Up To 5,000 People Riot Near UC Berkeley Campus Overnight:

Thousands of partiers and college students took to the streets in Berkeley near the Cal campus on Saturday night and early Sunday morning as Halloween revelry devolved into a massive riot.
Up to 5,000 people were in the streets near Channing Way and Piedmont Avenue, with some throwing rocks and bottles. At least one person was sent to the hospital as the result of three reported assaults. At this point it is unclear what sparked the chaos, though Berkeleyside reports that large parties were getting shut down by the Berkeley Fire Department after 10 p.m. Saturday night. There are several fraternities in the area, and earlier that day was a college football game at Memorial Stadium between Cal and USC.
sfist.com...

Where are the parents?? why riot over trivialities such as a stupid game, lets see how this gets played by media

Police responded to the area of Channing Circle after reports of a crowd of thousands throwing rocks and bottles, but no use of force by police—such as tear gas or batons—was reported.

Wow will you look at that restreint?? ..

"There were a lot of people, and some of those people chose to act unlawfully," Lt. Andrew Rateaver told The Daily Californian. "Overall, that was a small portion of the people, and certainly not the entire group."

Pls take note of the difference in reporting and policing this riot vs Ferguson and Baltimore , no talk of blaming all who happened to be on the street but only as a small portion of the people.
I know I know the scale of the damage was small in comparison, but 5000 more than likely drunk teens hurling rocks. but all's well that ends well I guess.

Yeah i admit i would not want to be in the middle of that, but is it really the same thing as Ferguson and Baltimore?
where are the millions of dollars of property damage?
during the ferguson riots Some 25 businesses where burned down
the Baltimore ones ended up costing 9 million in damages. (that's the conservative number, other web pages say 20 million, i rather go with the smallest number since i did a quick research only)
What is the damage here?
A smashed car? don't get me wrong, somebody needs to pay for that because it's uncivilized to say the least.
But let's please have a sense of proportion

a reply to: Spider879

From your OP

though Berkeleyside reports that large parties were getting shut down by the Berkeley Fire Department after 10 p.m. Saturday night.

??
Since when does the fire dept take on a policing role, I know firies over here will show up to parties only to party, not shut them down. lol

A few bottles thrown doesn`t sound like a 5000 person riot.

Where are the parents??? Wth? These aren't kids. They are adults at college living on their own! While t might be true that they are still suckling at mom and dad's bank accounts, they are still legal adults (not counting maybe the two or three that happened to graduate high school early of course). As such, mom and dad are no longer responsible for their asinine choices/behavior.

As for the fire department shutting them down? If the amount of people there violate the safety/fire ordinance, they have every right and responsibility to shut it down. If they see behavior that will likely result in them having to clean up/contain the mess... Same thing. At least that's how it works over here on the opposite coast.

originally posted by: IShotMyLastMuse
Yeah i admit i would not want to be in the middle of that, but is it really the same thing as Ferguson and Baltimore?
where are the millions of dollars of property damage?
during the ferguson riots Some 25 businesses where burned down
the Baltimore ones ended up costing 9 million in damages. (that's the conservative number, other web pages say 20 million, i rather go with the smallest number since i did a quick research only)
What is the damage here?
A smashed car? don't get me wrong, somebody needs to pay for that because it's uncivilized to say the least.
But let's please have a sense of proportion

The difference is in the response not the cause, and politically motivated riots or even non riots are dealt with differently look at Occupy Wall st, demonstration in NYC a few yrs back, of the pepper spraying pregnant women and busting people over the heads for a non riot.

originally posted by: Kangaruex4Ewe

As for the fire department shutting them down? If the amount of people there violate the safety/fire ordinance, they have every right and responsibility to shut it down. If they see behavior that will likely result in them having to clean up/contain the mess... Same thing. At least that's how it works over here on the opposite coast.

That's just strange to me that's all and something that I`ve never heard before, if complaints came through do they go through to the police or the fire dept, if they go through to the police, do the police call the fire dept to shut down parties? I would have thought it the other way around, the fire dept call the police to have the party shut down because of the risk.

Its just that even though it could cause a fire hazard, shutting crowded or rowdy parties down is done by police.

a reply to: Spider879
Where are the partents? This is a college town. The parents are mainly out of town. A s for police restraint, that is normal in Berkeley. Also it would be the UC Berkeley campus, no one calls it the Cal campus. You obviously do not live there.

It is not right to throw rocks and bottles, but your lack of knowledge of the area shows.

a reply to: IShotMyLastMuse

There was a picture of a guy on top of a car wielding an axe.... a guy... holding an axe, on top of a car. Police did nothing. Explain that.

You won't though; you will make more excuses for the police and deny there is a bias.

originally posted by: reldra
a reply to: Spider879
Where are the partents? This is a college town. The parents are mainly out of town. A s for police restraint, that is normal in Berkeley. Also it would be the UC Berkeley campus, no one calls it the Cal campus. You obviously do not live there.

It is not right to throw rocks and bottles, but your lack of knowledge of the area shows.

True I have never been there, so even the cops there are super libs??

a reply to: gps777

No it's not.

If a party is shut down because of an occupancy load violation or anything else along those lines, the FD is the one that does it. PD may be there, but the FD is the one issuing the order to vacate. Sounds to me like that's all it is.

a reply to: FelisOrion

i didn't make excuses or deny the existence of any bias, i said their behaviour was uncivilized and they need to be held responsible. thought that was clear enough.
they are both riots, by any definition.
But the reaction is always equal to the output of such events, and there IS a difference between some minor property damage and 25 buildings burned to the ground, of course we know the media will always put a particular spin on things to support their personal agenda, but if you compare the two riots, and i forced you to pick the one you want to be caught in the middle of, i think i know what your answer would be.

Side note on the axe guy, white shirt with some red stains, holding the axe just like you said...anyone been able to find a picture of that outside of what was shown on the young turks?
such a dramatic picture and i cannot seem to find it anywhere, you'd think some website would use it...maybe the internet at my office is blocking out certain results?
can you or anybody reading this find that picture somewhere else?
i've tried stuff like
halloween campus riot
Riot Near UC Berkeley Campus
Riot Near UC Berkeley Campus axe
riot man axe car Berkeley
And i can't find that picture...so if anyone can that would be great, otherwise the more disturbing options are it's being "censored" for reasons of media bias...or it never happened?

a reply to: Spider879

I have no doubt these fraternities played a big part in the rioting. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why the riot occurred down a street where several fraternities are located.

In my opinion, I think Colleges and Universities should get rid of Sororities and Fraternities altogether. They create divisiveness, a distraction away from student's academics, and they have a reputations for being involved in hazing's which have caused a dozen deaths since 2008. They're charitable involvement is shadowed by promiscuous sexual parties and the chronic abuse of alcohol. Colleges and Universities shouldn't be in the business of harboring this type of behavior among it's student population.

a reply to: Spider879

No, probably at most a couple/few dozen people "rioted", the others were likely there and not rioting. The people at an event or gathering are not a lump-of-humanity but are individuals, and most here certainly did not riot. I've been in crowds where a dozen or so idiots crossed the legal line, but the crowds did not.

originally posted by: WeRpeons
a reply to: Spider879

I have no doubt these fraternities played a big part in the rioting. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why the riot occurred down a street where several fraternities are located.

In my opinion, I think Colleges and Universities should get rid of Sororities and Fraternities altogether. They create divisiveness, a distraction away from student's academics, and they have a reputations for being involved in hazing's which have caused a dozen deaths since 2008. They're charitable involvement is shadowed by promiscuous sexual parties and the chronic abuse of alcohol. Colleges and Universities shouldn't be in the business of harboring this type of behavior among it's student population.

I agree not to mention nepotism down the road after Uni life.

originally posted by: Aleister
a reply to: Spider879

No, probably at most a couple/few dozen people "rioted", the others were likely there and not rioting. The people at an event or gathering are not a lump-of-humanity but are individuals, and most here certainly did not riot. I've been in crowds where a dozen or so idiots crossed the legal line, but the crowds did not.

I am not saying that all or most present were rioting but in comparing riots the media reports will make it seemed everyone present were rioters .
One more thing I am glad the cops didn't overreacted and add to the problem , just that I wished they would use as much tact in other instances as they did this one.

originally posted by: WeRpeons
a reply to: Spider879

I have no doubt these fraternities played a big part in the rioting. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why the riot occurred down a street where several fraternities are located.

In my opinion, I think Colleges and Universities should get rid of Sororities and Fraternities altogether. They create divisiveness, a distraction away from student's academics, and they have a reputations for being involved in hazing's which have caused a dozen deaths since 2008. They're charitable involvement is shadowed by promiscuous sexual parties and the chronic abuse of alcohol. Colleges and Universities shouldn't be in the business of harboring this type of behavior among it's student population.

Then who would train the next generation of politicians?

a reply to: IShotMyLastMuse

A guy in a bloodstain shirt, holding an axe....shock horror!!! Ha Ha, Sorry dude, you are obviously not American.

You see, over there, they have this funny tradition call All Hallows Eve in European or Halloween in Americaspeak.

Its where people, young people have parties and dressups and try to scare each other by...I dont know...Dressing in a bloodstained shirt and carrying a toy axe perhaps?

Don't worry, its obviously a Halloween prank, or the Cops would have shot him already and it would have been all over the news.
I'm guessing the majority of revellers would have been in "Costume".

Just a lot of drunk college kids getting out of hand in a college town. It was apparently over by 1:00 AM. Three arrests and a windshield smashed. Most everyone is sober and back in class Monday. It's not at all like the dangerous social unrest in Ferguson or Baltimore with the underlying chronic issues that don't vanish when the party is over.

a reply to: reldra

And why would we/should we know the area?

a reply to: IShotMyLastMuse

A lot of the damage in Ferguson and Baltimore was caused by fires intentionally set to cover up the theft of drugs from drug stores.