US police quash protesting students in Berkeley

[The Northerner]

Source: Press TV

Police in California have suppressed a demonstration in Berkeley University held to protest against rising study fees ahead of March 4 rallies for a similar purpose.

Police in riot gear clashed with the protesters who had reportedly stormed and occupied a building in the Berkeley campus, US media reported Friday.

At least two students have been arrested for 'inciting violence' and purported misdemeanor.

The Thursday night protest that went well into early Friday turned violent after police tried to subdue a group of students who gathered on the campus for upcoming protests across several states over increasing education costs in America.

Police say that around 100 protesting students damaged construction equipment and public property during the night-time unrest.

Read more: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119613§ionid=3510203

[FreakinDJ]

1. All this after the Chancellor's home was fire bombed

several months ago during the protest

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

2. Reminds me of my favorite Reagan quote " If it takes a bloodbath"

Reagan 1970 talking about protesters in Peoples Park.

[Sal Minella]

6. Ah! People's Park!!! Were you there? Do you remember? n/t

[timtom]

22. Yes! I was there.

I lived in the block of Haste just east of Telegraph. I have stories.

[DavidDvorkin]

3. Jeez, those awful foreign countries without freedom of sp--

Oops.

[cowman]

5. I fully support

freedom of speech and Peaceful protesting, it's when protesters turn violent that the police have to move in. Now before I get flamed, I know that alot of times the police are heavy handed but protesters also have been known to cause and incident just to get the reaction they want from the police so that they can say "look at how brutal the cops are" and if the Chancellors residence was firebombed, the police have every reason to be edgy as hell. Just my two cents here

[boppers]

4. Iran media complaining about US protest clashes?

How many of the US students "turned up dead"?

[pampango]

15. What if it was the Chinese media complaining about US protest clashes?

How many recs would that get? Both countries have police/army that are known for their violent suppression of dissent.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[KamaAina]

8. UC Berkeley is a public university

so in most cases, "Their parents" are NOT "paying the tuition bill anyway!" In fact, most Berkeley students barely have enough left over to pay for pizza, if you receive my drift...

Enjoy your stay! :hi:

[Igel]

9. Don't know.

Used to know. Don't now. It's changed a little since I looked at campus-by-campus student family income data.

However, for this year:

"Parental income. The median parental income increased to $88,800 for 2009-10 from $82,270 for the previous academic year, with increases in the upper and lower quartile groups as well. However, the number of admitted students from families with income of less than $30,000 increased slightly to 1, 582 from 1,554." http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/04/07_admissions.shtml

These are, of course, admits for the current year, not attendees. Cohort = 13k frosh. I tend to think that the $82k/year number isn't admits but the frosh that registered for '08/'09.

It looks like the demographics haven't changed *that* much. When I saw such numbers back in the '90s UC Berkeley and UCLA (UCSD to a somewhat lesser extent) had strongly bimodal family income distributions--lots of students from fairly high income families and lots from fairly poor families, not so many from middle-income families.

Most of the Berkeley students I knew had enough money for pizza.

The thing is, it's a public school, but a top-tier research university and one of the UC flagship campuses. It's not like Sam Houston University in Huntsville, Texas--a public university of little standing. No, there are relatively rich people who prefer Stanford to Harvard, Caltech to MIT, and if they really inside on West Coast, even prefer Berkeley to Stanford.

[Robb]

19. +1 on this. nt

[cliffordu]

10. Ah, for the good old days of Mario Savio.

Xtra credit for not having to look him up, kids.

[Chemical Bill]

14. I always liked the filthy speech movement, myself. n/t

[cliffordu]

23. Aye, May St. Lenny keep you safe from the motherfuckers.

:rofl:

[MichaelHarris]

11. We tried recently at WSU

but:



it sort of sucked.

We will however protest for beer:

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=7876

[rpannier]

12. I was at Wazzu from 82-5

Things don't appear to have changed much
It was (is?) the best University to go to for Partying -- no doubt

When I was there it was a hotbed of Republican Reagonite thinking

The Maranatha's still active?

[MichaelHarris]

25. I don't know them but

I don't drink and I'm 50. When I went back to WSU recently I started drinking bloody marys. That school is dangerous.

[vadawg]

13. rofl, i love the dry humour of your post even if you didnt mean it

it did give me a chortle..

[MichaelHarris]

24. LOL

my wife tells me the same thing. I'm also too sarcastic sometimes but I'm trying to fix that. GO COUGS GO BEER!!!!

[Pavulon]

18. Not setting stuff on fire at 0 130 is more effective.

once you get assholes with covered faces breaking stuff all bets are off. If you watch the video you will see the police actually used minimal force. No OC canisters (etc).

Certainly no one bleeding out on the concrete after being shot by Iranian police.

[chrisa]

16. No offense, but Iranian media is not a legitimate source.

The agenda they have with this article is somewhat obvious, imo.

[IndianaGreen]

17. Did the events described in the article take place? Yes or No?

Our MSM is as illegitimate as the Iranian press.

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. Not as painted by Press TV, it would seem

"This casts a shadow on the majority of our students who are working constructively toward budget justice," said Phil Klasky, an ethnic studies professor at San Francisco State University who is helping organize a March 4 picket and rally. "We do not condone violence in any form."

Klasky said frustration is understandable given the increased fees combined with the unavailability of courses for students - but not violence.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/27/BA481C7Q9I.DTL

So the people organising the protests against the cutbacks think the vandalism was a bad move. But they don't say anything about the police 'quashing protesting students'. Basically, the Iranian take on it seems made-up.

And the vandalism wasnb't limited to the university building either - the police were involved after this was in the street, with trash cans set on fire, windows broken and dumpsters rolled at targets. See http://www.dailycal.org/article/108452/rioters_clash_with_police_in_streets_south_of_uc_b

[Dreamer Tatum]

21. Can I use that argument next time someone doubts Fox News here? nt

[scottsoperson]

26. foxpropaganda lied twice about crowd numbers

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/11/fox_rolls_wrong_tape_heads_may.html