BERKELEY — Less than a day after a special City Council meeting was scheduled to consider lifting Berkeley’s ban on law enforcement’s use of tear gas and pepper spray, Mayor Jesse Arreguín abruptly canceled the meeting.
The meeting would have been held a day after protesters clashed with UC police at the historic People’s Park. After the confrontation, UC Berkeley halted work on a planned student housing project there. Berkeley city police were not involved in the latest face-off at the park, which is UC property.
In an interview Thursday, the mayor said he initially called the meeting because after the confrontations with protesters at People’s Park on Wednesday, city staff and police were concerned that if the tear gas ban remained, they would not be able to count on mutual aid if needed around the park.
He said there’s no promise UC police would assist if protests moved off of university property, and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office has said it would not assist Berkeley police because of the ban, maintaining that it cannot guarantee the safety of its officers without the option of using tear gas.
“I think we were trying to find a way to make sure that we can get the resources we needed, but having slept on it, I came to the conclusion that it was the wrong approach and that the ban on tear gas should remain,” Arreguín said. “Ultimately, we shouldn’t be held hostage because Berkeley did the right thing and passed the policy banning tear gas.”
Is there a chance the prohibitions could be reconsidered if an emergency emerges at the park in the future?
“Not while I’m mayor,” Arreguín said.
If the lifting of the tear gas ban had been approved by council members, it would have marked a stark reversal from their unanimous vote in June 2020 to halt the crowd control tactics by Berkeley police and outside law enforcement agencies operating in the city. At the time, Arreguín said tear gas “is banned in warfare and should not be used on our streets or in protests.”
The special meeting — which had been called hastily during a summer recess of the City Council — would have come a day after UC Berkeley’s attempt to construct housing for 1,100 students and 100 homeless people at the park hit a major roadblock as protesters fought with police, pried apart a barricade erected around the park and virtually destroyed construction equipment left behind.
The police response at the park has been led by University of California Police Department officers with the help of mutual aid from the California Highway Patrol and California State University officers.
In an email Thursday afternoon about the project’s next steps, university representatives Dan Mogulof and Kyle Gibson repeated that “due to the destruction of construction materials, unlawful protest activity, and violence on the part of some protesters (on Wednesday), the university decided to pause construction work on the People’s Park housing site.” They added that “the campus will, in the days ahead, assess the situation in order to determine how best to proceed with construction of this urgently needed student housing project.”
The statement also said two officers were injured and seven arrests were made on Wednesday, on charges including battery on a peace officer, trespassing, and resisting, obstructing or delaying an officer.
People’s Park has long been a hotbed of fiery political activism. In 1969, police unleashed tear gas on protesters as thousands of people opposed the university’s plans to develop the 2.8-acre site into an athletic field. The clashes led to a state of emergency and one death.
Police use of tear gas and other crowd dispersal measures came under intense scrutiny in 2020 amid the wave of protests over the police killing of George Floyd. Berkeley is a rare city to issue an outright ban on tear gas.
However, in 2021 the state Legislature passed a bill that prevents the use of chemical agents and rubber bullets during non-violent protests. The legislation prohibits police from using tear gas solely because of curfew violations, verbal threats or noncompliance with law enforcement orders.
Andrea Prichett, a member of the People’s Park Council who was one of the protesters arrested for blocking construction Wednesday, said the proposal to lift the teargas ban would have undermined the City Council’s credibility.
“This is exactly the kind of situation that the ban was designed for, and so for them to overturn that policy would really do great damage,” Prichett said.
The latest confrontations at People’s Park started in the predawn hours of Wednesday morning as more than 100 police officers encircled the area and roused the homeless people sleeping there. Law enforcement cleared the way for construction crews to start cutting down the site’s trees.
But hours later police retreated amid growing pushback, leaving protesters to occupy the park.
The confrontations came after a court ruling last week, which became official Tuesday, that allowed UC Berkeley to move forward with its plans to redevelop a portion of the park with two buildings, one six stories and the other 12.
Along with housing for students and homeless people, the project plans to preserve almost half of the site — 1.7 acres — as open space and honor the history of People’s Park with a memorial walkway, murals and photo displays.
The university has been under mounting legal pressure to build more housing as its student population grows, although proponents of preserving People’s Park say the location is a vital green space and cultural landmark that should not be removed.
After watching Wednesday’s chaos unfold, Mayor Arreguín said his position on UC’s housing project hasn’t changed, but he certainly respects the people’s right to engage in non-violent First Amendment activity.
“I support the project, but it’s understandable that people are very concerned and upset about the construction at the park,” Arreguín said. “We need to make sure that people can protest peacefully, and make sure we are protecting the safety of the broader community at the same time.”
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