Six of the March 2 UC Berkeley Wheeler Hall sit-in protesters were found not guilty of disturbing the peace in a ruling issued Tuesday in Oakland.
The decision resulted from a bench trial presided over by Judge Gordon Baranco at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse in Oakland. The protesters — who were arrested after they refused to leave Wheeler Hall in a demonstration against budget cuts — were originally charged for trespassing but had their charges amended to disturbing the peace during the course of the trial.
Eleven other protesters were arrested during the March 2 protest. Of those 11, three did not have charges brought against them by the district attorney, five accepted plea agreements last week and an additional three await trial for misdemeanor trespassing and resisting arrest charges.
Of the five March 2 protesters who accepted plea agreements, four pled no contest to disturbing the peace and must complete 45 hours of community service. The fifth protester pled no contest to the same charge and must complete 55 hours of community service.
Sarah Burns is the lead crime reporter
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Judge Baranco is one of those affirmative action appointees. So it is no surprise do see a decision which was pre-ordained by his own biases…
Well that was racist
Can’t even get a conviction for disturbing the peace,
let alone the trumped up original charges.
Gee maybe UCPD should learn what the laws actually are, and make arrests in accordance with a good faith reading of those laws.
Course it will never happen, b/c they are as corrupt as they are simple minded.
For crying out loud they were arresting people for writing on the sidewalk in chalk at UC-Irvine, b/c the administration didn’t like getting criticized – in chalk…
The administration is really a bunch of adults who act like children.
They get called out on their ever growing ranks at ever greater salaries, the constant increases in tuition, and they don’t try to put forth a clear explanation or justification of the costs. Either because they cannot (they don’t know how they spend the money), or they rightly fear that the public will be outraged about the crap they actually spend it on. ($1 billion plus/year for 5 years running disappeared at UCOP.)
Then UCPD is called in to play the part of the schoolyard bully.
Except it’s not a shakedown for your lunch money, or a black eye,
its criminal charges and then trying to expel you from UC.
The administration will swear up and down to all the parents that they really care about the students and they’re doing their best to keep them safe on these campuses.
It’s not convincing, b/c any idiot can see the biggest threats to students on this campus are LeGrande and Celeya.
[Pro-tip: that's my protected political speech right there.]
::yawn::
Amen, if the charges keep getting dropped, the cops should logically (and legally) stop with the bs arrests.