Berkeley RIOT: Fire, Destruction (WATCH) (UPDATED)

Overnight, an impromptu riot to protest budget cuts and tuition increases at the University of California-Berkeley snowballed to include more than 200 people and resulted in flaming dumpsters, broken windows and dancing in the streets.

The Daily Californian reports that the riot emerged from a campus dance party and metastasized into an all-out fiery clash between students and police.

Officers physically pushed the crowd back so that Berkeley fire personnel could extinguish the flames. Sporadic fights broke out within the crowd, causing police to advance their line on the growing mob and use batons to push it back.

Members of the crowd hurled glass bottles, plastic buckets, pizza and other objects at the police line. The crowd's size and intensity fluctuated as the police and protesters clashed and multiple members of the crowd were detained by police.

The Daily Cal kept a timeline of the riot, which began as a small occupation of Durant Hall, a campus building, in acknowledgment of Campus Action Day March 4, in which students plan to hold large-scale protests of mounting tuition increases. But by 2 a.m., the scene began to turn.

At 1:55 a.m., a dumpster appeared to be on fire in the middle of Telegraph Ave. An individual pushed the dumpster on its side as people appear to be dancing around and on top of it.

At about 2:05 a.m., a fight appeared to have broken out in the middle of Telegraph Ave. and Durant Ave. Berkeley police responded to the scene, pushing people away south on Telegraph Ave.

Police appeared to be using batons to disperse people.

Protesters appeared to be throwing what appeared to be trash and buckets at police officers.

According to NBC Bay Area, there were 25 police on the scene, although Berkeley police have disputed that number. A rioter told NBC Bay Area that event was a "Real battle with cops, rioters winnin [sic]".

The blog Occupy California has more. The blog Reclaim UC has a statement on why the protesters chose to occupy Durant Hall.

UPDATE: According to the Daily Cal, police believe that most of the rioters were not students. Two were arrested: Marika Goodrich, 28, a senior at the school, and Zachary Miller, 26, an alumnus.

More PHOTOS from dailycal.org

WATCH: Raw footage from the riot:

Comments

[KriTiKiT]

11:34 PM on 03/04/2010

they should increase tax collection to the CA tax evaders that moved to Texas to hide! you know like Joe stack types

[GOATLEY3]

02:35 PM on 03/04/2010

This is the best and the brightest Cal has to offer? No wonder the state is bankrupt.

[sparky73]

02:17 PM on 03/01/2010

I encourage all students across the nation to riot. It doesn't matter what for. You just need to show the man that you will not be pushed around!

[poseA]

02:29 PM on 03/01/2010

You aren't the sharpest knife in the drawer are you?

[sparky73]

06:11 PM on 03/01/2010

you don't understand sarcasm do you?

[nikeofficer]

12:45 PM on 03/01/2010

It seems as if the only word that teenagers and young aduts know today is the "F" word. Civilized culture is going down the drain.

[supergenius02]

01:05 AM on 03/01/2010

Typical liberals. The state of California is broke so who do these students expect to pay for their tuition? Many of these radical criminal liberals prove they belong more in jail than in college paid for on the backs of law abiding tax payers.

[patrickmcdougal]

09:47 PM on 03/01/2010

you are a m@r@n just on principle alone

[poseA]

01:33 PM on 03/02/2010

Based on what principle exactly do you consider that post moronic?

The repair costs will be mitigated through numerous means including but not limited to higher tuition, budget cuts and an inflated tax burden.

You evidently don't understand the connection as well as you might think.

[cloudminder]

02:25 PM on 02/28/2010

"Good Speech" Arnold Vetoed and Mark Yudof Lobbied Against
Mark Yudof writes: "As always, the remedy for bad speech is good speech. For that reason, we call on all members of the UC community -- students, faculty and staff -- to affirm and defend the values of the University of California. We are speaking out and ask that you do the same whenever, wherever and however you confront behavior that violates the principles and values of this university."

Yet, just a few short months ago,in October 2009, Mark Yudof and his UCOP crew etc and Arnold Schwarzenegger fight against and veto whistle blower protections for University of California workers?

The students see the headlines, the alumni see the headlines listed
http://cloudminder.blogspot.com/--and the stench of the hypocrisy and corruption at UCOP REEKS..

Mark Yudof conveniently forgets that he recently lobbied heavily for a VETO of "GOOD SPEECH"

http://cloudminder.blogspot.com/

[Angelus2007]

01:53 PM on 02/28/2010

Hey, this is smart, they are charing more for tuition, so lets cause damage they need to pay for, and they pass that cost onto all students.

[dp18040]

07:10 AM on 02/28/2010

Where can I find footage of Tea-partiers burning dumpsters and throwing trash at the police?

[ilovecandy]

12:00 PM on 02/28/2010

Do you really think someone that old can pick up a trash can

[poseA]

01:39 PM on 03/02/2010

So you surmise that the only reason the members of the Tea Party movement haven't rioted and thrown trash cans at police is because they are old, frail, and thus incapable.

That's awfully dense of you.

The fact is that adults, like the majority of Tea Party members, don't regularly destroy public and private property to air grievances.

[cloudminder]

02:28 PM on 02/28/2010

they just were packin'

[poseA]

01:39 PM on 03/02/2010

I hope you aren't really as stupid as you appear.

[dp18040]

06:12 AM on 02/28/2010

Wow - a bunch of Berkley malcontents run amok because they think life is not fair.
So, where's the story?

[sparky73]

02:18 PM on 03/01/2010

you don't know how hard it is being upper middle class and white man.

[rascalish]

10:59 PM on 02/27/2010

Just a note. There are anarchists on here that are batting you to respond.

They really want you to think that rethug operatives are behind the violent part of the protests. They aren't.

Don't get suckered in by the misanthropes.

Their main goal is to create chaos and rampant conspiracy. So they can, supposedly, work that in their favor.

Lets just say its a far left, faaaaaaar, left version of the tea-parters.

[bolderdash]

10:17 PM on 02/27/2010

the majority of todays College students are helped by their middle class parents finances...but since these 'draconian' school tuitions that are increasing double-digits over the past decade...more and more parents struggling with their jobs and lost wages...can't continue to afford picking up the cost increases to keep the high five and six digit salaries of these University professors/administrator's vivacious appetite for their costly demands for more money...and couple that with the loss of public tax revenue in this State of California for all public education and most other State programs...and we have a big 'Donut Hole' that has opened up...you might call it the 'Big Bang' theory...it's all blowing up way too fast to comprehend...but bottom line folks...its like a ripple effect...the bottom is about to fall out!

[rascalish]

09:58 PM on 02/27/2010

Some of the comments here are truly astounding.

I stopped going to protests once the anarchists glommed onto any issue in order to destroy property and create havoc.

Was at a protest after Prop 8 passed and witnessed first hand the thug anarchists appropriation of my VERY personal cause as a means to harm people and destroy businesses.

The anarchists are a small bunch of sad sad people that co-opt any issue as a means to not so much prove a point as much as instigate terror.

I've been involved in protests for years and the fact that a group of misanthropes are utilizing this tactic is truly abominable.

We must be vigilant in our various causes while these idiots are out and about.

[Biffmeister]

10:39 PM on 02/27/2010

Does it occur to anyone that the anarchists might be paid by the right to cause valid social protest to fail?

[rascalish]

10:52 PM on 02/27/2010

Every single time I went out there actually.

But if you've encountered them you'd think other wise. In fact I and many of my friends have thought the same.

These are truly reprehensible people. They aren't of any agenda other than destruction. Most of them are homeless kids or underground thugs that recruit via environmentalist and extremist-PETA organizations. Some are also affiliated with a well known anarchist network.

I know what your saying but its not the case. As much as I'd like to say it was rethugs being venal as usual, its not

[realpolitik78]

01:02 AM on 02/28/2010

omg. did the thought ever cross your mind that even the left has its share of wa-ck-jobs?

[berkeleygirl1962]

10:45 AM on 03/05/2010

I wouldn't even dignify them with the term "Anarchist" because it suggests a coherent political philosophy. They're troubled kids and thugs, acting out, using protests as a vehicle for their personal ennui or inner rage, and (agreeing here) they're too ignorant to be in the pay of the right. Havoc is a good term, although I can tell you living about a dozen blocks from campus that they didn't cause much here.

[bolderdash]

09:36 PM on 02/27/2010

Its quite obvious that when academic fee's go up 33% in one semester to attend College for already struggling mostly poor college students...and see their tuition increases, rent increases, go up 100% over the last 5 years...you get to wondering that the well known phrase..."the rich get richer...and the poor get poorer"...becomes a true reality in our ever depressing economy.

And what's more...the few get richer at the expense of the many poor...America is increasingly becoming a Third World Country...becuse that's how their economic classes work in their societies...the giant american middle-class is about to crumble to its foundation because of this errosion taking place right before our eyes today.

[diverssant]

09:24 PM on 02/27/2010

Burn it down!
This is unfortunately the only way the system will be changed, this is the only thing America understands and responds to-violence!

They will give lip service to Democracy but make no mistake, action is needed, as the "man" has become way too skilled in brainwashing and obfuscation the issues: see the current debates like Death Panels, Killing Grandma, etc.

[ElleVelle]

09:55 PM on 02/27/2010

True that!

[rascalish]

09:59 PM on 02/27/2010

Not to sound like a rethug but. NO!

You are wrong!

[OppositeNumber]

08:38 PM on 02/27/2010

True to form most of the people commenting on here live up to Phil Ochs' observation. Love me love me love me I'm a liberal. Spineless.

[Pavane]

09:26 PM on 02/28/2010

Huh?

[berkeleygirl1962]

10:49 AM on 03/05/2010

I think it's you who are misunderstanding Phil Ochs. "Liberal" as an epithet was counterposed to LEFT (democratic socialism)--Ochs wasn't condemning non-violence. These kids aren't "radicals," they're thugs.