Image: @SubMedina aka “Gunga Din”
A SWAT team enters the room barricaded by student protesters in Wheeler Hall on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley, effectively ending their protest of a 32 percent increase in tuition and fees handed down by the California Board of Regents in an attempt to solve the state budget crisis.
In case you missed it: UC Berkeley students occupied Wheeler Hall today in protest of the California Board of Regents decision to increase tuition and fees by 32 percent. Their protest was broken up around 5:00 PM PST when, as you can see in the image above, a SWAT team was sent in to remove them from the premises. 41 protesters have been arrested thus far according to UC Berkeley reprentative Dan Mogulof. Here is a link to a very myopic report from CNN that fails to mention the tasering, baton beatings, rubber bullet shootings, broken bones or any of the other violence meted out by University of California Police throughout the day today (some pics after the jump). I have a source who was at the protest at UCLA and I’m working on getting a first-hand report for you ASAP, in addition to some images.
I will also revisit this with some more introspection on the dearth of wisdom in taxing students to pay for what would otherwise be the world’s tenth largest economy. In the meantime, you can follow all the latest developments on my twitter feed. I’ve set up a list just for this topic at Cal Student Uprising and as I find more relevant tweeps, I’ll be updating the list. Now, click “read more” for the pics and I leave you with the chant of the day from the protests:
No Cuts, No Fees, Education Should Be Free!
Image: @thedailyclog
Second-floor occupiers speak to the crowd gathered around Wheeler Hall's west side at the University of California at Berkeley.