Occupy Cal Berkeley: Return of the Tents

The police's presence was more subdued last night. The low numbers of the police and the sheriffs were probably due to a few factors: drained police/sheriff resources after raiding Oscar Grant Plaza, the Mario Savio Memorial Lecture taking place at the plaza that night, and the enormous public outcry against the UC police. The smallish number of UC police and the Alameda County Sheriffs stayed back away from the crowd, monitoring and video-recording from a distance. No Oakland police were present.

The crowd number can only be estimated. At the general assembly as votes were announced, there appeared to be about 2,000 people voting. In the crowd there were a couple of hundred other people who were just watching the process and not voting on the proposals. As the 8PM start of the Savio lecture approached the crowed further increased in size: 3,000 then around 5,000. California Beat (regional news) put out an estimate of 10,000 when the crowd was at it's largest.
(see: http://twitter.com/?photo_id=1#!/californiabeat/status/136672972197994497/photo/1)

Students were putting together tents in the sea of people, protected from the police by the crowds. After the lecture, as the crowd made room in front of Sproul Hall, the tents making up the commune were placed down. The Cal Berkeley Commune had about 20 tents last night, a food station, an information table, two pianos, wind-chimes, and potted plants.

This is a "Post-Raid" commune in the sense that it is starting after the nation-wide coordinated raids against Portland, Oakland, NY and other cities. According to news sources, these raids were coordinated at the Federal Level with the aid of the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security.
(see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez4Tn8ky1uM)
(see also: http://www.examiner.com/top-news-in-minneapolis/were-occupy-crackdowns-aided-by-federal-law-enforcement-agencies)

This morning, police had warned protesters to remove their tents. The students will not give up their Occupation.