UC Regents Meeting, 3/29

From the Daily Cal:

SAN FRANCISCO – Three UCLA students were detained by UCPD Thursday morning during the final day of the UC Board of Regents meeting, following an interruption of the meeting during the public comment section that stalled the meeting for about 40 minutes.

The three students — who have been identified by a UCSF press release as Andrew Harkness-Newton, Cheryl Deutsch and Mathew Sandoval — were arrested by UCPD in the hall outside the meeting conference room. The meeting was briefly interrupted when board chair Sherry Lansing attempted to end the public comment section, which started around 8:35 a.m.

Audience members asked for an extension and for additional speakers to speak who were supposedly signed up on a public comment list. When Lansing said she could not extend the public comment period, audience members began a mic check, which then led to some board members leaving the room.

UCPD then arrived and surrounded the group protesting in the audience, asking them to leave the main conference room.

Police officers followed protesters outside the room, where a confrontation between police and protesters occurred and the students were arrested. Charges are pending against the students, according to the UCSF press release.

Know Your Rights, Free Speech, Protests & Demonstrations in California

A handy guide for California protestors from the ACLU here.

And from the San Francisco National Lawyers Guild, printable "Know Your Rights" wallet cards in Spanish and English here.

"We produced this guide for people like you: people who are not afraid to stand up for what they believe and those who may never have thought of themselves as protesters but who are forced into action to protect a precious freedom or right. Native Californian or newly arrived immigrant, student or worker, environmentalist or pro-choice activist—if you want to speak out, this guide is for you.

You are part of a vigorous tradition of protest that dates back decades in our state: from the workers who went on strike against exploitative labor conditions on the docks in San Pedro in 1923 and were arrested by the hundreds; to the repressive Red Scare years, when demonstrators were hosed down by police outside House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in San Francisco City Hall; to the civil rights protesters of the 1960s, who helped end segregation in housing developments and businesses throughout California."