a convention centre.<br /><br />Saturday’s protests — the most turbulent since Oakland police forcefully dismantled an Occupy encampment in November — came just days after the group said it planned to use a vacant building as a social center and political hub and threatened to try to shut down the port, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.<br /><br />An exasperated Mayor Jean Quan, who faced heavy criticism for the police action last fall, called on the Occupy movement to “stop using Oakland as its playground.”<br /><br />“People in the community and people in the Occupy movement have to stop making excuses for this behaviour,” Quan said.<br /><br />Protesters clashed with police throughout the day, at times throwing rocks, bottles and other objects at officers. And police responded by deploying smoke, tear gas and bean bag rounds.</p>
<p>Dozens of police maintained a late-night guard around City Hall following daylong protests that resulted in 300 arrests. <br /><br /></p>.<p>Occupy Oakland demonstrators broke into the historic building and burned a US flag, as officers earlier fired tear gas to disperse people throwing rocks and tearing down fencing at a convention centre.<br /><br />Saturday’s protests — the most turbulent since Oakland police forcefully dismantled an Occupy encampment in November — came just days after the group said it planned to use a vacant building as a social center and political hub and threatened to try to shut down the port, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.<br /><br />An exasperated Mayor Jean Quan, who faced heavy criticism for the police action last fall, called on the Occupy movement to “stop using Oakland as its playground.”<br /><br />“People in the community and people in the Occupy movement have to stop making excuses for this behaviour,” Quan said.<br /><br />Protesters clashed with police throughout the day, at times throwing rocks, bottles and other objects at officers. And police responded by deploying smoke, tear gas and bean bag rounds.</p>