In the fourth consecutive such rally in a row for Berkeley, protesters took to the streets Tuesday night for a lengthy, mostly peaceful march that extended many miles from Berkeley to downtown Oakland and Emeryville. Roadways and BART lines were once again affected, with the Downtown Berkeley BART station once again closed from just after 7 p.m. until just before 9 p.m. This actually marked the 16th straight day of protests of police violence against unarmed civilians in various parts of the Bay Area.
MacArthur BART was also closed briefly due to protests after 9 p.m., and Amtrak Capitol Corridor trains at the Jack London, Emeryville, and Berkeley stations were halted as well. Some protesters made it onto Highway 24 near MacArthur, blocking traffic in both directions around 9:15, as the Examiner reports.
The protesters, marching for an end to racial injustice and in protest of the deaths of black Americans like Eric Garner and Michael Brown, was substantially smaller than the masses of over a thousand who demonstrated on Monday night, but nevertheless determined. During Monday's march that led onto the I-80 freeway, 150 were arrested, and in a weekend protest of at least 400, police were deploying tear gas and at least five were arrested.
Last night's demonstration began at 6:20 p.m., when KRON 4 reported that a crowd of 100 people began marching through Berkeley’s South Campus area. The Chron notes that protestors were angered that the Berkeley City Council had canceled a meeting protesters planned to attend and "shut down." Nonetheless, a pair of city council members joined the rally at Berkeley's Old City Hall before the crowd moved down Telegraph Ave and eventually to City Hall in downtown Oakland.
Thick line of cops blocking offramp at 55th/Telegraph. #berkeleyprotest content to march past. ##EricGarner pic.twitter.com/a7hGKaXK4C
— Kale Williams (@sfkale) December 10, 2014
Near 40th Street and San Pablo Avenue a fringe group broke off of the march, looting a grocery store called Pak N Save and breaking into 7-Eleven and CVS stores. Some set trash fries and tossed fireworks as officers fired "less than lethal" projectiles into the crowd.
Cops shooting less-then-lethals off the overpass into crowd. #BerkeleyProtest pic.twitter.com/glx2osZSy0
— Kale Williams (@sfkale) December 10, 2014
Pak N Save Emeryville trashed and robbed as a group of protesters broke doors, took till drawer. #BerkeleyProstests pic.twitter.com/HF9a3hAAWi
— CarlosAvilaGonzalez (@CAGisMe) December 10, 2014
The protests dwindled as some headed toward Emeryville.
Trying to smash door at OPD office. #oaklandprotests pic.twitter.com/oKo2ys0OOk
— Carolyn Jones (@carolynajones) December 10, 2014
But the Chronicle's Kale Williams noted via a pedometer that the march traipsed a full 13 miles and nearly five hours before it was through.
In case you were wondering how far/long march was (noting that I got there a lil late and broke off before end): pic.twitter.com/58nPSinirN
— Kale Williams (@sfkale) December 10, 2014