Another day, another Berkeley tantrum
Tuition hikes and custodian layoffs were the latest excuse for a UC Berkeley campus tantrum.
The San Francisco Chronicle called the student takeover of Wheeler Hall an “occupation.”
In the old days, dyed-in-the-wool libs would practice civil disobedience and accept their punishment.
In the Age of No Consequences, Berkeley students demand that they be allowed to break rules, disrupt campus life, and create chaos without any repercussions:
Police arrested about 40 protesters inside UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Hall tonight, ending an 11-hour occupation of the building on the third day of raucous protests and strikes over labor disputes and the UC Regents vote Thursday to increase student fees by 32 percent.
…The demonstrators demanded that 38 custodians who had recently been laid off or fired be reinstated. They also wanted assurances that they would face no legal repercussions after they agreed to leave the building.
Protest organizers said the arrested demonstrators would be led out of the building at about 7:15 p.m. and charged with misdemeanor trespassing.
Outside Wheeler Hall, a two-story building in the middle of campus, protesters seemed to be positioning themselves to block any exit.
As night fell on the campus and rain-soaked protesters, the crowd chanted, “We’re tired, we’re cold, UC Berkeley won’t be sold.”
Geez, even the Berkeley tree occupiers didn’t whine this much.
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Check out the protest photo gallery:
What is up with the red war paint?
Bandanas and keffiyehs are de rigueur, of course.
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California subsidizes most every student from families making under 75k, legal or illegal. But not military. They draw the line at subsidizing the military.
I hope the protest every day and get arrested every night.
They burned police cars in the mid 1980s when I was homeported in Alameda, UC clearing squatters off some land they owned.
City Council passed a resolution the rioters/arsonists not be prosecuted.
Bizarre place, but I did see a few shows at the Greek Theater when I was out there, and the Triple Rock brewpub had excellent beer and nachos.
These are the future economists, politicians, lawyers. Any questions where creeps like pelosi, holder, and geitner come from? Our “edumacational” system is seriously FUBAR.
little acorns.
A number of behavioral traits have been identified as symptomatic of the liberal personality. It has been suggested that it is a mental disorder. I’m not sure if that is clinically true, but would a sane person display rage, feigned or real, because they are expected to pay a fair price in exchange for something of value?
The custodians were just to give them street cred that they weren’t just selfish whiners.
California runs $20B annual deficits now, in violation of the state constitution.
Besides, raising tution and fees just means more Federal student financial aid flows to California, so taxpayers in fiscally responsible states like Texas can help students attend UC.
*You pull the teet away, the baby cries; You pull the entitlement away, you get this; What a freakin’ lost generation these liberals/statists have given us; God help us!
*We put our daughter through college and cash flowed it; It was a tough row to hoe, but we did it.
*In general, without some budgetary belt tightening over the next 6 months, California is going down; It’s the spending, stupid!
Aren’t these the same people who tell US we have to pay more taxes for the “common good”?
Just think of increased tuition as “spreading the wealth” and “shared sacrifice” – Obama would approve.
Welcome to the cold, harsh reality that comes with allowing liberals access to positions of power.
How many voted for Obama?
The sentence for this misdemeanor should be a week long class:
101 – Economic Consequences of Socialism and What Happens When We Habitually Vote Democrat – aka: The Deconstruction of Insanity
If only 14% of UC Berkeley alumni are willing to donate to their alma mater after receiving a tax payer subsidized education, why should California tax payers give any more money to Berkeley?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/569540-usnwr-2009-looking-top-strata-vi-alumni-giving.html
Constitution!? We don needah no steenkin’ constotuution!!!
See! We’ll just rewrite it! (I have no idea where this is going – but I have to say, I’m highly suspicious after a measure made a mess of my district in favor of the democrat voting block). A commenter on this site noted that it looks like the lines were drawn to look like cow spots. Mmmm, yup!
Just think how much LESS they could charge if they cut the lib curriculum and focused on actual, worthwhile courses that taught people how to succeed in the real world.
MamaBama would not approve. But then MamaBama could not run a house on $400,000 a year so maybe she does not count.
How many professors were let go at Berkeley? Aren’t these the people who preach shared sacrifice, equal outcomes, a classless society, and taking from the haves to give to the have-nots? Their heros, Che and Mao, would have imprisoned or killed the professors and given their property to the custodians and other workers.
As for the students, they want to eat their cake and have it too. They are demanding no cuts in University jobs or budget, but they want someone else to pay for it. No tuition hikes for them. They sound just like their socialist professors to me.
I bet if they blocked their cell phones that they would all give up and leave.
Not a new phenomena. I was at Brown U. in the mid-Eighties. Same thing was happening then.
Waving the banner of “civil disobedience for social change” groups would have sit-ins, demonstrations, etc – and would be “arrested” by the campus police.
But afterwards they demanded that no mention of the incident appear anywhere on their school records because they feared it might look bad when they applied for jobs.
Same-old, same old. They want all the benefits, and none of the responsibility.
Maybe if the kiddies passed up the next new iPod and iPhone and used some “eBay computers” they could afford those courses.
James Greenidge
Queens NY
Stupid kids. Don’t they realize that by firing the janitors now, when the economy turns around these jobs will become available? Do they really think that they will all work in the global warming warning industry?
LOL I see this as poetic justice. Berkeley is taught by exhippies and pinkos, it’s only fair that they are on the receiving end, even if the whiners doing the protesting do a half asses job because they are all pu$$ies
I have a friend in CA who has been keeping up on these protests. Apparently, the UC system was faced with the choice of raising tuition or closing campuses. While I personally would not have objected to Berkeley shutting down, I think the regents made a better decision.
Not that I expect folks like that to appreciate it.
Cameron, the reason for these protests in Berkeley has to do with the Berkeley mentality. People at Berkeley believe they are better than those at other UC campuses and that they deserve to be treated better, at the expense of others. It is a common problem with all socialists and communists: they preach equality but demand that someone else pays for them. If they really believed in equality, they would pay for their own expenses.
If the choice in California is between implementing any sort of fiscal discipline or continuing with bankrupting California (the de facto if not de jure status) then it is obvious the idiots running the state will choose the path of bankruptcy…
We just need to dig a big old moat around the state with a single bridge. We can use that to let the last sane people out and illegal immigrants into the state…
It really doesn’t quite seem enough to protest for a return of the jobs of 38 custodians . Given the socialist/leftist leanings at Berklely I’m quite surprised that the entire student body and faculty don’t demand that everyone’s salary be put in a pot and divided evenly among all who work there….. faculty, secretaries, and custodians should all be paid the same salary, regardless of their accomplishments or education.
Seems only fair and I’m surprised no one there has thought of this. It was an idea I was exposed to in the 70’s. If we’re going to ’spread the wealth,’ why not start at our universities from whence all these incredible ideas are springing forth?
But their daylong protest spoke directly to the mood of students, faculty and university workers, who demonstrated their frustration with ever-increasing fees and ever-decreasing jobs.
Ha! Maybe they’ll call for an “occupation” of the White House.
I find it laughable that with CA on the verge of collapse due to financial mismanagement that these mostly liberal young academics STILL have not gotten a clue that there is no free lunch. I wonder how many of them are majoring in economics.
Irony can be so… Ironic.
These poor brats are all about socialism in everything they do until it’s their turn to pay the bill.
Funny thing is these whiners are the entitlements for everyone crowd. These are the bleeding heart liberal students that think we should keep supprting the poor and down trodden from tax payer money until it has to come out of their pocket! I wonder how many will become conservatives now that they see it effects them NOW!
Fire most of the Berkeley professors and use the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum to instruct 63,132 students at once with one professor. I just saved the University millions!
It’s not really confined to the UC schools either, Vinny. I earned my BA over at San Jose State and the entitlement mentality is present there.
Really would love my folks and my brother to relocate out of there.
Vicious circle:
Liberal public education indoctrinates students into believing the gov’t will take care of their every need. In turn, the indoctrinated students vote for the left-wing state legislature.
The left-wing legislature runs off their tax base (businesses and their employees) in favor of “saving” the environment. This causes a budget deficit in the BILLIONS. Since Awnold couldn’t get any help from the feds, the left-wing legislature then proceeds to cut the handouts causing the schools to decrease enrollment and increase tuition/fees.
The indoctrinated students who are used to gov’t handouts then flip out.
The left is eating their own. It would be more amusing to watch if I didn’t live in this hell hole state!
I’d like to know if there is even one politician in CA, or UC-B professor for that matter who would have the guts to explain the no free meal concept to those students. Someone has to, seems like their parents haven’t done a very good job of it.
Perhaps the UC Berkeley students can try to support the local economy in some way. If they formed student brothels, there could become a large tourist industry on that campus. This seems to be a common end point for socialists and communists: Just look at Russia. In China, they have stiff birth control to allow for the division of meager resources. Perhaps UC Berkeley students can use a similar approach and start killing students at other campuses. Do they have a redistribution course or major over there?
If you want to really see some protests instead of this measly little demonstration, try raising tuition on illegal aliens to the out of state level again.
They’re doing that lesson now. Unfortunately they are getting a failing grade and do not realize the cause and effect that is creating the situation there.
Looks like The Worst Generation has some competition from its progeny.
These protests were righteous, if not full of decorum. Raising fees 32%, while the regents get fat and rich, is an outrage.
And stupid, besides. Why stay in California for your education when you can head to Arizona, Oregon or Washington and get the same thing for less?
We Californians are sick and tired of things here in our State.
We’re our own socialist state.
That’s not “War Paint” that’s “Please Don’t Hit Me” paint. They’re liberals, what are they going to do, grow a spine and fight?
This is a real charlie foxtrot. These are mostly rich, spoiled liberal brats who want the average taxpayer to subsidize their indoctrination and self-absorption, while overpaid liberal doctrinaires and regents get rich shortchanging the brats with a far crappier education (despite the inflated ratings) than that money should have to pay for. This all is a result of insane liberal policies that have made California into a total hellhole in which to live.
I don’t know what there is so much blame on the students, because Berkeley (supposedly an “institution of higher learning”) begets people who behave this way. When a place like UC Berkeley becomes a place where protests like this have merely become a common occurrence, I don’t see how you can expect it not to escalate into bigger and more violent episodes.
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Wasn’t it Beserkley that let the NUDE GUY “attend” (aka sitting in without paying) for one and a half semesters? Dressed in a backpack only? Later he was determined to be mentally ill. What a surprise–but he fit right in with a lot of the other students. I guess he was just “under the radar”.
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Nuttin to see here–just move along. Enjoy your classmates!
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John Bibb
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In 2003, my wife and I saw the handwriting on the wall, and left the “oh so no longer Golden State”. BTW, you’re right. It is amusing to watch from the outside looking in.
I moved there as a teen-ager in the early 60’s when California had it all, and have watched it get pissed away over the last 50 years. It’s still got the weather and the beautiful geography, but you’re right, jbh45, on the whole, California today is a hell hole.
The Berkeley clowns are like maggots eating their host who are too stupid to know that eventually there will be nothing left to feed on and then they’ll die.
papa louie; that maggie thatcher had some palin common sense instead of that ivy league education which comes in books written by people who have never done anything except edumacate and indoctrinate. we in the u.s. are fast approaching that critical mass stage where the remaining egg laying geese find it is no longer worth the struggle to fight city hall, and it is easier and better to go galt and just leave. then we will see how berkely or harvard or u of south nowhereville pay for their tenure system and work 5 hours a week wonderland. 29 of 50 states increased unemployment last quarter. TAX 100% OF THE RICH’S INCOME, IT STILL WON’T PAY FOR 100% OF THE NATION’S LAZY.
Oh my goodness.
What will our nation do without a source of important Berkeley degrees like Social Unrest Design, Social Drug Experimentation, Advanced Military Bashing, and Classroom Demolition.
Well if we’re going to be Europe we might as well adopt their ways:
1) France: layoffs? Kidnap the owner/manager.
2) Loads of social services: SHAMELESS like the TV. If you’ve never seen it – watch it. Its become a commonly used word in the UK.
Whether you agreed with them at the time or not, compared to the willingness of 60’s protestors to take a gassing or suffer any real consequences for their actions……..there isn’t one pair of “clackers” in this whole bunch. What a pack of whiners.
This is so funny! I don’t have any sympathy for UC Berkeley students. They’re paying a pittance compared to the tuition college students pay at private liberal arts colleges like Ithaca College and Ivy League scions like Cornell University, both schools in my hometown of Ithaca, NY.
State schools aren’t worthy the money. If anything, they’re supported by the taxpayer, but should be supported through private investment. I’m sorry, but there are better uses for public funds, which are already depleted by “decreased tax revenue.”
I don’t give to either my undergrad or grad alma maters. I’ve heard things after my time at both schools that lead me to believe that I would just be throwing my money away. Anybody who gives their money to schools with poor administrators or unwise management are foolish.
UC Berkeley is a joke, just like the rest of what symbolizes the “greatness” of CA these days.
My wife and I are Berkeley alums that have remained in California (at least until I can convince her to move to Texas). Considering our state’s confiscatory tax system, I think we “donate” plenty to the UC system, however, we aren’t counted in that 14% group.
The Wheeler Hall commandos are no surprise after watching this
If your not familiar with PJTV, Bill Whittle has a lil promo pitch for 8 secs. then the videos plays.
This has actually been amusing. California is such a stupendous failure of a state. I was listening to one of these whiny simpletons being interviewed and how he commented that the colleges are run by rich white men who are going to decide who can get an education through socio-economic favoritism…. I got a good laugh, rich white men who campaign, donate and vote for the same miserable loser Democrats that you moronic students campaign, donate to and vote for. At least it is entertaining to see Democrats v. Democrats. What a bunch of effeminate losers who think they are entitled to everything being handed to them on silver platters.
As a UC Berkeley Alumni, and a veteran of many a left-wing protest (young and stupid, etc…), I will tell you that the biggest demonstration we had in my undergraduate years 1981 – 1990 (did I mention young and stupid?) were over increases in student fees.
You could get a couple hundred out to protest Iran/Contra, US Intervention in El Salvador or Apartheid, but when the Regents tried to raise Registration Fees, it was standing room only on Sproul Plaza.
I just have to say, Northside Berkeley and Southside Berkeley are two entirely different animals… or at least they were back in the day. The School of Engineering had none of this nonsense. We had a nuclear reactor right next to the Mechanical Engineering building! It was a whole different world once you passed Doe Library.
As a Cal alum, I would respond to a lot of the comments posted here….
34-28.
Agree with you, gridlock. Studying architecture and engineering, I had very little time to notice the small minority of misfits on campus.