Thursday, November 17, 2011

Police dismantle Berkeley's Occupy Cal tents

CC Liu, Pat Macpherson (Wisdom Quarterly)
Sproul Plaza, massive student gathering at UC Berkeley (CTV.ca/AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Police dismantle Occupy Cal tents, camps elsewhere remain quiet
(SJMN) While Occupy Movement camps around the San Francisco Bay Area were relatively quiet overnight, police in riot gear cleared out tents at UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza, the center of the 1960's student Free Speech Movement. The same location is becoming the West Coast center of the Occupy Wall Street cum Occupy College Movement. The separate more exclusive University of California system, already facing massive hikes, has reacted by Occupying UCLA starting today. More coverage
Meanwhile in England, "Occupy the Stock Exchange" (occupylsx.org) and Occupy London rage. Demonstrators are asking British police one question: "Who do you serve?" In the USA, Occupy Wall Street is reanimating larger than ever. Police tried to set up barricades protesters moved aside then panicked when vinegar fell on them; they demanded to be rushed to the hospital (to get hazard pay and a day off while on overtime). Police in Long Beach (Los Angeles) pepper sprayed hapless students protesting a crippling 9% tuition hike on Cal State University students.