Police and City Take Hands-Off Approach to Occupy Berkeley

While Occupy Oakland and Occupy San Francisco have experienced their fair share of police activity, the Occupy Berkeley demonstration has been left pretty much alone by the police department and the city.  

So far, the camp has been relatively peaceful.  their interaction with the police has been minimal, consisting of a few motorcycle cops accompanying  on Oct. 15 and an officer stopping by to make a donation. However, on Tuesday a woman was arrested for chasing a man with a knife and threatening to kill him, Sgt. Mary Kusmiss told Berkeley Voice.

"Our biggest concern, obviously from my perspective, is just being safe," said Berkeley Police Chief Meehan at a luncheon with the . "We don't want an encampment where all of a sudden somebody gets stabbed or somebody's drunk or high and hurts themselves. We don't want that. As long as that doesn't happen then it's pretty low on my radar."

On Monday night, the Office of the City Manager issued a notice to demonstrators, requesting that they comply by the regulations of Civic Center Park, but officials say they have no plans to break up the encampment.  

Meanwhile in Oakland, police in riot gear raided the Occupy Oakland encampment in Frank Ogawa Plaza early Tuesday morning and arrested at least 75 protesters, mostly for misdemeanor offenses such as unlawful assembly and lodging. At a news conference, Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said police gave campers the opportunity to leave on their own, and about 30 protesters did.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said in a statement that the encampment was shut down due to health and safety concerns, when it became apparent "that neither the demonstrators nor the City could maintain safe or sanitary conditions, or control the ongoing vandalism." 

Whether or not the Berkeley Police Department will be forced to respond to the same issues remains to be seen.

"The city obviously has other concerns because they've got to maintain the place," said Meehan about the city's occupation by demonstrators. "They've got to pay for all this."

Currently, demonstrators are occupying two encampments in Berkeley — one outside of the and the other in . 

"I think we've been very respectful of the protesters up to this point," said Meehan. "The truth is, there's probably a lot of support for the general theme."

What do you think of the way the City of Berkeley and the Berkeley Police Department have handled the Occupy Berkeley demonstration? Let us know in the comments.