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Protests against police killings of black men, specifically Eric Garner and Michael Brown, turned violent for the second night in a row in Berkeley, California. VPC
Protests in Berkeley, Calif. on Sunday Dec. 7, 2014, over the deaths of unarmed black men by police.(Photo: Jessica Guynn/USA TODAY)
BERKELEY, CALIF. — A peaceful protest in the university town of Berkeley, Calif., Sunday night over police killings of black men was overtaken by a group vandalizing police cars and stores and briefly shutting a local highway.
It was the second straight night that protests over the chokehold death of Eric Garner in New York and shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., turned violent.
A roaming crowd of 300-400 protesters moved between the Oakland border on Telegraph Ave. and downtown Berkeley, leaving California patrol cars and a string of stores damaged, according to California police and local reports. Media reports said eight people were arrested.
The downtown Berkeley BART station was also temporarily shut.
While an air of calm returned as the marchers headed back to the University of California, Berkeley campus, they left a trail of damage and confrontations — both with police and between the groups of protesters, one trying to prevent vandalism.
Police fired teargas at protesters after a group would not leave Highway 24, shutting off the artery between Berkeley and the eastern suburbs of Walnut Creek for 45 minutes.
Groups of protesters set trash cans on fire and lobbed objects at storefronts, looting some. The Cal Student Store's window was cracked, two bank fronts were vandalized and two cell-phone carrier stores were damaged.
Other groups of protesters shouted at the violent groups to keep peaceful and keep walking. As the six-hour demonstration headed past the rows of college shops directly south of the campus, groups of protesters linked arms to keep out looters.
It was the second night in a row that a protest in Berkeley, no stranger to political demonstrations by its student population and liberal permanent residents, was in upheaval as vandalism flared.
On Saturday evening, what started as a peaceful demonstration over the chokehold death of Eric Garner in New York and shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., ended with looting and damage at several Berkeley businesses after a small group split off from a swell of about 400 peaceful protesters.
The San Francisco Bay Area was home to months of sometimes violent protests linked to the Occupy movement in 2011. Individuals calling themselves anarchists were a frequent component of the Occupy protests.
Sunday's protest was peaceful until two men smashed the window of a Radio Shack on Shattuck Avenue and tried to steal boxes of electronics. Protesters surrounded the men, grabbing the boxes and throwing them back into the store. One protester was injured when he tried to stop the looters. The two men then ran off.
Protesters gathered around 5 p.m. PT at the corner of Telegraph and Bancroft.
They drew outlines of bodies on the pavement and then marched down Channing Way, chanting "From Ferguson to Berkeley, we won't back down!" and "They say Jim Crow? We say hell no!"
Drivers in cars honked and waved their arms in solidarity with the protesters.
The protesters marched through downtown Berkeley to the heavily barricaded police station, holding their hands in the air.
They then walked a few blocks to Berkeley Civic Center, where they crowded the steps and chanted, "the whole damn system is as guilty as hell."
Meagan Day, 26, was walking her bicycle with protesters along Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley.
The Oakland resident said she joined the protest in Berkeley as an "act of solidarity" to "amplify the voices" of people oppressed by police violence.
"I want to be another voice and another body," she said.
Marchers then headed for Highway 24, where they were tear-gassed after refusing to leave the freeway, according to the California Highway Patrol, which also reported that some pedestrians had tried to light a patrol car on fire and were throwing rocks and bottles at police. The CHP then told peaceful protesters to clear the area. One of its most recent tweets was "Although some protestors may be peaceful, this is not a peaceful protest."
The protests were part of the fifth day of national demonstrations over Garner's death and the decision not to indict the police officer who apparently performed a chokehold while arresting the asthmatic black man in Staten Island, NY.
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