The number keeps rising, but Reuters is now saying more than 400 Occupy Oakland protesters have been arrested as Saturday night's protests continue into Sunday. That's obviously a pretty significant number, and it trumps the "between 200 and 300" number authorities gave earlier in the day. As has been the case throughout the Occupy movement, police officers and government officials claim they are only doing their jobs of maintaining the peace, while protesters insist the authorities are going way overboard.

Oakland city officials said "extremists" were fomenting the demonstrations and using the city as a playground for the movement. Protesters have accused the city of overreacting and using heavy-handed tactics.

They can go back and forth, but the Reuters article does seem to suggest an overreaction, which would be in line with Oakland's past handling of Occupy protests.

Violence erupted again in Oakland on Saturday when protesters attempted to take over the apparently empty downtown convention center to establish a new headquarters and draw attention to the problem of homelessness.

Police in riot gear moved in, firing smoke grenades, tear gas and bean-bag projectiles to drive the crowd back.

The article then goes on to say police officers were pelted with rocks and bottles — which may reflect poorly on the protesters, but is also a natural response to being descended upon by cops in riot gear. Regardless, the arrest number is staggering: compare 400 to the 4 people arrested in Brooklyn's Saturday night Occupy protest.

[Photo via AP]