UC Berkeley Protest, Wheeler Hall, Fall 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOI5l2...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWGCnV...
http://www.ktvu.com/video/21684405/in...
http://www.ktvu.com/video/21684405/in...
http://twitpic.com/qb6qu

Violence at UC Berkeley between riot police and students. Notice the students are not armed, not threatening, just gathering to protest. The police decide they want to push back and show some muscle, and are more than willing to use force. Ignorant, untrained, unprofessional bullies. The police were scared and over-reacted. Several students were injured. One was shot in the stomach. Thank god they only give them rubber bullets.

Students in this video were there supporting other students who had locked themselves in a building to protest recent events on campus. Faculty and students are protesting broken promises, the lack of funding for the UC public school system, the forced layoffs of the LEAST paid workers on campus, the mismanagement,lack of transparency and democratic process by the UC Board of Regents, and the excessive fee increases that will make college unaffordable to thousands of excellent but poor students.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Berkeley
• police
• cops
• military
• bullies
• violence
• protest
• hitting
• striking
• rights
• shooting
• clubbing

[noahwhitfield2001]

I missed this part on Friday, I came by after the barricades were put up. I don't really think civil disobedience includes trying to push through a bunch of cops in riot gear, and I don't quite understand what the protestors were trying to accomplish by doing that short of looking like victims on youtube. Honestly, you can't pull that shit and expect to not get rocked. Nice music though, the unresolved German augmented 6 chord really adds to the disturbing footage, Micheal Moore would be proud.

[andrewberkeley]

The protesters are just ordinary students looking out for fellow students and strangers. Nothing to gain personally, except for bruises, and ridicule, and complaints from the establishment. I'm glad so many people were documenting the event...it keeps both sides a bit more honest. I'm still on the fence about the German augmented 6th chord...I was hoping more for an Italian diminshed D minor in the Dorian scale, but alas, it wasn't to be!

[Gloudas]

This is pathetic. Just because you support a good cause doesn't mean you can go around, taping videos of students yelling idiotically at cops, and then slap dramatic music on the top and be a hero.

NO SHIT the cops used force. They were told to form a protective barrier around the building, and you can see students fighting to push past them. You can see the protesters actually resisting the cops, doing everything they can to prevent being moved. The cops reaction is not "showing some muscle".

[andrewberkeley]

Its not a crime to yell "idiotically at cops"

The students were not willing to be shoved by cops and that makes them...uh...bad?

The cops were showing some muscle...have you seen the other videos...the were getting all worked up and then they start banging away...watch all the others...and then make up your mind.

don't get me wrong. police do a great job at some stuff, but their crowd control technique in this case and their ability to defuse a situation, were PISS POOR, you have to admit.

[andrewberkeley]

I think the only heroes were the ordinary nameless people inside and outside the building willing to take a stand on something.

Two questions:

When is the last time you took a stand, outside and on the streets, and put your body on the line for a cause, any cause?

When is the last time you supported the minority view and were willing to be abused for it?

That's why I'm proud of these students. Acts like that make democracy stronger. I'm all for the underdog, the story of America!

[tmskatap]

ok this video was to inform, what was the protest about? put it in the video description

[andrewberkeley]

Students in this video were there supporting other students who had locked themselves in a building to protest recent events on campus. Faculty and students are protesting broken promises, the lack of funding for the UC public school system, the forced layoffs of the LEAST paid workers on campus, the mismanagement,lack of transparency and democratic process by the UC Board of Regents, and the excessive fee increases that will make college unaffordable to thousands of excellent but poor students.

[celieable]

Most of those people on the front lines were simply standing their ground, not pushing through the barricades. This is America! They were exercising their constitutional rights. It's sad to read comments from people who'd rather "give up" than attempt to change wrongs. Remember how our country was founded? The students weren't attacking the police, but some of you sound as if you think it's ok that the police repeatedly attacked the students with their batons without being provoked.

[theirresistableE]

the objective was to keep them from bringing the occupiers out in cuffs. No pushing occurred until they pushed, hit, and shot us. At which point there was the back-and-forth you see here.

[2204Alpha]

Typical liberals who think because they get into a big mob they are somehow excused from following state laws.

Rather than protesting the issue they always attack some cop making 37k a year who is just keeping the peace.

[mr15w17h]

@tnguyen318 Disrupt what exactly? Because you and the police are disrupting my idea of society. Therefore following your logic, you and and the police deserve to be shot with lethal weapons.

[Arangutang]

This is ridiculous. For the first time, I'm disgusted at my own school. I don't see evidence of police brutality here at all. No, I only see a mob that's out of its little, entitled hippie mind and hellbent on not only disrupting other students' right to learn, but also trying to brand our hardworking police as "pigs." As if they had something to be ashamed about for doing their jobs, feeding their families, and keeping civil peace while at constant risk of life and limb.

[tnguyen318]

The Job of our Police Officers is to arrest those who cause disrupt in society.

[Trimbler00]

@andrewberkeley Don't fight for the underdog just because they're the underdog. And if you really want to support a good cause, how about you start fighting for the truly oppressed, like the Palestinians who have been evicted from their homes by Israeli occupation?

[mr15w17h]

@tnguyen318 i hope you're being sarcastic. the job of the police is the serve the citizens of the nation that employ them, to protect them from harm, not buildings, or the money invested in them that only a select few benefit from at the expense of the rest.

[mr15w17h]

@tnguyen318 i hope your being sarcastic.

[mr15w17h]

@celieable yes yes yes and YES

[tnguyen318]

She deserves to be pepper sprayed and tased. Those who protest and break the rules of protesting deserves to be shot with less than lethal weapons. The police are doing their job.