Cops arrest Berkeley Protesters for the Second Time

Cops arrest Berkeley Protesters for the Second Time

December 11, 2009

During an attempt to draw pubic attention to hefty student fee hikes and recurring budget cuts throughout the University of California system, as many as 100 students entered Wheeler Hall last Monday afternoon, despite warnings by UC police that they could be cited for trespassing and would probably face disciplinary action for violating the campus code of conduct.   Then today, UC Berkeley police, along with neighboring police departments quickly moved in and arrested 65 protesters.  This ended a week long occupation by stduents and their supporters.

Dan Moguluf, the campus spokesperson for the university, said officers from the Berkeley police as well as police departments in the surrounding area entered Wheeler Hall in the early hours of the morning and began arresting protestors.  The protestors were actually sleeping, according to Mogulof and their was no use of force nor resistance.

Evidently a hip hop party scheduled at Wheeler Hall for 8:00 PM tonight, December 11th, propelled the police forces and Berkeley police into action.  Fearing larger crowds and louder protests the police decided to move in quickly.

According to Moguluf, what prompted the police was a statement allegedly made on Facebook where there had been a threat that the party would go on until the “cops kicked the down the dooors.”

Muttering the usual “protect and to serve” rhetoric employed by the police, Moguluf whined that the police acted in the best interest of the 34,900 students who were not participating  in the protest.  But how could this be, when the protesting students were acting on behalf of those 34,900 students who will be impacted by the huge 32% increases in tuition as well as cuts to programs?

This was the second such protest at Wheeler, which houses the English department. The first protest by students and their supporters was on November 20th, in which the Berkeley  police and Alameda County sheriff’s deputies in riot gear arrested more than 40 occupiers after an 11-hour confrontation with several of the 2,000 protesters outside. 

This will no doubt not be the last protest by students, either at Berkeley or elsewhere.  As students see their futures and educational prospects decimated by neo-liberal government policies that shift the cost of privatization, along with draconian cuts in public services, on to working people’s backs while denying them access to public universities and colleges, students throughout the UC system and state college system vow to continue on organizing and protesting for their right to a public education. 

UC campuses are planning major protests at  in March and today’s arrests at Berkeley came a day after a similar building occupation ended with 25 protester arrests at San Francisco State University.