Thursday, November 17, 2011

Berkeley police break up Occupy Cal; tents removed, 2 arrested

Police moved in early Thursday to break up the Occupy Cal protest at UC Berkeley
Police moved in early Thursday to break up the Occupy Cal protest at UC Berkeley, arresting at least two protesters.

Scores of officers conducted the raid, removing the tents and clearing the area.

On Tuesday, more than 1,200 singing, sign-waving students and faculty members rallied for much of the day on Sproul Plaza, a site of the 1960s Free Speech Movement.

At one point, the demonstrators chanted "Hey, hey, ho, ho, police violence has got to go," a reference to an incident last week in which baton-wielding police officers stopped an Occupy camp from being set up on the campus. Dozens of protesters were arrested in last week's confrontation, and several were injured.

FULL COVERAGE: Occupy protests

According to the Daily Cal, two protesters were arrested Thursday morning and the plaza had been cleared of all tents.

"Just like New York, just like Oakland, just like Occupy locations everywhere, we are coming back, we are winning,”  junior James Chang told the paper. "Whose university? Our university."

"This size of force is entirely unnecessary," protester Ian Saxton told the San Francisco Chronicle. "Occupy Cal was a justified assembly by the students and community of UC Berkeley. This is what they do to students who exercise their 1st Amendment right?"

The raid was conducted by police agencies from around the East Bay, according to the Chronicle, which put the total number of officers involved at about 100.

RELATED:

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Occupy L.A. protesters march to support Occupy Wall Street

-- Shelby Grad

Photo: Police in riot gear clash with student activists in front of Sproul Hall on the UC Berkeley campus last week. Credit: Ben Margot / Associated Press

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