Police Arrest 10 Protesters at Google Headquarters

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By Colin Daileda2014-06-25 16:12:00 UTC

A protester managed to get into the Google I/O developers conference on Wednesday, shouting "Develop a conscience," before guards evicted her. According to The Next Web, the heckler was trying to call attention to an eviction complaint related to a Google lawyer, Jack Halprin.

Earlier this year, activists protested outside Halprin’s house, accusing him of using “illegal methods” to evict tenants from his property in San Francisco.

Later in the keynote, a second protester interrupted the proceedings, apparently with a different agenda in mind:

Protesters had showed up earlier in the day at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, where Google was holding its I/O conference. It was unclear if the demonstration was related to an incident on Tuesday night, when police broke up a protest outside Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California, arresting 10 people demonstrating in favor of Internet freedom.

Supporters of #OccupyGoogle, which has a website and a somewhat theatrical Twitter account, first showed up at the Google headquarters on Tuesday night, armed with tents and signs.

The signs were painted with messages about net neutrality. According to their website, the group wants to "create and maintain...an Internet that acts as a free speech zone."

The mood outside of Google seemed almost jovial, according to the photos.

But that ended as night fell and Google called the cops. Though they showed up in force, police appeared quite relaxed, judging by the pictures.

At some point officers asked everyone to leave, warning protesters that otherwise they would get arrested for trespassing, according to Occupy Google's Twitter account.

When no one dispersed, officers took 10 people into custody.

So far, Google hasn't responded to requests for comment.

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Image: Stephen Lam/Getty Images