Video footage shows large groups of people fighting in Oakland
The incident comes following the city’s First Fridays event.
In Oakland, large groups of people were caught on camera fighting, and police could be seen detaining people after the city’s First Fridays event. This could also come as the city’s starting a new effort to keep the streets safer on busy entertainment nights. Alyssa Goard reports.
In Oakland, large groups of people were caught on camera fighting, and police could be seen detaining people early Saturday morning.
The footage shows multiple fights between large groups of people near 19th and Jefferson at around 1 a.m. Police appeared to use some type of spray deterrent and can be seen pushing back crowds and detaining someone in the ground.
WATCH HERENBC Bay Area reached out to the Oakland Police Department regarding this footage, but hasn’t heard back.
Organizers of the official Oakland First Fridays event said these incidents were not part of it and happened after the event had been cleaned up.
“And what we are seeing is at our event in particular, we are not seeing a lot of those activities that are happening outside of our footprint and outside of those hours. It doesn’t make us feel good that they’re happening regardless, whether its inside our event or outside of our event,” said Oakland First Fridays Festival Director Venessa McGhee
On Friday, the city launched an official program to boost safety efforts around arts and culture events, adding things like parking restrictions.