A short-lived Occupy Cal movement in front of UC Berkeley’s Sproul Hall was disrupted by a police riot last night when officers forcibly removed several tents and arrested at least seven protestors in the camp.
Those gathered on the UC Berkeley campus yesterday had hoped to spread awareness about the budget cuts that higher education is facing in the state of California. Students at UC Berkeley are concerned about possible tuition hikes.
What began as a small group of people who started the protest on Wednesday at noon with peaceful speeches and a short march quickly became a unified line of protestors standing up against police offers who wished to remove the tents that had been set up nearby.
The protest escalated to violence and outrage when officers pushed demonstrators out of the way after they failed to comply with their orders. Various charges, including resisting police, led to the arrest of six UC Berkeley students and an associate English professor.
All that remained after the altercation that lasted all day yesterday and into the night were two tents and several police officers and members of the local media. Vice Chancellor Harry LeGrande told protestors that they were allowed to remain at their demonstration site 24 hours a day, granted they did not use any tents or related camping gear.
The state of California suffered a loss of $650 million from both the UC and State University systems this year. An additional $100 million may be cut within the next two months.