Oakland -- Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who is being criticized from all sides for a police sweep of the Occupy Oakland encampment, said Wednesday that she was not involved in the planning and did not even know when the action was going to take place.

The decision to raid the camp outside City Hall was made by City Administrator Deanna Santana on Oct. 19 with consultation from interim Police Chief Howard Jordan after campers repeatedly blocked paramedics and police from entering the camp despite reports of violence and injuries.

News conference

Quan told a news conference at City Hall on Wednesday that her input on the raid was limited.

"I only asked the chief to do one thing: to do it when it was the safest for both the police and the demonstrators," she said.

The mayor said "I don't know everything" when asked by reporters if she was satisfied with how police conducted the sweep. She said she spent Wednesday meeting with community groups.

She also defended "99 percent" of police officers "who took a lot of abuse" and who "have really been trying to re-establish that connection with the community." But she said she asked Jordan to investigate reports of excessive force and wants a community police review board to look into the police actions.

Tuesday morning's police raid was the city's biggest law enforcement action since Quan took office this year. But Quan said she took a red-eye flight Sunday night to Washington, D.C., for a scheduled meeting and returned to Oakland at 10:40 p.m. Tuesday.

Seventeen law enforcement agencies and hundreds of officers cleared out a squatter city at City Hall's main plaza in the predawn hours. Santana said campers' unwillingness to address reports of violence, sexual assault, defecation and open flames prompted the sweep.

Even though the morning raid involved no reported injuries, the evening was different. Protesters gathered to retake the plaza but were blocked by police. Protesters hurled paint, bottles, rocks and chemicals at officers, who responded with tear gas.

On Wednesday, protesters showed wounds that seemed to indicate police use of nonlethal projectiles, like rubber bullets and bean bags.

Santana said she and Jordan decided on the 3 a.m. Tuesday morning time because that's when they anticipated the fewest campers.

"We wanted the minimum impact," Santana said in an interview.

Quan, however, said she did not know that Santana and Jordan had planned the raid for Tuesday morning and, in fact, "I didn't think it was going to be last night."

Deferential role

Quan said she kept in contact over the phone and via text messages.

Quan's statements that she played a deferential role in the sweep contrast with the fact that many view her as the main person responsible.

Critics said she had been indecisive, allowing the encampment to grow out of control. Supporters of the mayor said she betrayed them.

When city officials held a news conference Tuesday to talk about the police raid, Quan wasn't there. Instead, Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente defended the police action as "absolutely necessary" and added that "we have absolutely no choice."

On Wednesday, De La Fuente said of overnight camping in the plaza, "the mayor should have put a stop from the beginning" and forced a police action that would have been less severe had it occurred earlier.

Among Quan's supporters, there is palpable sense of anger given her long activist history. Dan Siegel, Quan's unpaid legal adviser, became friends with her and her husband in 1969, when all three were fighting to create an ethnic studies program at UC Berkeley. Students boycotted classes for weeks.

Then and now

"I oppose the takeover of the plaza" by police, said Siegel, who took part in Tuesday night's protest. He said he may resign because of the disagreement.

When Quan was running for mayor, she took part in a July 2010 protest regarding the killing of Oscar Grant, an unarmed passenger, by a BART officer. Quan locked arms with fellow Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan and others near City Hall to form a barrier between police and people protesting the verdict.

Whether Quan and Kaplan acted as peacemakers or obstructers of police is contested. But it's a scene Occupy Oakland supporters haven't forgotten.

At that demonstration, "she was in the front line between cops and protesters," said Emiliano Huet-Vaughn, 28, a UC Berkeley doctoral candidate in economics who voted for Quan. "It makes such a difference being in the seat of power. Now she's dispatching cops to beat people up. ... She's turned on the people."