Students Protest, Police Attack - UC Berkeley Police Beat
Students; Thousands March in London Met with 'Total
Policing' Tactics

1. UC Berkeley Police Beat Students in Sproul Plaza (The
Atlantic)
2. Occupy Cal! - Photos by David Bacon
3. Students Marching Against Tuition Fees Met with 'Total
Policing' Tactics (Guardian)

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UC Berkeley Riot Police Use Batons to Clear Students from
Sproul Plaza

	The unarmed 'Occupy Cal' protesters were ousted from
	their encampment late Wednesday, but regrouped for a
	mass rally and sit-in

by Conor Friedersdorf

The Atlantic
November 10, 2011

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/11/uc-berkeley-police-use-batons-to-clear-students-from-sproul-plaza/248228/

[Video - Occupy Cal 11/9/11 - http://youtu.be/buovLQ9qyWQ ]

In iconic Sproul Plaza, many hundreds or perhaps thousands of UC Berkeley students and Occupy Oakland activists clashed with university police late into the night Wednesday, after officers carried out instructions from administrators to clear Occupy Cal protesters from their makeshift encampment. "We formed a human barricade around our tents, and they just beat their way through it with batons," said one student. "It really, really hurt - I got the wind knocked out of me," another protester, doctoral student Shane Boyle, told the San Francisco Chronicle, showing the reporter a red welt on his chest. "I was lucky I only got hit twice," he added.

"After warning protesters that camping at the university is illegal, officers moved in and shoved demonstrators out of the way as they pushed toward the camp," the Contra Costa Times reported. "Six UC Berkeley students and an associate professor were arrested; charges included resisting officers and failing to disperse." The police succeeded in clearing away tents, but protesters refused to leave the plaza, insisting that they'd camp there with or without equipment. Protesters with smartphones took turns webcasting video from the scene, and ultimately voted around 1 am to approve a University of California-wide general strike to be held Tuesday of next week.

It took a couple hours to settle on that plan. Around 11:30 pm, students were massed in the plaza shouting at perhaps a couple hundred officers.

Quoth one chant, "Your families will see this."

Only afterward did they begin deliberating en masse.

The scene played out in a space most famous as ground zero during the 1964 Free Speech Movement. Sproul Plaza has since seen anti-Vietnam War sit-ins, anti-apartheid rallies, anti-Iraq War protests, and any number of smaller activist gatherings. A stroll through the plaza on an average day when school is in session is as colorful a scene as there is on campus, as student groups advertise, activists hand out leaflets, and nearby drum circles beat away.

The Daily Cal explains what precipitated the day's events:

    The campuswide day of action in support of affordable higher education and the Occupy movement has grown throughout the day to over a thousand students at its peak in the early afternoon, from teach-outs in the morning to a noontime rally that was attended by about 1,000 people.

    The protest activities thus far have mirrored past protests with teach-outs and a rally on Sproul Plaza, but in addition to a focus on state budget cuts and the affordability of higher education, the protest has strongly identified with the national Occupy movement and included a march to Bank of America on Telegraph Avenue.

The video at the top of this post captures a violent clash that occurred earlier in the day, when police aggressively pummeled student protesters with their batons. Said Matt Welch, editor of Reason magazine, "Watch cops at Occupy Berkeley launch coordinated baton attack against unarmed students."    

As midnight approached, police were summoning reinforcements as protesters chanted, "The chancellor took our tents, but look, we took the plaza." Said another speaker: "Police are not our enemy in this fight. We must above all remain peaceful." The "human microphone" was later seized by an OWS ally from across the bay. "Occupy SF has brought some wifi," he said. "If you want the password come up here -- I can't give it to everyone including the police." Activists live-streaming from the scene at midnight claimed around 10,000 viewers as one protester after another began calling for a University of California-wide all student strike. The proposal was debated via the human microphone, and ultimately passed with 569 in favor and 31 against.

One observer estimated that about half the people present participated in the vote.

In related news, The Oakland Tribune reported the following just before Wednesday's events:

    Citing excessive force and free speech violations by police during protests in Oakland and at UC Berkeley, the Berkeley City Council this week refused a mutual aid agreement with university police and nixed agreements with other police agencies on regional domestic surveillance. Council members used news reports of police using excessive force at the Occupy Oakland protests and at previous protests at UC Berkeley as reason for not renewing the agreements that usually are approved each year without fanfare.

    In addition, the council did not renew an agreement with the federal government on detaining illegal immigrants at the city jail. The 8-0 vote, with Mayor Tom Bates abstaining, means the council will revisit those agreements at a later date after scrutinizing them more thoroughly.

University of California campuses are patrolled by state police officers.

[Conor Friedersdorf - Conor Friedersdorf is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he focuses on politics and national affairs. He lives in Venice, California, and is the founding editor of The Best of Journalism, a newsletter devoted to exceptional nonfiction.]

==========

Occupy Cal! Photos by David Bacon

BERKELEY, CA - 09NOVEMBER11 - Students at the University of
California walk out of classes to protest budget cuts and
rising tuition, and to support the New York City
demonstration, Occupy Wall Street.  The rally protested
economic inequality and its impact on students, the poor and
the young -- in the words of the occupy movement, a protest
by the 99% of the people who are exploited by a system that
only benefits the top 1%.

Later that night, students were beaten by police batons as
they tried to set up tents in Sproul Plaza, and six students
and an assistant professor were arrested.  Student continued
to occupy the plaza without tents, however.

25 photos at:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2507471733757.2137420.1461973423&type=3#!/media/set/?set=a.2507471733757.2137420.1461973423&type=1

For more articles and images, see  http://dbacon.igc.org

==========

Students Marching Against Tuition Fees Met with 'Total
Policing' Tactics

    Large areas of city blocked off as 4,000 officers police
    largely peaceful protest but Trafalgar Square camp
    quickly cleared

By Alexandra Topping and Shiv Malik

Guardian (UK)
November 9, 2011

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/nov/09/student-tuition-fees-protest-policing

[Photos: http://tinyurl.com/6r4smds ]

Thousands of students and protesters marched through London
to protest against tuition fees and the "privatisation" of
the higher education system on Wednesday, flanked by a huge
police presence determined to ensure the violent scenes that
erupted last year were not repeated.

Fulfilling their promise of "total policing", 4,000 officers
took to the streets as Metropolitan police commanders
blocked off large areas of the capital, bringing in dozens
of mounted officers and blocking off roads with 10-ft high
barricades.

Protesters from the Occupy movement - which has been at St
Paul's since mid-October - set up camp in Trafalgar Square
with the aim of remaining until the mass strike of 30
November. They were quickly moved on by police, who also
announced "additional conditions" for the march after it had
begun.

A group of 50 protesters who set up about 30 "pop-up" tents
refused to leave and were arrested for contravening the
Public Order Act, according to the police.

Minor clashes broke out during the march but highly
organised police units acted immediately to disrupt the
snaking line of protesters and block off areas of trouble.

Despite 24 arrests and intermittent attacks on police with
bottles and pieces of wood the protest was largely peaceful.
Last year 153 were arrested when protests spiralled out of
control after a fringe group of protesters hurled missiles
at police and occupied the building housing Conservative
party headquarters, after up to 50,000 took to the streets.

Before the protests police warned that baton rounds of
plastic bullets could be used to prevent disorder for
"extreme" measures. They also sent hundreds of letters to
anti-cuts activists arrested in connection with previous
public disorder offences warning of the consequences of
attending the student demonstration.

One group of about 30 protesters calling themselves the
Black Bloc, with covered faces and matching black hoodies,
linked arms and could be seen through the crowd on occasions
but no major disturbances were reported.

Many on the march - which began outside the University
College London campus at midday before travelling to
Trafalgar Square then on to the City - complained of
"intimidating" tactics by the police.

"People who were involved in the protests last year were
sent letters, police are threatening to use plastic bullets
- I think it's put a lot of people off," said Anthony, a 19-
year-old Liverpool University student who did not want to
give his surname. "People have been worried, I've been hurt
by the police, I've got friends who have been injured by the
police. But it's not going to stop us, we are going to keep
coming back."

National Campaign against Fees and Cuts, which organised the
protests, said 10,000 had attended; police put the number at
about 2,500.Evidence from helicopter pictures suggested the
figure was somewhere between the two.

One of the protesters who briefly set up in Trafalgar
Square, calling himself Leon, said they wanted to "bring
people together" in the space but were soon moved on.

At 2pm, two hours after the march had begun, police
announced protesters had to restrict the rally to the route
and were prohibited from entering seven areas of the city.
Anyone who failed to comply would be "committing an offence
and may be liable to arrest", said a police spokesperson.

As the march passed through London's narrower streets,
accompanied by a bass-heavy sound system, tension between
demonstrators and police mounted as police held the front of
the march to keep the thousands of protesters on the three-
mile route together. Plain- clothes officers made snatch
arrests, sparking volleys of bottles and placard sticks at
police. Similar skirmishes continued until the march reached
its destination in the City of London.

At the end of the demonstration the crowd were released into
the Moorgate area of the City of London, where protesters
were informed that a dispersal order would begin at
precisely 5.41pm. By 6pm the streets were clear.

Yasmin Elgouze, an A-level student, 17, said protesters
would not be distracted by police "bully tactics". She said:
"Today is not about violence, it's about talking. It is not
a violent revolution it is a revolution of ideas. The
majority of people are here to exercise their right to
peaceful protest, not to fight."

Like many at the protest she identified with the worldwide
Occupy movement, which has seen the occupation at St Paul's
and dozens of cities around the world. "People are hugely
discontented about what is happening in this country, they
know it isn't right they have ideas about how it could be
better and they want to discuss that."

Amid chants of "No ifs, no buts, no education cuts" and a
variety of disparaging remarks about the educational
backgrounds of much of the cabinet, a history student,
Mohamed, 21, said the protests were part of a movement to
raise public awareness. "It's an exciting opportunity for
justice and fairness. Together we have the power to change
things," he said. He was protesting against the
"privatisation" of the education system as well as the hike
in tuition fees, which are set to rise to a maximum of
£9,000 a year at England's universities next year, he added.

"The white paper is set to turn our university system into a
training ground for companies; education should be about the
pursuit of knowledge."

Taking a break from loudspeaker duties, Becci Heangney said
protesters needed to unite. "The government isn't
listening," she said. "Everyone here needs to get involved
in the strike on November 30, and support Occupy. That is
what is going to make the government sit up and
listen."Along the route workmen downed tools to watch the
protest, some holding up placards and shouting support. Cab
drivers caused tailbacks around Trafalgar Square after
holding a "mass drive-in" to protest over licensing rules,
while electricians, plumbers and engineers from across the
country joined a rally at Blackfriars.

Michael Chessum of the National Campaign against Fees and
Cuts, said university education was being reduced to a
"consumer commodity". He said: "The government's higher
education white paper is a chaotic, frankly kind of
incompetent attempt to introduce a market into higher
education. It will end higher education as a public service
in the UK, it will introduce for-profit providers, it will
mean a market in fees, and it will mean universities [...]
may well be forced to close or to privatise."

By the early evening the protest was over, but those at St
Paul's caught a surprise gig by Tom morello from Rage
Against the Machine, who said he was there to "express his
solidarity with the 99%." He said: "This is a worldwide
class-based movement of people standing up against the
oppression of corporate power. The lesson of the Arab spring
is if you want change all you have to do is walk out of your
front door and just do it."

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