Bricks, pipes thrown from occupied SF building. Obama's occupoopers responsible for attacks.

[Obama's America]

Hundreds of protesters took over a vacant building on Turk
Street owned by the Archdiocese of San Francisco on Tuesday. One
climbed to the roof, threw a brick that struck a man with a
video camera standing in the swarm of police and demonstrators
below.

Police arrested Jesse Nesbitt, 34, of San Francisco on suspicion
of felony aggravated assault after he ran out the back of the
two-story building at 888 Turk St. But they didn't find another
man who hurled metal pipes into from an adjacent rooftop.

The Occupy activists had marched from Market Street to the
Western Addition on Tuesday afternoon, cutting through a chain
link fence and surging into the church's building at the corner
of Turk and Gough streets.

Police Chief Greg Suhr said they appeared to be the same group -
dressed in black and wearing masks - that had rampaged through
the city's Mission District on Monday night smashing windows.
"As far as I'm concerned, they're a gang of anarchists, the same
as last night," Suhr said.

As evening fell, police estimated that about 200 protesters
remained holed up in the building, while dozens outside faced
off with police in riot gear, shouting, "Pigs go home!"

Frustrated church officials said that Occupy protesters had
already caused $25,000 in damage when they took over the
building last month and smashed doors and dry wall.

"We are not the 1 percent. I don't get it," said George Wesolek,
spokesman for the archdiocese. "I think it's an indication of
how confused the Occupy movement has become in terms of its
goals and its focus."

They let them pass

Last month, police let occupiers remain in the building
overnight. On Tuesday, officers also let protesters enter the
building and kept watch. After the brick- and pipe-throwing,
hundreds of police gathered and erected metal barriers while
shoving aside protesters who tried to stop them. Later, most
officers left the scene, taking the barriers with them.

To remove the squatters, police said they needed a written
request from the archdiocese, which they received by early
evening. Protesters also occupied several church parking spaces
earlier, serving lasagna, rice and salad to their compatriots.

"We are taking direct action to take it back into the hands of
the people," said one protester who appeared to be in his 20s,
wore a scarf over his face and declined to give his name.

"The Catholic Church is one of the biggest landlords in the
world, and there are millions of people around the world who
don't have homes," the man said. "People have the right to
utilize any vacant building."

In 2010, nearby Sacred Heart Cathedral High was using the church-
owned building for music classes, church officials said last
month.

New uses for building

But church officials said they are deciding whether to lease it
out and use the money to help low-income students pay tuition.

Protesters who think the building is unused "are vandalizing our
building," Wesolek said. "It's not their property."

On April 2, police arrested nearly 80 people who had entered the
building and had remained overnight.

On Tuesday, in addition to arresting Nesbitt, police cited and
released Adam Delia, 24, for disobeying a traffic officer after
he walked onto Turk Street to pick up a piece of one of the
bricks thrown from the roof. About a dozen officers remained at
the building into the night.

Marisa Lagos and Nanette Asimov are San Francisco Chronicle
staff writers. mla...@sfchronicle.com, nas...@sfchronicle.com
and wk...@sfchronicle.com Chronicle staff writer Will Kane
contributed to this report.

This article appeared on page A - 8 of the San Francisco
Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/02/MN671OBSJ4.DTL