When I heard about the latest brouhaha at People’s Park, I thought, Here we go again. I’ve been here for 44 years and there always have been periodic riots there. Even before I arrived, People’s Park was a flash point between protesters and cops. I can say little about those early days, but this time, it’s hard for me to see the current conflict aside from my experiences of what is happening with homelessness in Oakland.
U.C. Berkeley has the right and an obligation to build new student housing. For years there have been reports of students living in their vehicles, or on the streets. People’s Park is the logical place to build. On the other hand, nobody has the right to pitch a tent and live in People’s Park if the owner, the University of California, is opposed. That is like Carroll Fife squatting in that house years ago, an illegal act for which she has never expressed remorse. The insistence of the few dozen people who violently fought the police yesterday, tearing down fences and vandalizing construction equipment, is outrageous. As I write these words, the protesters have vowed to fight again today, when the workers return. If they do, I hope they’re swiftly arrested.
These fifty or so protesters have an exaggerated sense of entitlement. They believe that, because they have very definite views on this subject, they should be allowed to have their way. Someone (their parents?) should long ago have taught them that that’s not how life works. Apparently, nobody did; and now, we have this ridiculous contretemps in Berkeley.
But where does this sense of entitlement come from? I would argue it comes from decades of U.C. Berkeley, the Berkeley Police Department, and Berkeley city government not cracking down on lawbreaking. Berkeley, like Oakland, is a very “live and let live” city. It’s progressive. There’s an immoderate amount of cop-hating that neither city has ever cared to admit or address. There’s sympathy for the underdog—and who is more of an underdog than homeless people? In Oakland, homeless people feel the same sense of entitlement because, over the decades, Oakland leaders have not exercised proper control. Homeless people come to Oakland because they’ve heard the city will be soft on them. It’s a self-perpetuating tragedy.
These People’s Park protests over the years also have been fueled by youthful idealism. Young people can be great, as when they participated in the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s, or even today, when we see students rallying for sensible gun control in America.
But young people also can be unrealistic. U.C. Berkeley is going to build that student housing at People’s Park; there’s no doubt about it. The question simply is, how many arrests, how many riots, how much damage will be done in the interim? When I look at some of the faces who rioted yesterday, I see two possible futures unfolding for them. One—which I hope for--is that they get a good education, go on to successful careers and families, and live to be mature adults who one day will regret their youthful silliness. Another possible future—which I do not wish upon them—is that they will wake up one day, in their 40s, cold and wet and alone in a tent, or on a piece of cardboard on the sidewalk. Homelessness then will not be the fun adventure it is for them today.
I urge the protesters to give up their little game and go home. If they decide to get rowdy today, or tomorrow, I urge the cops—backed up by the Mayor and City Council—to do whatever is necessary in order to restore order to People’s Park and get that housing built fast.
Steve Heimoff