Kids Don't Follow

It's another lame UC Berkeley protest! This time, a crowd attacked the home of the Chancellor - with torches. All because the UC Regents raised tuition to cope with the financial crisis: Eight Arrested In Attack At UC Berkeley Chancellor's Home

Eight people were in custody early today after a crowd of angry protesters broke windows and threw burning torches at UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau's on-campus residence in protest of fee hikes and budget cuts, authorities said.

As many as 75 people - some of them carrying torches - surrounded the mansion, known as University House, on the north side of campus off Hearst Avenue at about 11:15 p.m. Friday, police said.

The crowd, including a man taken into custody in a university protest a day earlier, chanted, "No justice, no peace," and began smashing planters, windows and lights. Several hurled their torches at the building, said campus spokesman Dan Mogulof.

Birgeneau was sleeping at the time and was awakened by his wife, Mary Catherine, Mogulof said. They were frightened, but unharmed, he said.

"These are criminals, not activists," Birgeneau said in a statement issued this morning. "The attack at our home was extraordinarily frightening and violent. My wife and I genuinely feared for our lives. The people involved in this action will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I want to emphasize that they represent an extreme minority of our students."

The demonstrators had marched earlier that night from Wheeler Hall to the chancellor's home. Most of the protesters ran away when police arrived, but some of them threw torches and other objects at officers and patrol cars, Mogulof said.

Only two of the eight people who were arrested were Berkeley students. The others were non-students, some of whom are old enough to be embarrassed by this, if they were capable of embarrassment, which they are not:

UC Berkeley police arrested Cal students Zachary Bowin, 21, and Angela Miller, 20, on suspicion of rioting, threatening an education official, attempted burglary, attempted arson of an occupied building, vandalism and assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, Mogulof said.

Six non-students, Julia Litmancleper, 20, of San Francisco; John Friesen, 25, of Fullerton (Orange County); Donnell Allen, 41, of San Francisco, David Morse, 41, of Oakland; Laura Thatcher, 21, of Rolling Hills Estates (Los Angeles County) and James Carwil, 31, Brooklyn, N.Y., were arrested on the same charges.

David Morse of Oakland and Donnell Allen of San Francisco, you are 41 years old. Stop hanging out with kids half your age and get a life. Also, James Carwill of Brooklyn (?!) take your a** home. We don't need to bus in lunatics from the east coast, we've got enough here to go around.