Protesters in Oakland, California, were demonstrating over the grand jury decisions not to indict officers in Ferguson and New York City when an undercover cop dressed in plainclothes pulled out his gun.
According to tweets captured in a Storify, and a report from NBC News, a cop pulled out his gun and aimed it at protesters. The officer says he pulled out a gun after being attacked. But some witness reports on Twitter suggest a protester threw a punch only after the officer pulled out his gun.
https://twitter.com/MorpheusRavenna/status/543068301287378944
At least one protester was arrested. The cop called for back-up and a barrage of cop cars arrived, prompting reactions like this one:
I've seen undercovers confronted lots of times, but usually leave march not pull gun. This guy was 6'8" and had 75+ cops 30 yards behind him
— Dave Id (@DaveId) December 11, 2014
Embedding undercover cops at protests isn’t a new practice in Oakland. But not all of them take the same adversarial posture. In 2011, a cop embedded at an Occupy Oakland protest came out with a public statement against police brutality.