May Day Eve 2002 RTS in Berkeley

Although May Day celebrations are held worldwide with varying degrees of government acceptance, the U.S. routinely has intense police attention to otherwise innocuous protests. Since the FBI director declared Reclaim the Streets to be a "terrorist" organization last year, the police presence at anarchist protests has been increasingly surreal, including tonight with a strange incident between an undercover cop and three arrestees. Anarchists, radical union workers, communists and an assortment of other people protested tonight in Berkeley.

Berkeley city workers were thanking the protesters for the much-needed overtime pay, but BPD was decidedly less cheerful. One city worker theorized that "its probably because they ultimately exist to violently protect the rich."

What's with the riot gear. The cops in dc didn't even have that on during the A20 anti-war protests which were much larger than what went on in Berkley for May Day. Lord have mercy!

First off, there is no Lord out there.

Second, what was accomplished was that a Temporary Autonomous Zone was created at College and Ashby in particular and in the streets of Berkeley in general that evening. The streets were taken back from cars and cops. Fun was had. Sounds like a lot to me.

there are several reasons why dc didnt use riot gear.
1. they knew the march was going to be largely peaceful.
2. there were van loads of cops in riot gear nearby
3. cops in riot gear tend to piss people off and tend to give our cocksucker cheif of police a bad image .

we had cops in riot gear for our 2nd rts