An undercover California Highway Patrol officer points a gun at a crowd of protesters and photographers while his partner subdues a demonstrator who struck him in the head in Oakland on Dec. 10.

The revelation by Oakland police that they didn’t know the CHP had planted masked undercover officers in a crowd of protesters in the city — at least until those officers were attacked, and one pulled out a gun — highlights concerns about how authorities are cooperating as they deal with demonstrations that often range across city borders.

An attorney who is part of a court-ordered police reform effort in Oakland said the California Highway Patrol operation violated Oakland’s crowd-control policy. Moreover, he said it could have led to tragedy after one of the officers pointed his gun at members of the crowd, including a photographer working for The Chronicle.

“You have someone drawing a gun in an undercover operation, calling for backup,” said the lawyer and police critic, Jim Chanin. “They’re in plainclothes and here comes the Oakland police, and the first thing they see is somebody with a bandanna pointing a gun at a cameraman. (Oakland police) could have shot that officer.”

CHP officials have asserted that police commanders in Oakland knew about the two undercover officers who tailed the Dec. 10 march into the city. But an Oakland police spokeswoman, Sgt. Holly Joshi, told The Chronicle that officials have been “looking and checking” into the situation, and “we haven’t been able to find any evidence or any person who knew.”

“We knew the CHP was there,” Joshi said. “We were unable to locate anyone who knew about the undercover portion.”

CHP outed as cops

The two officers were recognized and outed as law enforcement by protesters near Lake Merritt at about 11:30 p.m. Just before the officers were identified, vandals traveling with the group had smashed the windows of a T-Mobile store in Oakland’s Chinatown neighborhood and made off with merchandise. A nearby Wells Fargo ATM was also damaged.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-police-We-had-no-idea-CHP-officers-5964457.php