The Glade 4.0

Eight people were under arrest today after several dozen protesters shouting "no justice, no peace" attacked Chancellor Robert Birgeneau's home on the UC Berkeley campus, smashing windows, lights and planters as well as throwing torches at the home and police vehicles, authorities said.

The attack, shortly after 11 p.m. Friday, followed a four-day occupation of Wheeler Hall and the arrest of 66 people who were protesting state funding cutbacks and a steep increase in student fees throughout the University of California system. They were later released.

No injuries or fires were reported in the latest attack. Those arrested were booked on suspicion of rioting, threatening an education official, attempted burglary, attempted arson, felony vandalism and assault. They were being held Saturday in the Alameda County jail on $132,000 bail each.

"These are criminals, not activists," Birgeneau said in a statement released by the university. "The attack at our home was extraordinarily frightening and violent. My wife and I genuinely feared for our lives. . . . I urge the community and protesters to find more productive ways to express their points of view. To resort to life-endangering violence is never acceptable."

Birgeneau was home asleep at the time of the attack. His wife heard the commotion outside and called police, who responded within minutes, said university spokesman Dan Mogulof.

Between 50 and 70 protesters scattered, he said, and police were able to capture eight. Only two were UC Berkeley students, Mogulof said. Two others were UC Davis students. One person was among those arrested earlier in the Wheeler Hall occupation.

The escalation in violence, Mogulof said, shocked university officials. "This is a quantum leap beyond what had been happening here," he said. "They didn't just cross a red line, they leapt over it."

Because of the home's shatter-resistant windows and masonry construction, "it is really a matter of luck that the damage was moderate," Birgeneau said.

"The attack on Chancellor Birgeneau's residence late last night was appalling," UC President Mark G. Yudof said in a statement. "The behavior as described went far beyond the boundaries of public dissent, and such lawlessness cannot be tolerated."

There have been demonstrations by students and labor union activists at various UC campuses since regents last month voted to raise undergraduate student fees about $2,500, or 32%, by next fall.

At UCLA, authorities said they were investigating allegations that police overreacted during rallies last month outside a regents meeting in which about a dozen students and police officers reported minor injuries.

"Threatening an education official" is a crime on the books? WTF?

That said, it's nice to see that entitlement has grown so comfy in the education arena.

While appalling, it was hardly unexpected with the cesspit that everything in Cuyahoga County has been for at least 5 years now.

Its almost like its not a real poster, but a computer program designed to illustrate hypocrisy at every opportunity.

Edit - But you have no reason to do so, other than your generalizations about liberalism. It's entirely possible that these criminals were also liberal. Having this violent act associated with liberalism without evidence is sketchy.

When I point out that conservative extremism leads directly to violence, I can point out a resonating example in the Unitarian shooter. He wrote, very clearly, that he was hunting the very liberals named in a conservative book. He had reams of conservative hate books in his house, and his note said very clearly that he was hunting liberals directly.

This is about college students pissed about their tuition, and I'm willing to bet the anger goes across ideological lines.

Nice personal attack. Do you have anything substantive to add to the conversation?

He wrote, very clearly, that he was hunting the very liberals named in a conservative book.

Nice personal attack. Do you have anything substantive to add to the conversation?

I believe my point, while not a personal attack, was made fairly clearly and doesn't require any additional explanation.

Ha! So you admit liberalism causes violence!

So report it. For someone who loves authority and bureaucracy telling us all how to live, you don't seem to grasp the use of it's channels very well.

How do we know that these were liberal protesters? Because they were at Berkley? Berkley may be tres liberal, but don't forget that the author of the torture memos still teaches there.

"These are criminals, not activists," so sayeth the victim. I don't understand why you would want to conflate a random act of violence with Liberals without any actual evidence to back up your claim beyond the word "Berkley".

Calling your positions and statements hypocritical

Because it's a common element of liberalism to want extensive pulic funding of education.

Quit trying to be cute.

Regular old criminals do not just go decide to torch some random university official's residence out of the blue. Conservatives are also not known for anger over making people pay for their own education.

This is patently absurd. These were a bunch of liberals.

That isn't what you did.

And it's a common element of being a student to protest rising tuition costs.

Who is trying to be cute?

Yay for straw man arguments and broad brush generalizations about liberals *and* conservatives. The truth is, there is nothing connecting these crimes with any sort of liberal activism. The word "Berkley" was mentioned, and a lot of assumptions were made.

Only two were UC Berkeley students, Mogulof said. Two others were UC Davis students. One person was among those arrested earlier in the Wheeler Hall occupation.

This morning (Friday)[DEC 11th -DE] at about 4:30 AM UC police entered Wheeler Hall and began arresting activists who were staying there overnight as part of continuing protests against budget cuts and fee hikes.

Protesters have been staging an “open occupation” at Wheeler since Monday, holding talks, discussions, hip hop performances and other events as part of their effort to create an open university that is not only for the people, but by the people.

At least 66 were arrested and taken to Santa Rita Jail. They are expected to be released sometime today.

Campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof said the reason for the arrests was that the demonstrators were going to hold a hip-hop party this evening that would go on indefinitely into tomorrow morning.

But the demonstrators and their supporters said that they had received assurances from the police earlier in the week that they would be allowed to remain in Wheeler, so they believed that this police action was entirely unnecessary and illegitimate.

The “open university,” its supporters said, was entirely peaceful, non-disruptive of normal activities going on in Wheeler Hall, and hence an exercise in free speech.

At the very least, said those who were gathering in front of Wheeler at mid-morning today prior to a scheduled rally at noon, there could have been negotiations with the administration about the planned party and other “open university” activities.

UC Berkeley sent out a press release at 10:35 a.m. saying that at least 66 trespassing students and other protesters had been arrested Friday morning, the same day the group was set to hold an unauthorized concert inside a classroom building.

The press release said that protesters were arrested without incident at 4:40 a.m. for misdemeanor trespassing inside Wheeler Hall and transported to Santa Rita jail.

The university said the group included “approximately 41 individuals believed to be UC Berkeley students and 24 individuals not affiliated with the campus.”

Another individual seeking to cause a disruption outside Wheeler Hall was also arrested, bringing the total arrest count to 66.

The statement said that “the protesters, who have maintained an illegal, though largely non-disruptive, 24-hour presence inside Wheeler Hall since Monday, claimed to be doing so in the name of “opening the university.”

It said that since entering Wheeler Hall Monday, the protesters set up information tables inside the building, laid up food and refreshments, posted banners, strummed guitars, watched movies, played late-night music and declared the building an “open university.”

The statement said that “earlier in the week, they appeared to be taking steps to ensure that their activities would not conflict with classroom review sessions underway inside the building.”

Later in the week, “the group began publicizing plans for an unauthorized all-night concert featuring guest artists and a DJ—an event that threatened to disrupt final examinations that are scheduled to take place in that same building tomorrow,” the statement said.

Although campus staff talked to event organizers about the issue, the statement said, “the protesters vowed to go forward.”

Publicity materials distributed by the group stated that the concert would start Friday night and go on till 8 a.m. Saturday and

until “the cops kick in the doors.”

Final examinations are scheduled to begin inside Wheeler Hall at 9 a.m. Saturday.

“Once the group refused to reconsider plans to hold an unauthorized all-night concert in an academic building, we had to take steps to ensure that finals could go forward,” said Dan Mogulof, campus spokesman. “Our primary responsibility is to the campus’s core academic mission and the 35,000 students who are not participating in the protest.”

Business hours for Wheeler Hall, which has one of the largest number of classrooms on campus, is until 10 p.m. daily.

The statement from UC Berkeley said that the trespassers—ranging from a dozen to several dozen at any given time this week—were not authorized to hold events or sleep overnight in the building, and were cautioned by police that their actions could lead to arrest and student conduct code penalties.

Friday’s arrests come in the wake of the Nov. 20 Wheeler Hall occupation, arrests and allegations of police brutality which was documented by scores of people on their cameras and cell phones. More than a 100 UC Berkeley professors signed a letter condemning the action. The UC Berkeley administration promised to set up an independent review panel to investigate the allegations of police force.

On Friday, campus police and security personnel were keeping watch outside Wheeler, barring anyone except authorized faculty and staff from entering.

The university said that classroom review sessions which were scheduled to take place at Wheeler would instead take place at a nearby building as indicated on fliers posted outside.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau issued a statement expressing his appreciation to the UC Police Department, “for the very patient and professional way in which they handled this week's events at Wheeler Hall. They managed several days and nights of occupation with foremost concern for the safety of our campus community and early this morning helped bring about a peaceful end to the takeover of Wheeler Hall in a timely way so that final exams can proceed as scheduled tomorrow.”

“[We want] a university that is accessible to all people, that is free to all people and that educates people," Owen said in a telephone interview. "

Why, because they were at Berkley?

So, the next time there's a hate crime against a homosexual, can I just assume it was committed by a bunch of Christians?

You. You are seriously asserting that the student body at Berkeley is not almost compeltely liberal? Why would a conservative subject themselves to 4 years at such a place?

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

UC-Berkeley happens to have some programs that are top 5 in the world for the various areas of study. And conflating Berkeley County with the University is probably not a legitimate tactic of argument.

More than 60 percent of UC Berkeley students consider themselves very liberal while 16 percent call themselves some flavor of conservative.