Cal Probing Brutality Claims Amid New Protests

BERKELEY, Calif. (KCBS) - A protest in the lobby of University of California President Mark Yudof's office in downtown Oakland ended peacefully with no arrests Monday, as UC Berkeley officials said they were investigating allegations of police brutality against students and employees protesting fee hikes and budget cuts last week on campus.

UC Berkeley senior Marika Goodrich, who helped lead Monday's protest, said about 75 students and union members entered the president's office at 1111 Franklin St. about 3 p.m. to try to talk to Yudof about a 32 percent student fee increase approved by the UC Board of Regents last Thursday.

Goodrich said protesters also wanted to talk to Yudof about what they alleged was the violent response by police officers to the occupation of UC Berkeley's Wheeler Hall by 40 students and union members last Friday.

Protest organizers claimed officers hit demonstrators with batons and fired rubber bullets, when protesters barricaded themselves inside the building.

In a letter earlier Monday, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau said the campus police department was looking into whether officers used excessive force when they removed protesters during Friday's demonstration.

The university also said it planned to request an independent investigation by the campus police review board.

   KCBS' Holly Quan reports

Yudof wasn't at his office when protesters arrived Monday. In Yudof's place, UC Interim Executive Vice President Nathan Brostrom and UC Interim Provost Larry Pitts agreed to come to the lobby from their upstairs offices and meet with the protesters.

There was "a peaceful dialogue" for about two hours, UC spokesman Peter King said.

At the end of the impromptu meeting, Goodrich told Brostrom and Pitts, "I hope you see how passionate we are and how committed we are."

Speaking to her fellow protesters, Goodrich said of Brostrom and Pitts, "They were put in this position (of meeting with the demonstrators) because President Yudof wasn't here to do his job even though three days ago students were brutalized and had their bones broken."

Pitts said, "I appreciate the peaceful interchange."

Goodrich told the protesters, "Everybody knows what you're doing is for the public good" but then said to Brostrom and Pitts, "I know we don't feel like we got the truth today."

When the protest ended just after 5 p.m., there were about 40 protesters inside the lobby and about 30 outside the building.

A large contingent of Oakland police officers helped UC police monitor the protest.

Oakland police closed two lanes of Franklin Street between 11th and 12th streets, which meant that only one lane on that block was open to traffic during the protest. But traffic continued to flow fairly smoothly.