UC campus police move in on UC student protesters

[alp227]

Source: SF Chronicle

Dozens of campus police in riot gear this afternoon descended on students outside UC Berkeley's Sproul Hall and arrested several protesters as they attempted to set up an "Occupy Cal" encampment.

The protesters were among 1,000 students, faculty members and Occupy activists who earlier in the day joined on the Berkeley campus in a statewide protest marking the first banding of the Occupy movement and student protesters against the financial handling of the state's public higher education system.

As police moved in, students shouted "We are the 99 percent!" and "Put the guns down!"

Protesters had voted to establish an encampment on campus, in defiance of university orders.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/09/BA861LSR8G.DTL

[deutsey]

1. Kick for the protesters

[nineteen50]

2. Is this a private or public university?

[alp227]

3. public

[mike_c]

4. the University of California Berkeley is a public institution...

...but the land it occupies is owned by the university, i.e. it isn't public land.

[coalition_unwilling]

6. Isn't that splitting hairs? If UC-Berkeley is a public institution

that own land, isn't that land 'public'?

Am I missing something?

[primavera]

16. That would be my thinking as well

I mean, technically, all land is owned by somebody; the question is whether the entity that owns it is public or private. If the university that owns the land is public, I would think that would give the land the same status as a national forest or a state park or a city street - they're all technically owned by the nation/state/city, but that makes them publicly owned land, no?

[coalition_unwilling]

5. Ah, Mario Savio is smiling:

"There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all." Sproul Hall Steps, December 2, 1964

[Hardrada]

7. What is this bit with the police always in riot gear?

What are they trying to prove with this overkill of equipment?

[Historic NY]

13. Its all that Homeland Security money Bush gave away.

[freshstart]

8. Riot gear and rifles....

for college students? Something ain't right about that.

[socialist_n_TN]

9. Well it ain't the first time that's happened

I still remember the 60s.

[bigmonkey]

10. It's happened in between, in the early '90s.

There was a whole lot of political action when the University tried to take back "People's Park." I had a friend who was subjected to punitive lawsuits. The University put in a sand volleyball court in place of the park to make it seem like the takeover was community-friendly. No-one from the community would use the court, so the University hired off-duty police (I think their own) to play volleyball there to make it seem like the court was being accepted. My friend and other activists would disrupt the games, and she was charged with an "attack with thorny weapons", if I recall the charge properly, when she threw roses into the game, and a stupid police person decided to stomp on them!

Police violence pretty commonly through the period. Two members of the Berkeley Police Review Board didn't believe all the charges against the police, so, against the advice of friends, they went to observe a protest there, wearing ID that showed their status. One was beaten senseless by the U. of C. police (or the Berkeley police, I can't remember which), the other was found wandering dazed from being beaten. Just horrible. I may have some minor naming details incorrect, but that's the gist. There was more, but it's a long story.

[freshstart]

11. And 1970

Kent State.

[Sirveri]

15. Did Reagan have them shot, or just gassed so they trampled?

I'm not old enough to remember.

[Mz Pip]

12. That explains the helecopter

hovering over campus this evening. I was in downtown Berkeley and there was a helecopter hovering over the campus. FIgured it had to be something major going on. THe OWS downtown Berkeley site was pretty quiet so maybe the participants headed over to campus.

[cory777]

14. Video of Police Brutality

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buovLQ9qyWQ&feature=player_embedded

Unbelievably brave protesters!

Livestream here - http://activistnews.blogspot.com/