“Nobody expected that there weren’t going to be protests,” Rufus Jeffris, a spokesperson for the Bay Area Council. George Tanaka, left, an eye surgeon, gestures as demonstrators shut down the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge in conjunction with the APEC Summit taking place Thursday, Nov. The size and scale of the protests - along a main thoroughfare that thousands of people and first responders rely upon on a daily basis - drew criticism from several corners of the region. “I would think these protesters are looking at a much larger audience than just the Bay Area.” “We have protests here in the Bay Area, it seems like, every minute of every day,” Higdon added. “The symbolism of that strikes a lot of us.” “If you live in the Bay Area, you’ve seen it, you’ve crossed it, you know how insane it seems to be able to walk around on the Bay Bridge or shut down traffic on the Bay Bridge,” Higdon said. Organizers likely cared little about the demonstration’s local impacts, given the number of reporters hailing from elsewhere in the nation - and even the world - who are in the area this week to cover APEC. Its setting also wasn’t a surprise, Higdon said, given the iconic nature of the bridge and the number of people who traverse it every day.

Israel’s war with Hamas resumes with airstrikes in Gaza after a weeklong truce endsĬoordinating legal and medical logistics for a protest of the magnitude seen Thursday likely took substantial planning, said Nolan Higdon, a California State University East Bay professor in communications history. Demonstrators clash with police as arrests are made after shutting down the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge in conjunction with the APEC Summit taking place Thursday, Nov. Despite the postponed delivery, no adverse effects were anticipated for people who later received the organs. The delivery of transplant organs was delayed as a result of the traffic jam, according to a University of California, San Francisco, spokesperson. The protest caused issues far beyond the Bay Bridge. Others took to social media to ask for food, but some appeared to welcome the headache after learning that organizers were showing support for Palestinians. Some people complained about missing work. Stuck for hours, motorists posted videos to social media of a backup that spanned nearly the entire length of the eastern span of the Bay Bridge, turning a bustling commute that normally moves in fits and starts every morning into a standstill. Yet in a shift, Thursday’s bridge shutdown appeared to have little effect on the APEC attendees themselves - most of whom were staying at hotels in the city - but carried an outsized impact on commuters trying to get to work. Protesters hailed the demonstration as a necessary step to put pressure on Biden and other world leaders to end Israel’s siege of Gaza. Authorities towed at least 29 vehicles from the bridge before re-opening all lanes minutes before noon. Others abandoned their vehicles and tossed their keys into the bay, according to California Highway Patrol Commander Ezery Beauchamp. Videos posted to social media showed some protesters chaining themselves to vehicles parked along the roadway. Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground offensive in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which Gaza’s health ministry says have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children. 7 attacks in Israel, Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people and took some 240 others hostage. Santos was stuck for several hours while trying to take her kids to school.

military aid to Israel.” Elsa Santos and her children wait for police officers to clear protesters off the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge during a demonstration against the APEC summit on Thursday, Nov. when organizers blocked traffic and laid out massive banners reading “stop the genocide” and “no U.S. The massive conference has attracted demonstrators for myriad causes as nearly two dozen heads of state - including President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping - meet for San Francisco’s largest gathering of world leaders since World War II.Īuthorities arrested at least 80 people during the protest that began around 8 a.m. The protesters kept morning commuters in westbound lanes east of Treasure Island stranded for hours in what became the largest disruption yet tied to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit of world leaders in San Francisco. Chaining themselves to cars and unfurling banners, protesters calling for a cease-fire in Gaza sought global attention Thursday by shutting down the Bay Bridge and snarling traffic for miles as some of the world’s most powerful leaders gathered just a few miles away.

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