Reply #34: more here ... [View All]

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Park

It was awful. My father worked a few blocks from there and I used to go there all the time to see him at work. They had it roped off after the Univ. of Calif. sicked their goons on those living in People's Park at the time and some died.

Many don't even remember hearing about it. I guess you almost have had to have been living there as I was at the time to remember how horrible it was.

People's Park is still there today but it isn't anything like they had hoped it would be sadly. :(

The picture of it I post here is nothing like it looked like for many years after the main uprising occurred.



The link states:

The mythology surrounding the park is a major part of local culture. The surrounding South Campus neighborhood was the scene of a major confrontation between student protestors and law enforcement during May, 1969. A mural near the park, painted by Berkeley artist and lawyer Osha Neuman, depicts the shooting of James Rector, a student who died from shotgun wounds inflicted by law enforcement on May 15, 1969. (See "'Bloody Thursday' and Its Aftermath" below).

Why they call it "mythology" is beyond me. It was for real alright, hell, I saw it with my own eyes and so did my father! Mythology my ass!

The way I remember it was this way: The idea was to make it a place where people could live and grow their own food in exile during the Vietnam war. People's Park was/is owned by UC Berkeley supposedly but no one was using it. That was one of the ideas anyway and it failed miserably with death being but one of the ugly consequences.

This photograph - I remember this!



And what it says about it ... I concur!

The Berkeley community enjoyed the park for three weeks, picnicking on the lawns and napping under the trees. But in the early morning hours of May 15, the university enlisted 100 California Highway Patrolmen to erect a cyclone fence around the park. "No trespassing" signs were hung along the fence. The move engendered an immediate and angry response. By midday a huge crowd had gathered to protest the action, and an impassioned call was put out to reclaim the park. An estimated 3000 people poured into the streets surrounding People's Park where a violent conflict ensued between students, neighbors, and the police. The times were already fraught with civil strife, and the battle over People's Park caught the attention of the media. Headlines splashed across the nation, with disturbing images of tear gas, flames, bricks, and fury. The unrest lasted for several days until then Gov. Ronald Reagan sent in 2000 National Guard troops to quell the disturbance. In the end one person was blinded, another was killed, and some 120 people were injured. The Guard kept an armed presence in the area for the weeks that followed.

link: http://www.afsc.org/about/hist/2002/peoples_park.htm


Fence around the park

:kick: