Community Corner

A Fist Fight Ended a Tree Sit-in in People's Park

A two day tree-sit in People's Park ended a fistfight Tuesday.

There was a “two-daylong tree-sit in People’s Park Tuesday,” according to the Daily Cal that “effectively ended” in a fistfight.

A tree-sitter “descended from his perch to engage in a fight with another park occupant,” the paper reports.

Read more from the Daily Cal article:

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Neither [UCPD spokesperson Lt. Eric Tejada] nor park occupants could provide a clear consensus on what the tree-sitter was protesting. A tree-sitter demonstrating in the park in March said he was protesting “Phase 2” of a campus-sponsored maintenance project that began in the park in December and a stay-away order issued to another individual who had allegedly been causing conflict there.

The Berkeley Daily Planet reported in March that Hate Man, a well-known figure in the park, was issued a stay-away order by the district attorney.

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According to Christine Shaff, communications director of the UC Berkeley’s Facilities Services Department, there is no validity to the claim that the campus’s maintenance project is divided into phases.

The protests and discord surrounding the maintenance project are reflective of a broader conflict over control of the park between the campus and park activists, who believe the park ought to retain the egalitarian reputation it gained during the 1960s.


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