reclaim the streets/critical mass, berkeley

At 6pm, protesters gathered at Bancroft and College to voice support for indigenous activists in Ecuador, and denounce IMF and US foreign policies. Police arrived quickly, pushing the boisterous crowd down Bancroft and extinguishing a burning money sign and crates.

One man was arrested, apparently for the "crime" of towing a sound system behind his bicycle. A large "Indigenous Freedom" banner along with bicycles and the sound system were confiscated by police, who refused to give their badge numbers or return the items, instead directing city employees to load them into a garbage truck. At least one protester was randomly arrested while standing on the sidewalk.

The paddywagon, unable to get through the line of police and protesters, rampaged madly down a flight of masonry steps into a courtyard, partially demolishing the steps. The van swerved around the courtyard and finally crashed through a line of trash receptacles and back out onto the street. Demonstrators followed towards the jail.

It turned out to be the birthday of one of the newly arrived inmates so, in hopes of cheering him up, the crowd broke into a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" out in front of the jail. Newly formed police lines began closing in, and so, after a daring dash through a parking garage to narrowly avoid a police trap, the mass retreated to a median on Shattuck - where Food not Bombs was served up for all.