For the second time in a week, UC police donned riot gear and descended on the Gill Tract in Albany in the early morning hours today to clear out the remaining, stalwart Occupy the Farm protesters. The most ridiculous part: They assembled about 100 officers from multiple UC campuses for the operation, all to clear out a group of fewer than 10 protesters who were asleep in their little camp.

Nine people were arrested, seven of whom were taken in for suspicion of unlawful assembly, all because they were remaining on the sidewalk as this was happening.

The university maintains that the land had to be cleared so that faculty and research students could proceed with their research crops on the land as part of their academic work -- so the current use of the land will remain exactly what the protesters were using it for, urban farming.

The occupation began on Earth Day, April 22, and was an effort to "take back" the land from future development. The land is slated to be converted to Little League fields to replace some fields that were taken for the construction of the adjacent University Village project.

[Tribune]

PREVIOUSLY: Occupiers Till Some Soil In East Bay, 'Take Back' UC Land For Farming