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Reuters said:Sat Mar 3, 2012 1:56am EST
(Reuters) - Three Occupy Oakland protesters accused of surrounding and taunting a woman before stealing her wallet were charged on Friday with robbery and hate crimes, authorities said.
Michael Davis, 32, Nneka Crawford, 23, and Randolph Wilkins, 24, confronted the woman on the streets of Oakland in February after she told them not to riot in her neighborhood, the Oakland Police said in a written release.
"She was surrounded by three protestors and battered as they yelled vulgar epithets regarding their perception of her sexual orientation," Oakland Police spokeswoman Johnna Watson said.
The female victim was not identified except as a 20-year resident of the neighborhood.
"Her wallet was taken during the crime," Watson said. "The victim broke away from the group and called police, who were able to arrest one suspect near the scene."
Watson said the other two suspects were arrested at a February 29 Occupy Oakland protest.
Each was charged by the Alameda County District Attorney's Office with felony counts of robbery and hate crimes, Watson said.
An Occupy Oakland organizer could not be reached for comment on Friday evening.
A rallying cry of the movement has been that 1 percent of the population has too much of the nation's wealth and the remaining 99 percent is disadvantaged.
It has lost momentum in recent months after police cleared encampments in New York, Oakland and other major cities.
(Reporting by Emmett Berg; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Tim Gaynor)
Three Occupy Oakland protesters charged with hate crimes | Reuters
Critics might say that these three OWS protesters are acting out and personify the "bad element" of OWS. The 99% stealing from a perceived 1% perhaps because the 1% owe these 3 guys. A minority of OWS protesters were deemed "racist" especially against Jews though that was played down during the height of the OWS coverage - especially by the OWS groups themselves who basically disavowed those who were making such comments or who had those signs. In this case, it wasn't racism but amazingly... sexism, which resulted in a hate crime charge as well as felony robbery. Whether or not that hate crime charge will stick is unknown, the only thing I can say for certain about this story is that these 3 are doing, apparently, everything in their power to live up to the negative perceptions about OWS, and doing it in a big way.