Berkeley fee protest turns rowdy

[alp227]

(02-26) 09:14 PST BERKELEY -- A late-night protest against fee hikes at UC Berkeley turned violent early this morning when a crowd of about 200 people lit trash can fires, smashed at least one store's windows, occupied a university building and clashed with police, officials said.

The protest began as an open-air dance party in Sproul Plaza, officials said, but at 11 p.m. took a different turn when about a dozen people broke into Durant Hall just north of the plaza and strung up a banner reading "March 4th" on the outside wall. The banner refers to a statewide "Day of Action" being planned for next week by groups protesting fee increases and cutbacks in state education.

From there, crowds moved south to Telegraph Avenue to chant protest slogans and dance in the street. At around 1:30 a.m., arguments turned tense between the protesters and Berkeley police who were monitoring the gathering, and within 20 minutes some in the crowd lit a large trash can on fire and shoved it toward officers, police said.

That's when a full-out riot erupted, with officers pushing the crowd back so firefighters could get at the flaming can and protesters flinging bottles and at the police, authorities said.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/26/BA481C7Q9I.DTL

That's really classy, Berkeley students. After the BART police officer Johannes Mehserle shot train rider Oscar Grant to death, a similar riot erupted in Oakland.

[CountAllVotes]

1. maybe this poster is right

>>What do you want to bet the rioters aren't even students but trouble makers that just showed up for the sole purpose of anarchy.

Same troublemakers that are the small minority at every anti war march.

******

It wouldn't surprise me one bit if this is indeed the case. It was the case in the late 1960s, I know that much!

:dem: :kick:

[EFerrari]

2. Yep. And all the protesters get slammed. Mission Accomplished.

Go, Cal!

[11cents]

4. The Bob Avakian cult -- they hijack every protest around here.

The Avakian cult (it's called the "Revolutionary Communist Workers' Party" or something) has a bookstore/headquarters about a block from campus. Stupid, brainwashed fools who think that parasitize every movement and protest in order to ignite the revolution by smashing a few car windows.

[anonymous171]

3. My advice: If you are going to damage anyone's property, make sure it's the school's

[XemaSab]

5. And we wonder why good stores like Cody's shut down

If I had a store on Telegraph, I'd move somewhere else. :P