Police arrested not less than a dozen people Thursday night who occupied an abandoned constructing near the UC Berkeley campus as a part of a protest rally in support of Palestinians through the ongoing war in Gaza.
According to UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof, 12 people had been arrested on the scene as of seven:15 p.m.
Police from multiple agencies arrived on the empty constructing on the corner of Channing Way and Bowditch Street, a couple of block from People's Park, around 6:15 p.m. and gave the order for protesters to disperse.
The aging wood constructing, which belongs to the university, is certainly one of several buildings in the previous Anna Head School complex, which housed a now-closed girls' school. On Wednesday, between 10 and 20 protesters occupied certainly one of the buildings that was badly damaged in a hearth in 2022.
“This is not non-violent civil disobedience. “The suspects entered and vandalized an unsafe, boarded-up and fire-damaged building adjacent to People's Park,” Mogulof said in an email Thursday, echoing Wednesday's comments.
Shortly after 6 p.m., officers from the California Highway Patrol and other agencies began establishing barricades in the world. Police ordered protesters to disperse, saying they might be arrested and that force could be used, possibly including pepper spray and tear gas.
Another evacuation order was just issued, with police telling people to maneuver west and disperse inside quarter-hour. More officers with batons and less-lethal launchers have just moved into the courtyard of the UC Berkeley protest house. “Free Palestine” chants are increasing. “We are all Palestinians.” pic.twitter.com/9RkSEMa1DQ
— The Berkeley Scanner (@BerkeleyScanner) May 17, 2024
At 7:45 p.m., after clearing people from the front yard, police searched the brown wood constructing. Demonstrators chanted “Free Palestine!” and “We are all Palestinians.”
The activists had arrange tents within the front yard of the constructing, hung Palestinian flags and attached a banner to the front of the dilapidated constructing that read “Avenge Al-Shifa,” an apparent reference to Al-Shifa Hospital, a medical complex in Gaza. City that Israeli troops destroyed last month as a part of their invasion of Gaza after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7 that killed greater than 1,100 people.
Israel said Hamas used the hospital as cover and built tunnels underneath.
Officers from the Alameda County Sheriff's Office, San Bruno, Pacifica, Colma, Daly City and San Francisco police departments, in addition to law enforcement officials from town of Berkeley and UC Berkeley, were on scene Thursday evening.
This is a developing story.
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