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Occupy Riverside encampment returns after police breakup
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Occupy Riverside protestors defy police orders, returning to the downtown plaza by City Hall one day after Riverside Police Department's raid.
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Steven Cuevas/KPCC
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Police face of with Occupy Riverside protestors Sunday
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Steven Cuevas/KPCC
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About two dozen protestors chanting anti-Wall Street slogans were back in place Monday morning after police broke up an anti-Wall Street encampment in Riverside on Sunday. Law enforcement arrested 11 members of Occupy Riverside after they refused to clear out of a downtown plaza near City Hall.
About 30 officers cleared demonstrators late Sunday afternoon. One person was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon after allegedly throwing a bottle at police. The others were detained on charges of resisting arrest and assault on a police officer.
It was the first major conflict between police and Occupy Riverside demonstrators since the group pitched camp three weeks ago. A YouTube video shows officers clashing with defiant protestors, who had formed a human chain around their food tent.
Police said demonstrators are in violation of a city ordinance that prohibits overnight camping in a public space. On Monday, some chatted with others about the arrests but declined to speak on the record about what happened.
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"We're not speaking about it until we can talk to our attorney," Mark Lombardo, an unemployed teacher from Riverside, said while doling out cheese pizza and green apples to fellow protestors.
"I think I was waiting for something like this for a long time, and I think a lot of people were because we just saw the way in which our society got more and more economically unjust. And it's hard to say we have a democracy anymore. So really I see this as a conservative movement in the sense that we're trying to get these ideals that we are taught in school, like democracy and fairness, we're trying to return to those," he said.
Lombardo said demonstrators plan to hold their ground. Riverside police have not said if they'll allow Occupy Riverside to keep pitching its tents in the plaza, just yards from Riverside City Hall.
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