Screen shot from KGO-TV

Police officer arrests Occupy Oakland protester on Jan. 28, 2012.

Two days after police arrested 409 Occupy Oakland protesters, sheriff's deputies were still in the process of booking suspects into county jails Monday afternoon, Alameda County Sheriff Gregory Ahern said.

According to Ahern, 354 demonstrators were taken to two county jails Saturday, where most were booked on charges of obstructing officers and remaining on the scene of a riot, then released, sometimes after lengthy delays.

Most of the arrests happened Saturday evening after a small group of protesters broke into the downtown Oakland YMCA. Earlier in the day, officers used tear gas to disperse demonstrators who Oakland police said tried to tear down fences and destroy construction equipment near the vacant Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center.

In response to the weekend's events, Mayor Jean Quan and interim police Chief Howard Jordan said they are exploring the possibility of seeking court orders to block some protesters from returning to City Hall.

The last time hundreds of people in the county were arrested at one event was three decades ago — on June 21, 1982 — when 1,300 protesters were taken into custody during an anti-nuclear demonstration at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The large number of arrests is renewing criticism of how Oakland police have responded to Occupy demonstrations. A video taken Saturday shows an officer hitting a protester who is lying on the ground.

Two weeks ago, court-appointed monitors wrote in their quarterly report that the police response to Occupy Oakland protests this fall raised "serious concerns" about the department's ability to "hold true to the best practices in American policing," and promised a thorough investigation of the matter. And last week, a judge moved the police department closer to a federal takeover, writing that he was in "disbelief" that the department had yet to finish a series of court-ordered reforms.

In a statement Monday, Rachel Lederman, a lawyer with the National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, said the weekend's events underscored the police department's shortcomings.

“OPD has shown itself incapable of handling crowd control in a legal, much less professional manner,” Lederman wrote. “We would urge the appointed monitor to take action immediately to rein in this abusive conduct, which is leading to ever increasing liability for the City.”

The Guild is providing legal assistance to some of the protesters and has two lawsuits pending against the Oakland police and Alameda County sheriff's department based on law enforcement actions during Occupy Oakland protests this fall.

Lederman complained that protesters who were arrested Saturday were held "for a prolonged period under horrendous conditions, often remaining overnight in holding areas with no beds or blankets."

Ahern, the Alameda County sheriff, said the delays were partly a result a mutual aid request from Oakland police to his department and 12 other agencies. The sheriff's department provided 48 deputies to help respond to the protest, Ahern said. Those officers normally would have been available to process arrested demonstrators.

Of the 409 people arrested Saturday, 55 were released instead of being taken to jail. Of the 354 transferred to jail, 58 remain in custody, because they were arrested on more serious charges, including suspicion of burglary and assaulting a police officer. Some of those arrested are likely to face a court hearing as early as Tuesday morning.

Lederman told The Bay Citizen that the Alameda County District Attorney's office has already begun seeking stay-away orders against individuals who had been repeatedly arrested at Occupy Oakland.