Posted on 12/12/2009 1:39:33 PM PST by reaganaut1
BERKELEY, Calif. Eight people were under arrest Saturday after protesters broke windows, lights and planters outside the home of the chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley.
University spokesman Dan Mogulof said 40 to 70 protesters also threw incendiary devices at police cars and the home of Chancellor Robert Birgeneau about 11 p.m. Friday. There were no fires or injuries.
The protest at the chancellor's home came late the same day that police arrested 66 protesters at a campus classroom building that was partially taken over for four days.
The protesters are demonstrating against state funding cuts that have led to course cutbacks, faculty furloughs and sharp fee increases.
"The attack at our home was extraordinarily frightening and violent. My wife and I genuinely feared for our lives," Birgeneau said in a statement issued through the university.
The eight were arrested on suspicion of rioting, threatening an education official, attempted burglary, attempted arson of an occupied building, felony vandalism, and assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer.
They include two Berkeley students and one from the University of California, Davis, Mogulof said. Of the remaining five, four had San Francisco Bay-area addresses, while one is from Brooklyn, N.Y. Their ages ranged from 20-41. At least three are women.
"This is what it looks like when a student group gets hijacked by an extreme and violent element in its ranks," Mogulof said.
An Associated Press freelance photographer saw at least four broken decorative light globes, overturned vases and plants, and shattered terra cotta planters. At least two windows were broken, one boarded over, the other shattered in a spider web pattern. Birgeneau was in his living room, but did not speak to reporters.
The protesters shouted "no justice, no peace" as they attacked the home, Mogulof said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
People’s Hellhole.
Indymedia the ultra left site has this story..
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/12/12/18632412.php
PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION
Eight protest bystanders charged with multiple felonies
Contact:
UC Berkeley student, Marika Iyer (217) 766-9833; marikaiyer [at] gmail.com;
Other student Organizers of Live Week:
Laura Zelko, student organizer with Live Week: laura_z [at] berkeley.edu
Callie Maidhof, student organizer with Live Week: callie.maidhof [at] gmail.com
UC Police arrested 8 more people many whom eyewitnesses say had not been engaging in any illegal activity - on the final night of a 5-day, 24-hour-a day Live Week open university, held by Cal students and faculty to protest and provide an alternative to the dead week at the end of the semester resulting from recent furloughs and budget cuts. The final event of the week, a free performance featuring Boots Riley, a hip hop artist from The Coup, had to be moved at the last minute after a morning police raid on Wheeler Hall, the primary site for “Live Week” activities.
Some 200 students gathered for the concert at the UC Berkeley campus from UC Davis, SF State, UC Santa Cruz, and UCLA as well as Berkeley. Following the concert, which had been interrupted by police cars constantly circling the area, some of the attendees joined a night march that left campus for the residence of UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. Some of the protesters carried torches to light up the path, they said. Some dragged newspaper boxes into the street.
“Regardless of what one thinks about the events of last night, the minor vandalism that occurred cannot be viewed outside the context of the physical violence inflicted by police on student activists and the broader assault on public education,” said Callie Maidhof, a student organizer with “Live Week”.
Many of the marchers were upset about the arrests that had been made earlier that day, when police stormed into a building where students had been holding Live Week events since Monday. Sixty-five people who had been sleeping off studying were loaded onto Alameda County Sheriffs buses during the cold pre-dawn hours, some of them barefoot and wearing only their underwear. Most of the students were given misdemeanor trespassing charges and released by the afternoon.
Police swooped down on the activists in front of University House around 11:30 p.m., resulting in pandemonium as the students and other activists dispersed in all directions.
When everyone is running, you dont think that clearly. My friends and I were trying to leave because things were getting out of hand, said Jobert Poblete, a Cal alumni who participated in the march.
Poblete was split up from his friends, who ran into the woods near Strawberry Creek. Police then swept up Carwil James, 34, according to a friend of Poblete who stood next to James when he was arrested
Carwil hadnt been doing anything at the time. Now hes in jail on his birthday, and they just raised his bail from $50,000 to $132,000. Theres no way we can raise that much money. This is a travesty, said Poblete.
David Morse, 41, an independent journalist, was filming the demonstration and police response when he was arrested, said witnesses.
They were simply at the wrong place and the wrong time, said a student who did not want to give their name and observed the chaos when police arrived at the chancellors house.
Eleven people arrested at student demonstrations in the past week remain in custody at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.
pinging ya this one
There was overwhelming evidence, at least that they were acting to protect their lives from a murderous group of anarchist thugs who:
- burned down the campus ROTC building nights before.
- trespassed on private property by taking over and trashing professors' private offices
- made numerous bomb threats against campus facilities.
- rioted in town, terrorizing residents, destroying property and spreading massive mayhem.
The shooting at Kent State was flat-out justified. No criminal charges were brought against the guardsmen (in contrast to today's zeitgeist, in which the guardsmen would be tried for murder and lynched.) It's only a shame that they waited so long to take the needed action.
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