UC Berkeley uses ‘extraordinary’ security for Ben Shapiro event tonight
September 15, 2017 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/UC-Berkeley-says-it-s-prepared-to-keep-Ben-12198540.php
Updated 6:08 pm, Thursday, September 14, 2017
Concrete barriers, metal detectors and clusters of police officers were in place Thursday afternoon as UC Berkeley officials prepped for the 7 p.m. appearance of conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro.
Media: Lizzie Johnson
Hundreds of police officers from nine Bay Area counties were stationed and staged in and around UC Berkeley Thursday in an effort to stave off any mayhem before, during and after the appearance of conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro.
Concrete barriers and metal detectors were set up hours before the 7 p.m. event and police vowed low tolerance for violence. At least two people were detained just after 5 p.m. outside the campus gate, where dozens had gathered for a Refuse Fascism rally.
UC spokesman Dan Mogulof said the university has gone through “extraordinary lengths — in some ways unprecedented” so that the event will be a success. About $600,000 will be spent on security, with another $9,000 for internal security provided by the student group, he said.
“New tools, tactics and strategies are being implemented based on important lessons learned last year,” Mogulof said. “We will be confronting anyone wearing masks and abiding by the chancellor’s clear statement that we will not tolerate violence.”
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Protesters against a scheduled speaking appearance by Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos on the University of California at Berkeley campus seen on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017, in Berkeley, Calif. A small group of people with their faces covered broke windows, hurled fireworks at police officers and threw smoke bombs, prompting UC Berkeley officials to cancel Yiannopoulos’s talk Wednesday evening. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
Protesters against a scheduled speaking appearance by Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos on the University of California at Berkeley campus seen on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017, in Berkeley, Calif. A small
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Photo: Ben Margot/AP
FILE – In this Feb. 1, 2017 file photo, University of California, Berkeley police guard the building where Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos was to speak. The campus is bracing for a showdown next week, when the conservative provocateur Ann Coulter has vowed to speak in defiance of the university’s wishes. Officials, police and the campus Republicans who invited Coulter, say there are valid concerns for violence in what is being called an ongoing “Battle of Berkeley.” (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)
FILE – In this Feb. 1, 2017 file photo, University of California, Berkeley police guard the building where Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos was to speak. The campus is bracing for a showdown next week,
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Photo: Ben Margot/AP
FILE – In this Feb. 1, 2017 file photo, a fire set by demonstrators protesting a scheduled speaking appearance by Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos burns on Sproul Plaza on the University of California, Berkeley campus. UC Berkeley police took a hands-off approach to protesters on the campus last week when violent rioters overtook a largely peaceful protest against a controversial speaker. But that response is being questioned as demonstrators become increasingly hostile and politics are more polarized. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)
FILE – In this Feb. 1, 2017 file photo, a fire set by demonstrators protesting a scheduled speaking appearance by Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos burns on Sproul Plaza on the University of California,
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Photo: Ben Margot/AP
A man pulls a piece of metal out of a window as a flare burns inside a Wells Fargo Bank in Berkeley, California on February, 1, 2017. A speech by Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos scheduled at the University of Berkeley was cancelled after demonstrators set fires and threw objects at buildings to protest his appearance. / AFP PHOTO / Josh Edelson (Photo credit should read JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images)
A man pulls a piece of metal out of a window as a flare burns inside a Wells Fargo Bank in Berkeley, California on February, 1, 2017. A speech by Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos scheduled at the University
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Photo: JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images
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Police were quick to tamp down on even minor violations, detaining at least two women just before 5:30 p.m. on Bancroft Avenue — one for allegedly spitting on an officer, one officer said. It wasn’t immediately clear why the other was taken into custody.
They were among dozens of people gathered there to protest the Shapiro event.
Xochitl Johnson, 42, of Oakland, who graduated from UC Berkeley in 1992 and was one of the Refuse Fascism organizers, said Shapiro and other speakers make students rethink their beliefs — and “tamp down” their activism.
“People come out of his speeches and they think he made sense,” Johnson said. “They’re wrapping themselves in the veil of free speech to bludgeon these young people on these campuses with white supremacy, xenophobia, racism and hatred.”
While the protestors had planned to hold a rally on the steps of Sproul Plaza, police barriers kept them off campus.
Huge swaths of campus had been shut down hours ahead of the evening event. About 1,000 tickets were given away for Shapiro’s appearance. Anyone in attendance will need to present a photo ID to enter. About 300 tickets had not been picked up as of Thursday afternoon.
By 3 p.m., concrete barriers were used to closed streets near the south side of campus, with blocks of Telegraph and Bancroft avenue off limits to traffic. Another blockade was set up at the campus entrance while hip-high and weighted down orange plastic barriers controlled foot traffic through Sather Gate, with only ticket holders allowed through the area three hours before the 7 p.m. start time.
By 5:30, hundreds of people had lined up outside Zellerbach Hall hoping to score an extra ticket to the sold-out event.
Timothy Nuss, 22 and a UC Berkeley junior, said he’s a big fan of Shapiro and had been there since 11 a.m.
“I want a ticket to this event really bad,” he said. “It’s unfortunate how ostracized you can get for being anything but left here.”
Knots of police, some with K9s, were scattered on street corners and around Sproul Plaza, where the student union and eateries were already shuttered.
Beyond the immediate area, however, students went about their day, attending classes and carping about homework and the inconvenience of the police presence.
UC Berkeley Police Chief Margo Bennett said police from all nine Bay Area counties had been called in, but she declined to disclose the number of officers that will be on campus.
“We are certainly in a climate and situation that I don’t know Berkeley has ever experienced before,” Bennett said. “It’s rare that you would see this many police officers on our campus. The administration has been totally supportive of the police’s efforts.”
While police said they were fully prepared to keep the situation safe and calm, Bank of America on Telegraph Avenue prepared for the worst, covering ATMs with wood boards.
The two goals for the evening: Safety for all, and a successful completion of the speaking event, she said. The police have no plans to use crowd control methods previously used by city police, like pepper spray and tear gas, she said.
“Pepper spray is not a crowd control technique,” she said. “We don’t have any intentions of using it. We have a list of prohibited items and will have checkpoints to identify those items.”
Roads surrounding UC Berkeley will remain closed until the event is finished.
Lizzie Johnson, Nanette Asimov, Kimberly Veklerov and Jill Tucker are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: ljohnson@sfchronicle.com; nasimov@sfchronicle.com; kveklerov@sfchronicle.com; jtucker@sfchronicle.com
