Free Republic

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- Baton-wielding police in riot gear are facing off with a growing number of protesters lined up at the University of California, Berkeley where other protesters have chained themselves together on the ledge of a building. Television video shows hundreds of yelling and chanting demonstrators. The protest Thursday comes after university police said 17 people were arrested late Wednesday after refusing to leave a campus building during a protest against state education cuts.

UC Berkeley police arrested one of nine people who walked out on a fourth-story ledge of UC Berkeley's Wheeler Hall at around 1:45 this afternoon, protesting budget cuts to higher education and campus layoffs. Police said the protester left the ledge and entered a classroom, but protesters claim police pulled him down. Some of the remaining eight protesters continued to be chained to the building's stone pillars as hundreds of students gathered on the steps below shouting the now-familiar mantra, "No cuts, no fees, education must be free!"