UCPD draws criticism for stopping Occupy Cal protesters carrying signs

After a student was cited by UCPD Wednesday afternoon for carrying large banners in front of Boalt Hall during Occupy Cal demonstrations, an email was sent out advising UC Berkeley School of Law students to avoid the West entrance of the building due to heavy police presence and confrontational incidents.

UCPD officers informed the law school’s officials that they were under direct orders to stop anyone carrying large signs and banners and to ask for immediate identification, according to the email from Kathleen Vanden Heuvel, associate dean of capital projects and adjunct professor of law at the UC Berkeley School of Law.

Signs larger than 30 by 30 inches are not allowed on campus, according to UCPD Lt. Alex Yao. Students could either surrender the signs to UCPD for destruction or they could leave campus with the sign, Yao said.

“There have been some confrontational incidents in the last couple of hours that demonstrate that the officers expect immediate compliance with their request for ID,” Vanden Heuvel said in the email. “While we do not understand UCPD’s position on this issue, we cannot control or direct UCPD’s behavior and we are concerned for your safety and well being.”

Protesters carrying banners were asked to produce immediate identification so that the police could identify whether or not they were affiliates of the university, and therefore subject to the campus Student Code of Conduct, Yao said.

“I don’t know if law students were familiar with UC regulations … but the police response came across as overly aggressive, upsetting our students,” said Susan Gluss, spokesperson for the school.

UCPD’s attempts to seize banners from students drew letters of condemnation from Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington and veterans and historians of the 1964 Free Speech Movement.

In an email sent out Wednesday, Worthington requested that Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and UCPD Chief Mitch Celaya inform officers to stop seizing banners and return those that were inappropriately seized.

“It is unfortunate and unacceptable that the UCPD are vandalizing and removing free speech banners from the event,” he said in the email. “Please stop this behavior now.”

Members of the Free Speech Movement Archives also sent an email condemning the actions of the police who they said suppressed the students’ first amendment rights that were recognized 47 years ago during the Free Speech Movement in 1964.

“We were shocked by the actions of campus police who seized banners from students peacefully demonstrating in Sproul Plaza and on the Sproul Steps,” they said in the email.

Five Oh Needs 5150d
UCPD & UC Admin:
Crusin’ for a brusin’ in Federal Courts for first amendment violations.
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s webpage regarding recent events on the Cal campus, see link below.
http://thefire.org/spotlight/schools/220
That the Law School “do[es] not understand UCPD’s position on this issue” says everything you need to know about how UC is run.
Remember this: at UC Irvine UCPD tried to tell student’s they’d be arrested for vandalism/defacement of property for writing on the sidewalk in chalk.
I guess everybody better think twice before chalking up the sidewalks in the run up to next year’s ASUC elections – that’s defacement of UC’s property!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYdzbLQecu4

Anon
Fuck off, anti-Police bigot.

WeAreMany
Speaking out about upholding the constitution does not make someone anti-police. The police are officers of the law and are supposed to not only uphold, but follow the law just like everybody else, and the constitution is the highest law of the land.

Poor You
The constitution does not give you the right to set up encampments anywhere you want.
The constitution does not give you the right to ignore lawful orders from the Police.
Sorry. :(

Poor All of Us
The Constitution does give you the right, though, to peacefully assemble to redress your grievances with the government. An order that conflicts with that fundamental right – as long as protesters are peaceful and not infringing on other fundamental rights – is not lawful and is most definitely ignorable.
Not having people in tents in a space you don’t want them is not a fundamental right. When it comes to public space, camping and curfew laws are arbitrary and can and should be set aside in favor of the more powerful law, the First Amendment.
Thought plz
False. You have not right to set up camp wherever you want. Not constitutional, not state, nor city right.
Your idea of “public” space is inherently flawed.

Sol Invictus
Yes, those poor, oppressed policemen, struggling away on their $71k (minimum) salaries and facing lawless sign-holders everywhere they go!

Sol Invictus
I’m curious to know the rationale behind the limit on sign/banner size. It’s a bit baffling to me that the UCPD isn’t giving any reasons why banners larger than 30 x 30 are banned.

Anonymous
Most cities set their own standards on the maximum size of commercial and political signs. Banners larger than 30×30 may be allowed on the sides of private buildings, for example, but not on pedestrian walkways.

Sol Invictus
Thanks for addressing the substance of my question.

Guest
Why should they need a rationale? If they want to ban it, they can ban it. If you don’t like it, protest somewhere else.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UBJZKXOS2N4SJUNV6SJ6NEVOKA Klaus
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.

Mr Irrelevant
If you want to die because you can’t have a banner bigger than 30″x30″, be my guest.

Sol Invictus
I want to know before I judge the police as a gang of petty tyrants. It’s possible that there might be a good reason for disallowing large banners at a public gathering, one that I’ve not considered. Of course, it’s also possible that the police are applying the law to a situation it wasn’t designed to cover in order to harass protesters.
Might I suggest you fuck off to Singapore, where the business-friendly atmosphere of draconian punishments for minor social infractions will insure the sort of society you so desperately yearn for? Miserable cunt.

Mr Irrelevant
Might I suggest you fuck off and die, if you can’t figure out how to live within the rules? Taking someone’s fucking sign isn’t a “draconian punishment” you moronic pussy.
If you don’t like the rules at the UC, go to some other school you dipshit.

Darnkids
Yes! If we didn’t have arbitrary rules there would be nothing but chaos! Tents in the quad and signs bigger than 30×30! My stars society will crumble.
So many boring Po-lice apologists on this site. It’s almost laughable.
Use brain
Sorry, I forgot you have a right to set up tents wherever you please… Oh wait, you don’t
Bob
Glocks at 50 paces. Better yet, nukes at 50 miles.
Progressives for Nukes (to be used against those that stand in the way of progress)

Anonymous
“I don’t know if law students were familiar with UC regulations … but
the police response came across as overly aggressive, upsetting our
students,” said Susan Gluss, spokesperson for the [law] school.
I find it ironic that law school students study law but don’t know UC regulations and that a spokesperson for the law school would criticize the police for being overly aggressive when she doesn’t know UC regulations either. That’s not surprising considering that Boalt Hall professors teach students that laws are made to be broken, that illegal aliens are not really illegal, and that any law is simply wrong if it affects people of one color more than people of another color.

Guest
It may be ironic. However, the role of a law school is not to learn black letter law. Instead, it’s an arena to learn the art of legal reasoning.
And you’re right, people can’t be illegal. And your views on laws affecting people of color differently describe equal protection rather well.
I was one of the Boalt Hall students protesting. Thank you for your comment.

beezy
this is an easy one… just make a banner thats exactly 29.5 by 29.5.
michelle
terribly ironic.. considering the cafe at moffitt is the “free speech movement cafe”
UCMeP
Why Occupy Cal when you can Mockupy Cal?
http://ucmep.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/mockupy-cal/