Officers hurt in Occupy clash at Calif. Capitol

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — At least two law enforcement officers were injured Monday during a clash with members of the Occupy movement who were at the state Capitol to counter a rally by a group protesting violence by blacks against whites in South Africa.

The clash erupted in the afternoon as California Highway Patrol and Sacramento police officers were escorting about 35 members of the South Africa Project to a parking garage after their protest outside the Capitol building.

About 50 members of Occupy Oakland began throwing cans and bottles at the South Africa group and at the officers. The Occupy members then clashed with the officers as people with the pro-whites group hurried into the parking garage.

"It was the activists across the street engaging the officers," said CHP officer Sean Kennedy.

Two officers suffered minor injuries and were taken to a hospital. CHP Capt. Andy Menard said one officer who was struck in the face by an object was released from the hospital. The second officer was getting X-rays after apprehending a person suspected of throwing objects, Menard said.

Kennedy said the officer who was struck by an object was showing signs of possibly being affected by some type of chemical or pepper spray.

The CHP arrested three members of the Occupy group on suspicion of disobeying an officer.

The violence abated after a large contingent of law enforcement arrived at the scene, about a block from the Capitol.

The clash followed a tense afternoon during which peace officers kept the two groups separated outside the Capitol.

Members of the South Africa Project were trying to draw attention to what they said is black-on-white violence in that country. Organizers said similar demonstrations were planned in other states and elsewhere in California.

The group was mostly male and white, some with shaved heads and prominent tattoos.

Many of the Occupy protesters, some wearing hoods or masks, said they came from the San Francisco Bay area to counter what they called a racist group affiliated with former Louisiana Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

Morris Gulett, a spokeman for the South Africa Project, called the clash in Sacramento unfortunate.

"It's not surprising that the counter-protesters got in the way of the peaceful march we wanted it to be," Gulett said. "Our intention was to conduct a peaceful march."

Occupy protesters had been cursing at the South Africa Project rally and at officers keeping the two sides apart.

Ryan Stark, 26, who said he is part of Occupy Sacramento, said he joined the protesters challenging the South Africa Project protesters because there needed to be a showdown.

"I didn't throw anything ... but these sorts of demonstrations need to happen," he said, referring to the counter protest. "They do have the right to say what they want, but we're not going to let it fly."

The public was being kept away from the scene of the confrontation by police officers, who were not commenting to reporters. The city's light rail system was stopped through the section of downtown where the clash occurred, and commuters were not allowed to leave the area.

Earlier in the day, a 17-year-old girl with Occupy Oakland was taken to Juvenile Hall after she became combative and assaulted an officer who asked her to pick up litter, Kennedy said.

___

Associated Press photographer Rich Pedroncelli contributed to this report.

View the original article here

Slaying of 2 U.S. officers in Afghanistan won’t affect withdrawal

The White House on Monday deplored the killings of two U.S. officers inside a supposedly secure Afghan government buildings as "tragic, and horrific, and indefensible," but said the slayings would not affect the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan by 2014.

"No, I don't think it will," spokesman Jay Carney told reporters, when asked whether the recent violence sparked by the burning of Qurans, the Muslim holy book, on a U.S. military base would affect the drawdown. "These are isolated incidents."

And U.S. and NATO-led forces are still fighting to "disrupt, dismantle, and ultimately defeat al-Qaida" in Afghanistan, while giving the government in Kabul "the space and time" to take over responsibility for security in the war-torn country, he said.

"No one associated with the president either here in the administration or on the campaign would suggest that al-Qaida has been finally defeated, because it has not," Carney said.

(Estimates of how many al-Qaida fighters remain in Afghanistan have varied, with then-CIA director Leon Panetta, who is now serving as Defense Secretary, telling ABC News in June 2010 that they number 50-100 "at most." Pakistan, where U.S. forces found and killed terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, is the group's "main location," said Panetta.)

"It is important to remember that 95 to 97 percent of the missions the U.S. forces embark on in Afghanistan, they do so with their Afghan partners," Carney said at his daily briefing. "We're talking about thousands and thousands of operations that proceed successfully with Afghan partners, without anything like this happening."

The recent wave of violence could put pressure on Obama to revise his withdrawal timetable — which has drawn fire from Congressional Republicans — and Carney indicated that a May 20-21 NATO summit in Chicago could shape how quickly U.S. and allied troops leave.

"The pace of that drawdown will obviously depend on discussions with our NATO allies and with commanders on the ground about how the mission is being implemented and how the drawdown should be implemented," he said.

More popular Yahoo! News stories:

• Crossover voter threat in Michigan? Officials say they're unconcerned

• White House wants nothing to do with NYPD's spying on American Muslims

• On the economy, personal background, not policy, is the biggest difference between Romney and Santorum: Character Sketch

Want more of our best political stories? Visit The Ticket or connect with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or add us on Tumblr. Handy with a camera? Join our Election 2012 Flickr group to submit your photos of the campaign in action.

View the original article here