Eight people were arrested on Friday night at UC Berkeley after a group of several dozen marched on the on-campus residence of chancellor Robert Birgeneau. Photographs taken at the home the following day showed that lights and heavy planters had been smashed, and that two windows had been shattered. Police and UC officials said that members of the crowd had thrown flaming torches at police, police cars, and the home itself.
Early reports from both the university and activists described the attack on the chancellor’s home as a unified group action. An official Berkeley statement said that “a group of about 40 to 70 protesters” had “stormed” the residence, “smashing planters, windows and lights while shouting, ‘No justice, no peace.'” An account posted at the activist website Occupy California said that “the march quickly turned into a small riot” en route to the residence, and that “the crowd … began smashing lights, damaging windows, and breaking pots” once they arrived there.
But in the days that followed, information has surfaced that calls this version of events into question. A professor of education who was working in his office less than a hundred yards from the residence that night says that the crowd scattered only moments after arriving at the scene — his impression was that the property destruction that took place was “remarkably brief and perhaps spontaneous.” It “did not and does not strike me as sustained,” he wrote.
The character of the march to the residence is also in dispute. It was reported early on that protesters had dragged trash cans and newspaper boxes into the street while marching, for instance, but one eyewitness says that other march participants dragged them back to the sidewalk again before the police arrived.
The developing story of the eight arrests carried out that night reflects the ambiguity of the situation. Initial reports described six of the eight as non-students, but it has since emerged that four of the eight are students at either Berkeley or UC Davis, and that the remainder include a local journalist and a visiting doctoral student from New York. The journalist said in a statement yesterday that he was arrested while covering the protest, not participating in it, and that the first officer to approach him demanded his camera.
When the eight arrestees were taken into custody, they were booked for rioting, threatening an education official, attempted burglary, attempted arson, felony vandalism and assault. Bail was set at $132,000 — three of the eight paid non-refundable bonds of $13,000, and the other five were held in jail for four days. But on Tuesday the DA’s office declined to bring charges against any of them, and the five who were still jailed were released.
Charges may still be brought in the future, but for now, no charges are pending against any participants in the Friday night demonstration.
Asked about the DA’s decision yesterday, UC Berkeley officials declined to comment.
Update | UC Davis professor Bob Ostertag has a piece up at Huffington Post about the week’s Berkeley events, and much of it is relevant to the arguments I make here. Ostertag, calls the two arrested Davis students “wonderful students: thoughtful, inquisitive, respectful, and supportive of their peers,” says that people present at the demonstration have told him that the vandalism committed that night was perpetrated “by a small splinter group, and that the cops arrested the wrong people.”
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December 16, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Jeremy
Thank you for your continuing coverage of the UC, CSU, and CA Community College protests and occupations. Obviously, it’s the final hour or so of Friday night (12/11/09) that’s of the most interest, but here, for the record you’ve been maintaining, is a brief summary of the events of that night up until 11PM. All times are approximate.
UCB LIVE WEEK 12/11/09: BOOTS RILEY SHOW
730PM Folks begin to re-gather on the steps of Wheeler Hall. Cold rain.
8PM Microphone or blow-horn passed around, attendees share thoughts. Topics include capital, pigs, love. At least one student who was arrested in the early morning of 12/11 describes her experience to a crowd of approximately 50 people. Audio and transcript available at https://studentactivism.net/2009/12/12/a-student-account/.
815PM Someone hands out blankets.
830PM March from Wheeler steps through campus (some flares and chanting) and up Euclid Avenue, taking a left on Ridge Road. Leaders quiet the crowd and direct it down a wide ramp into the large underground garage of Casa Zimbabwe, a Berkeley Student Co-Op at 2422 Ridge Road. Three or four large, painted banners are hung between concrete pillars: “Behind Every Fee Increase / A Line of Riot Cops.” (Why not rhyme with “Police”?)
9PM Approximately 100-150 attendees. Music begins. Roberto Miguel addresses the audience, thanking them for their involvement and actions, and starts playing acoustic guitar, accompanied by a drummer. A second (rapping) vocalist joins on one song.
930PM Boots Riley takes the stage. Speaks encouragingly of the protests, occupations, and the need for genuinely public education. Performs “Underdogs” (1998), “ShoYoAss” (2006), “Laugh/Love/Fuck” (2006), and maybe a fourth song. Accompanied only by Miguel on acoustic guitar (playing Spanish and American folk riffs), Boots moves heads with narrative, butts with flow. Shares a few of his own dance moves. Wildly impressive performance considering the lack of rhythm section. (A few grainy photos and a few seconds of video footage available on request.)
10PM Miguel plays another anti-folkish tune about wanting to kill people while Boots sits alongside him on stage. Boots speaks politics again: the show isn’t over—this show will be over soon but the bigger show will continue. Shiney Things takes the stage, plays angry disco-rap-punk (maybe). Serious beats from a guy on the synths wearing a purple “Santa Cruz RAGE” sweatshirt. Even more folks dancing.
1030PM Fourth and final act, Masters of the Universe, begins playing. My friend and I leave.
11PM Reportedly: The music stops and between 40 and 80 concert attendees march the streets to Chancellor Birgeneau’s house. Police end up arresting eight members of this group on a variety of charges.
MORNING (12/12) The final hour of the night of protest is labeled an “attack” by university officials (and, ludicrously, a “type of terrorism” by Schwarzenegger). That is obviously not an accurate description of the productive happenings at Wheeler Hall this past week (12/07-12/11) or of the off-campus events from 830 to 11PM on 12/11. So far, it sounds as if it’s not even an apt description of what the vast majority of the midnight marchers were up to on Friday. But if it is, so be it.
December 18, 2009 at 12:10 am
Tomoaki Hirai
I’ve been following your blog and looking into the current ongoings on and around the UC system. Thank you for your good work on journalism to get this to my attention.
I was stumped on finding leads on the 8 arrested the other night, and this account really makes what happened last Friday worthy of further investigation.