Daily Archives: December 22, 2011
The Berkeley Wire: 12.22.11
Berkeley pets of the week [East Bay Humane Society]
“Becoming Julia Morgan” great to see in Berkeley City Club [Mercury News]
All-day Hanukkah event at Afikomen on Dec. 25 [J Weekly]
Nurses at Alta Bates and other hospitals on strike [Oakland Tribune]
UC Berkeley to switch from Calmail to Google email [Daily Cal]
UC issues plan to bring diversity to engineering program [Science]
No mid-year cuts for Berkeley schools despite state deficit [BUSD]
Photo: The Basket, by heyk8/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.
Bulk of Occupy Berkeley camp cleaned out
Update 10:30 pm: By 10 pm Thursday there were no more tents in Civic Center Plaza. Protesters had left the park by then or thier tents had been picked up by public works crews. The sprinklers were on and about 20 police officers were patrolling the park. Those remaining from Occupy Berkeley were hanging out across the street by Berkeley High School.
Berkeley city workers came into Civic Center Park around 1 pm on Thursday and cleaned out the majority of the Occupy Berkeley encampment.
Workers from the public works department, some dressed in light blue haz mat suits, drove a big truck onto the grass and started loading abandoned tents, sleeping bags, chairs, and other items. The 14 workers were accompanied by about 30 Berkeley police officers who stood ready to moderate any clashes with protestors.
But the bulk of the camp had already vacated. Protestors had taken down more than half of the 70 tents at the park by Wednesday night, and another dozen in the morning.
“What we are doing here is a collaborative project to pick up trash and unattended property,” said Sgt. Mary Kusmiss of the Berkeley police department. She said police would not be dismantling occupied tents since it is legal to be in the park in daylight hours.
But the city strategy seemed very effective. By mid-afternoon there were only about seven tents left in the park. The huge mounds of garbage were gone and only ghosts of tents remained, mainly in patches of grass that had turned brown because they had been covered by nylon tents for so long. … Continue reading »
Police Blotter: Occupy Berkeley
In the two months since Occupy Berkeley set up camp in Civic Center Park, Berkeley police have responded to 33 calls for service to the park, 24 of which were classified as crimes. The most serious of these included an attempted rape, a stabbing, and a few assaults. Police also issued 46 citations for smoking in a public space and drinking alcohol.
At its height, there were about 70 tents pitched at the park with a population of about 150 people.
Berkeley police released this partial list of activity at the Occupy Berkeley camp.
10/23/11 11:25 p.m. – Battery
Did not wish police services
10/24/11 11:11 a.m. – Assault with a Deadly Weapon (Felony) – a Stick, Brandishing, Threats, Battery
A victim from Occupy Berkeley to safety at the Public Safety Building after a known woman suspect living in a tent there attacked and threatened him, causing lacerations to the side of his face. The suspect accused the victim of stealing her money and then attacked him. The suspect allegedly scratched his face with her fingernails, pulled out a knife and chased him, trying to stab him, and then picked up a picket sign stick and beat him. She threatened to have the victim killed by her acquaintances from Oakland. There were people in the area/likely numerous witnesses in Occupy Berkeley at the time, but nobody would cooperate with BPD officers on scene. … Continue reading »
Police and Occupy Berkeley protestors clash in streets
Berkeley police and some Occupy Berkeley protestors clashed Thursday morning around 12:30 am as police tried to clear a path for a public works truck.
Protestors rushed a public works truck that was parked in front of the Berkeley police department on Martin Luther King Way. Some of them jumped into the back of the truck to retrieve belongings that had been confiscated earlier by police. They pulled out a duffle bag, a traffic cone, and other small … Continue reading »
Despite eviction notice, no raid on Occupy Berkeley
By Frances Dinkelspiel and Judith Scherr
Under the threat of eviction, protestors at Occupy Berkeley took down about 40 tents in Civic Center Park Wednesday night, preparing for the raid that never came.
As a 10 pm deadline to stop camping in the park loomed, many activists were packing up their gear and loading it up on trucks. Some had stashed their possessions in a safe place, but had returned to the park to confront the police if they showed up. Soon, only about 29 out of about 70 tents remained.
“I’ve got my stuff packed but I’m not leaving,” a man who identified himself as Cincinnati said as the deadline loomed. “I’m going to take the streets.”
But the desire to confront police and stand ground was shared by only some of the 150 people who have made up Occupy Berkeley. Maxina Ventura, who has been staying in the park off and on with her children ever since it started two months ago, took down her tent on Wednesday. She said she could no longer stand behind the radical fringe of protestors who seemed determined to fight police at all costs.
“We had to make it clear we were not a front for those people,” said Ventura.
Berkeley police, acting on orders from interim City Manager Christine Daniel, handed out notices on Dec. 20 that the city would no longer look the other way during the park’s 10 pm to 6 am curfew. … Continue reading »
Will Bernard: Home For the Holidays
Will Bernard hasn’t been a stranger since he decamped to Brooklyn in 2007, but it’s always good to have him back in town. The Berkeley-raised guitarist was a mainstay on the Northern California music scene for more than two decades, a low-key player with an ostentatiously versatile sound rooted in funk. Whether playing New Orleans grooves, soul jazz, roots reggae, French musette or contributing to Tom Waits’ new album “Bad As Me,” he
Bernard returns to the Bay Area for a run of holiday gigs, including Friday night at Jupiter with drummer Brandon Etzler and Berkeley Hammond B3 expert Wil Blades (who’s featured on Bernard’s new CD “Outdoor Living”). Bernard also plays the Boom Boom Room on Christmas Eve (a jam session with keyboardist Eric Deutsch) and Dec. 29 with the Jazz Mafia horns. … Continue reading »
