Oakland Protests Block Webster, Posey Tubes

Traffic flows freely into the Posey Tube, 6:30pm, Saturday, December 13th, 2014. (Action Alameda News)

The Oakland protests were the latest in a series of actions in Oakland and across the country calling attention to police use of force against un-armed black civilians.

This morning, debris from road flares lay at the intersection of Willie Stargell Avenue and Webster Street, remains from a Alameda police effort to divert traffic away from the Posey Tube, which was jammed.

Protesters at the scene sent pictures and updates on Twitter, and reported a dance party on Harrison Street, at the Oakland exit of the Posey Tube; one activist reported that traffic was blocked for 15 minutes.

Alameda police sent alerts on the Nixle system advising motorists to avoid the area.

By 6:30pm, traffic was flowing freely into the Posey Tube.

In recent weeks, at least two so-called ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests have been held in Alameda, one at Encinal High School and one at a tree-lighting ceremony at City Hall, and Alameda Police Department cars have been vandalized on at least two separate dates in Oakland and Berkeley as police, under mutual-aid agreements, responded to protests there.

So far, Marie Gilmore, Alameda’s first elected African-American Mayor, has refused to respond to multiple requests for comment on the protests and costs of the vandalism.

Gilmore’s term is set to expire on Tuesday evening, at 8pm. Among Gilmore’s achievements listed in a resolution honoring her service as Mayor and a Councilmember is her support for Alameda Police Department acquisition of automated license plate readers.

Harrison street tunnel from #alameda blocked. #oakland #ferguson #chp next block. pic.twitter.com/kjN8d3eid6

— Patrick Tamayo (@PatrickTamayo3) December 14, 2014

Youth chanting #BlackLivesMatter in the Oakland-Alameda tunnel around 5:30pm. #MillionsMarchOak #Alameda pic.twitter.com/0FIvEEpGJH

— María D. Domínguez (@mariaddominguez) December 14, 2014

Traffic backs up in the Posey Tube. (Twitter: @Rasheed_Shabazz)