BERKELEY, Calif. _ Masked rioters dressed head-to-toe in black got the blame Thursday for co-opting an otherwise peaceful protest at the University of California, Berkeley, forcing the cancellation of a planned speech by the controversial right-wing provocateur, Milo Yiannopoulos, according to campus officials, police and students.
The group of roughly 100 to 150 people moved as a unit up Bancroft Way on Wednesday evening before infiltrating the estimated 1,500 to 2,000 peaceful demonstrators participating in a dance party and protest at Sproul Plaza, said UC Berkeley police Sgt. Sabrina Reich. She called the group "black bloc anarchists," a term used to describe the militant tactics, black dress, masked faces and aggressive actions of a particular sect of political activists.
Immediately, the group started throwing rocks, M-80 fireworks and gas grenades at police, Reich said, though no officers reported any injuries. The group also tore down barricades outside the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union building, where Yiannopoulos was scheduled to speak, set off flares and lit a generator on fire, which singed a nearby tree.
"It was a peaceful crowd," Reich said of the demonstration that began in the late afternoon. "Certainly folks were chanting, and they were vocal about their opinions in opposition to the speaker being there, but everything was lawful up until this group ... marched onto campus."
The demonstration was initially booked as a dance party that was meant to deflect attention from the Breitbart News editor known for his anti-feminist, anti-trans and anti-Muslim comments. Senior Zack Brooks didn't believe any of the black bloc anarchists are affiliated with the university and he said he was disappointed they co-opted the peaceful protest, which he said made the students look like fascists who don't support free speech. Indeed, much of the coverage of the protests nationally has stated or implied that students were behind the violence.
"To me, the most disappointing thing is how this is going to be portrayed based on the actions of a small subgroup of people who do not share the same political tenets as the demonstrators who were here originally," Brooks said.
UC Berkeley officials on Thursday condemned the violent protests "in the strongest possible terms."
"We deeply regret that the violence unleashed by this group undermined the First Amendment rights of the speaker, as well as those who came to lawfully assemble and protest his presence," university spokesman Dan Mogulof said in a statement.
While some have asked whether law enforcement should have been more prepared for the fracas, Reich said UC police brought in "dozens" of extra officers from campuses throughout the state and instituted crowd-control measures to try to prevent what happened. This included metal barricades and, before Yiannopoulos' arrival, extensive preparation with university officials and the Berkeley College Republicans, who hosted the event. Ultimately, she said there was no way to prepare for "100 anarchists coming onto campus."
"There was no way we could have anticipated that," Reich said. "We certainly knew the speaker was not a popular one, and that's why we went above and beyond in our preparation."
Several students said that while they disagree with the views Yiannopoulos espouses, they didn't think shutting down the event was the right tactic. A better response, said freshman Freya Zhu, would have been to let Yiannopoulos speak.
"Even if I might not like what he says or what he claims to say ... if you obstruct him, it still serves his purpose even more so than if they had not obstructed him," she said.
Ultimately, officials said they canceled the event for Yiannopoulos' safety. Yiannopoulos posted a message on his Facebook page after his evacuation.
"One thing we do know for sure," he wrote while describing his evacuation from the campus, "the Left is absolutely terrified of free speech and will do literally anything to shut it down."
The quote did not appear on his Facebook page early Thursday.
Rather than supporting the views of students protesting what they described as Yiannopoulos' hate speech, the demonstrators played right into the alt-right's hand, said sophomore Andy Jaime.
"I really think the speaker did this to undermine the Left," he said.
Before news spread of the cancellation, the agitators grew more unruly, breaking windows, and setting a generator ablaze outside the venue. Hundreds spread out downtown, with some people smashing plate glass doors and windows of several banks and businesses and ATMs, which security guards inside could only watch.
Businesses cleaned up late Wednesday night and Thursday, with many comparing the damage to the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter protest in 2015.
Lance Goree, the operations manager for the Downtown Berkeley Association, started his day at 4 a.m., painting over graffiti, sweeping broken glass and helping businesses board up their windows.
"The message of the protest starts getting lost, and I think that's the saddest thing," he said. "Because that's an important part of free speech as well."
Downtown Berkeley Association Executive Director John Caner called the damage "unfortunate." Protesters vandalized 11 businesses, targeting banks and corporate chains, he said.
UC police made three arrests _all nonstudents _ during the protest. Edward Thomas Kuo, 19, was taken in on suspicion of failing to disperse Wednesday. Early Thursday morning, two men were arrested for assaulting two Berkeley College Republicans who were conducting an interview in front of Sproul Plaza.
Berkeley police spokesman Officer Byron White said two people filed reports of battery but that his department made no arrests. Chase Bank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Union Bank, Mechanics Bank, Starbucks, T-Mobile, and Sprint were all targeted, Caner said, and White said protesters tagged with graffiti a UC art museum across from the Starbucks.
Mogulof said the violence should not deter students from practicing their right to free speech and peaceful assembly, and they remain committed to creating a campus that encompasses those values.
"We are now, and will remain in the future, completely committed to free speech as an essential to our educational mission," he said. "And a vital component of our identity."
