This is a duplicate post from r/occupywallstreet by oprah666

Their description from the original post:

EMERGENCY CALL TO ACTION- City of Oakland city council is set to vote on an ordinance that would ban for "Tools of violence" at demonstrations. "Tools of violence" would include helmets, shields or any "Impact resistant material with straps" which could mean backpacks, and "Clubs" which could be defined as tripods, or water bottles. This ordinance would give officers probable cause to search and arrest anyone found carrying these items at a "Demonstration." What a demonstration is, is not defined at all in the ordinance, so a demonstration could consist of any event any officer subjectively decides is a demonstration. Please come to the special public safety committee meeting tomorrow (5/22/12) at 6 pm, Oakland city hall to air your grievances. They want to ban anything made of wood, plastic, or metal, of any length, if it is bigger than ¼” x 2” in diameter, or if cylindrical bigger than ¾." That’s how the ordinance defines a “club.” This would ban just about anything – cameras, ice chests, water bottles, etc. Even if it is amended to specify a minimum length, so it actually identifies potential clubs, the dimensions are so small that it would ban tripods and monopods, boom stands for microphones, and a lot of sign posts. Worse, it would give the police probable cause to arrest anyone carrying anything which might be bigger than those dimensions. There is plenty of legal justification against this law. First of all, it isn't enforceable. A law that is not enforceable creates a situation of selective enforcement by default. There is no possible way to arrest every person carrying a "Club" as defined by this law, they will only arrest those that they feel like arresting, creating a situation of political repression. Second about shields, and other personal protective gear. It is completely reasonable to assume that you will be injured at a protest if you are in the vicinity of the OPD, regardless of if you are within the law. This is well documented trend. The OPD regularly violate their own crowd control policies, and seriously injure protestors. Therefore, it is reasonable for any person to take measures to protect their person from needless injury. Click on the link that says "View report" to read the text of the ordinance. http://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=1124977&GUID=0FD60290-DA2B-4CAC-A5B1-C5924860B579&Options&Search