UC police: 11 students among 13 arrested at regents meeting; 2 officers injured

UC police said 13 people, including 11 students, were arrested Wednesday during protests in San Francisco outside a meeting of the UC regents. That was three fewer than they previously had reported.

UC San Francisco Police Chief Pamela Roskowski said the confrontation was potentially dangerous and defended the use of pepper spray against about 15 demonstrators.  She also confirmed that one UC officer had drawn his service revolver when he was rushed by a crowd of demonstrators, one of whom grabbed the officer’s baton and hit him with it, she said. That officer and one other were slightly injured in the incidents.  No shots were fired. 

Twelve people  were charged with obstructing a peace officer in his duties and one, a UC Merced student who allegedly grabbed the officer’s baton, was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon.

Students said the police used excessive force and that many of them were only trying to enter the building to hear the regents discuss higher fees and other matters.

-- Larry Gordon in San Francisco

Photo: Protesters break the line of University of California police officers at the garage entrance to the University of California Campus in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Bay Area News Group, Laura A. Oda)

Comments

[JB]

Was there a problem before the police showed up?

[Leon]

It is not fair that the students of California have to pay the price for the mistakes state politicians have continued to make. I say Go UC Students! and Forward with the civil disobediance. Its what this great nation was founded on: Protest and civil Liberties.

[SicknTired]

These students need to man up and pay for their education. How many of them will graduate after 4+ years of partying and once in their careers forget about their school and helping to support it as an alumnus.

[John Neff]

LA times writer:

Why do you choose to use the term "service revolver" to describe the policeman's gun?

The term you use is biased and non-standard.

[Matt Kresling]

Interesting that when the student used the policeman's baton, he was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon. What's it called when a policeman uses it?

[Just A Dumb Question]

Just a dumb question, how come these students were not in class ? Or were they really students at all ? I got it figured out, it was a lab for a political science class right ?

[az66]

I would post a comment here, but there isn't any point. It will be moderated and censored by a hack who apparently puts all the posts up on a dartboard and throws darts to determine which posts he/she will censor. I posted several posts that contained no profanity, threats, insults or aggression of any kind, only to find they were omitted on the message boards. Yet as I go through past bookmarked pages, I find profanity, racist tirades and epithets, and all kinds of despicable and offensive posts remaining. Do you actually have a webmaster at all? Do they have anyone working under them? Because someone needs to be fired. Seriously.

[Derby Sheldon]

Hell no we wont go!! fair tuition for all!!

[Chase]

Do these students think taxpayers are the tooth fairy? Stop whining!

[steve rodriguez]

To these UC students, Obama is their daddy!

[Greg Maragos]

It's like a little bit of Greece right here in California.

[Tornadoes28]

Look at that big mouthed jerk in the middle. Why were 2 officers arrested? Hooligan students.

[fran]

Ok, grabbing an officer's baton and hitting with him was a pretty stupid idea. But assault with a deadly weapon, really!? If that doesn't scream of the unfair balance of power between civilians and officers I don't know what does. I doubt many people have ever gotten away with trying to charge an officer with assault with a deadly weapon for using a baton.

Also, why does the UC system keep raising it's fees like this!?
I graduated from UCB in 2003, I paid less than $5000 a year to the school... add $500-800 on books a year, $450-800 a month for rent if you're lucky (dorms are much more), not including costs of food (~$2500/yr) and basic things like house supplies and clothing. It was easily $13000 a year at the low end of things.

In less than a decade fees have increased something like 30%, rent isn't any less cheap, and sales tax is up.

This is suppose to be a public school system!
The education offered by them is great, but if they're gonna start having fees like private institutions then they need to offer the perks like well established alumni networks and job connects, or pools of private money to fund well-qualified and economically-limited students.

[eguzki]

Fight on UC students!!!! You have all the support from Cal State Students!!!

[linda G]

Don't turn this into an anti-police blog. Almost two-thirds of CSU and UC students receive some sort of financial assistance. Of those majority of them are non-white and english as a second language. Yet, majority of those seen protesting fit that example. In other words, AGAIN deal with free money situation, ie, welfare, financial assistance, food stamps...etc...and this problem wouldn't exist. BUT YOU DON"T WANT TO HENCE WHY OUR STATE IS GOING THE DIRECTION IT IS!

[Manuel]

1) Students have to protest to afford school.
2) Airports are inspecting children's genitals for "terrorism".
3) $1 Trillion for the Pentagon to waste on bloodshed every year.
4) The "Change President" has done nothing to end the wars or the internment camps.
5) Americans voted for the Party that shipped their jobs overseas.

Is this not the Decline and Fall of America?
It is.

Then why not protest? Nothing to lose now.

[socalcomment]

The higher the tuition fees, the less people that can afford education. The fewer that can afford education, the fewer educated there are. The less educated the populace is, the happier the government is. It's far easier to rule the ignorant and uneducated.

They teach that in school. Too bad people can't afford to go to school to learn that.

[Rethink]

I can't take student protests seriously. There's a reason why students are still in school--because they aren't smart enough yet.

[Jazz]

What ever happen to freedom of assembly and speech, if the protest was not out of hand why were the police used. Looks and sounds like a case of the "PATRIOT ACT" at it best.

[woof-woof]

Those who committed violence should be criminally prosecuted. The man who took a weapon from a police officer should go to jail. There is no excuse for this. And of course, they should be expelled.

[JD]

Yo, Leon. Still trying to figure out how your "civil liberties" are dependent upon my tax dollars.

But next time I think of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, I promise I'll think of you, too.

[EdgeXXI]

Anything for hand-out, no?

[J Stomp]

blame Schwatzenagger

[Pete the Fed]

Why weren't they in class. It is one thing to demonstrate, but when there are costs involved in closing streets and distrupting others where taxpayers have to foot the bill, that is where the line is drawn.

Go to school and protest in your own backyard.

[Rick]

Matt Kresling, the difference is that the police officer is given legal permission to use these weapons in a manner that is justified in upholding the law. If the officer uses the baton in a situation that does not call for it then it's up to the courts to decide in the event the recipient of the alleged excessive force files a lawsuit against the city.