Berkeley protesters remain, Tucson camp shut down
Anti-Wall Street protesters remained in a camp of about 20 tents in the Northern California college town of Berkeley on Thursday, a day after authorities threatened to stop overnight camping.
Rising tensions over a possible eviction in Berkeley came as authorities in Tuscon, Arizona, said they had shut down a similar camp at a park in that city.
Two protesters were arrested overnight in Berkeley, one for public drunkenness and one for shoving an officer, said Sergeant Mary Kusmiss, a spokeswoman for the Berkeley Police Department.
The Occupy camp remains in the city’s Civic Center Park. On Wednesday, the city distributed flyers announcing plans to enforce a 10 p.m. curfew on the site, citing a rash of violence and other criminal behavior.
Protesters on Wednesday feared that a raid was imminent, but with their encampment still in place a day later, some in the group claimed victory.
Kusmiss said protesters are allowed to be in the park from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. She declined to say how the department would enforce the nighttime curfew or discuss what its strategy was to deal with overnight camping.
“We were very grateful that there were individuals who left voluntarily,” she said.
A sister Occupy protest on the nearby campus of the University of California at Berkeley, a cradle of 1960s student activism, was broken up in November by campus police who struck some students and faculty members with nightsticks.