Volume 12, Number 12 · June 19, 1969
Berkeley: The Battle of People's Park
By John H. Schaar, Sheldon S. Wolin
Shortly before 5:00 A.M., on Thursday, May 16, a motley group of about fifty hippies and 'street-people' were huddled together on a lot 270 x 450 feet in Berkeley. The lot was owned by the Regents of the University of California and located a few blocks south of the Berkeley campus. Since mid-April this lot had been taken over and transformed into a 'People's Park' by scores of people, most of whom had no connection with the university. Now the university was determined to reassert its legal rights of ownership. A police officer approached the group and announced that it must leave or face charges of trespassing. Except for three persons, the group left and the area was immediately occupied and surrounded by about 200 police from Berkeley, Alameda county, and the campus. The police were equipped with flak jackets, tear gas launchers shotguns, and telescopic rifles. At 6:00 A.M. a construction crew arrived and by mid-afternoon an eight-foot steel fence encircled the lot.
Feature, 6390 words
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