Student protesters arrested outside of UC Regents meeting

Student protesters were arrested after they barricaded the entrance to the University of California Board of Regents meeting at UC San Francisco Mission Bay on Wednesday.

Members of the Coalition to Free the UC, the demonstrators bolted themselves by the necks with bicycle U-locks to the doors of the community center until they were cut free by police and firefighters.

“We made a strong, symbolic statement,” said Keith Brown, a second-year UC Berkeley student, one of approximately 80 protesters from the Coalition to Free the UC, comprised of various student groups from five UC campuses.

The coalition protested student fee hikes, the lack of democracy in the government appointment of the regents, and the UC’s involvement in the production of components of nuclear weapons. The coalition also called for the release of 13,000 Native American remains currently held at the Phoebe Hearst Museum to tribal elders.

Ten students were arrested, cited on misdemeanor charges of trespassing, mischief and resisting arrest; they were released on their own recognizance before noon.

“I’m a strong supporter of students and others properly and legally protesting any issue,” said Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, but he added that illegal protests are inappropriate.

“Chaining yourself to a door is illegal,” Garamendi said.

But the students defended their actions.

“When Rosa Parks refused to give up a seat on the bus, it was illegal. When white and black students sat in at segregated lunch counters, it was illegal. So when an oppressive situation does not provide for normal channels of dissent to be effective, protesters are left with no choice but civil disobedience,” said Matthew Taylor, a fifth-year peace and conflict studies student at UC Berkeley and the first of the protesters to be arrested.

The protest did not prevent the UC Board of Regents from holding the meeting, though. The regents presented updates on the UC Office of the President restructuring efforts as well as a progress report on activities at the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore laboratories; the regents will continue their meeting on Thursday.