by EMILY CARUSO
Police attacked a political fundraising event on January 30, bringing chaos to a peaceful evening in San Francisco.
Due to the number of student occupations erupting in California, many students have risked arrest and are in need of defense fees. In an effort to fundraise for multiple defense campaigns across the Bay Area, student activists from University of California-Santa Cruz, University of California-Berkeley and San Francisco State University organized a benefit party in San Francisco.
The peaceful benefit took place in a rented two-tier gallery space. In the bottom level, a sound system was set up, and the area was converted into a dance hall. Above, people were enjoying the social atmosphere and mingling with other students from around the Bay.
Students from San Francisco State University volunteered to promote and run the event, but unfortunately, security wasn’t tight enough, for police abruptly ended the party.
Around 1 a.m., police arrived at the door of the space and ordered an immediate evacuation. Within five minutes of their arrival, they busted through the main doors, which had previously been closed and locked. When the owner of the gallery space asked to see a warrant, he was put into a pain-hold, thrown on the ground and arrested. A younger female officer, who was dressed as a civilian with just a badge hanging around her neck, was pushing and shoving people out of the gallery and into the street.
“I was, as I believe everyone else was, completely unprepared for the amount of unnecessary force used,” said San Francisco State University Freshman Carolina Hicks. “It was police storming in on a dance party put together by students for the benefit of other students.”
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