Police social engineering of Berkeley protest (12.06)

Video is here: https://vimeo.com/114310913

Police Mutual Aid: Social Engineering of Berkeley Protest

On the night of Saturday December 6th, a peaceful gathering of protesters was outside the Berkeley police station on Center St and MLK Way.  The Berkeley police were joined by other agencies including UC Berkeley, Alameda, Oakland and Hayward police.  The line of police stood between the police station and protesters, who were rallying on the street outside the station.  The protest had up to this point been peaceful and uncontroversial.  Tear-gas was then deployed into the crowd by an unknown member of an unknown police force. The police made no advancement onto the protesters, which traveled a short distance up to the intersection of MLK Way and University Avenue.

Then mysterious men in black attire and black masks started breaking windows of Trader Joe's on University Avenue.  Along with breaking windows, the people in black hit those who tried to intervene to keep the protest devoid of property damage.  The protest that had been united, now was divided between those who wanted to maintain a protest free of property damage and those who were excited at the aspect of breaking things.  The police still made no advancement, and were unfazed by the breaking of windows of the grocery store.

The social dynamic of the protest had completely changed after the tear-gas was fired.  A calm protest became agitated and arguments grew between people in the crowd.  The initial breaking of the windows at Trader Joe's cascaded into windows being broken at a Radio Shack and the looting of the electronic supply store.

There are 2 ways to look at what occurred.  In recent days, the use of undercover Oakland police officers at protests has been revealed. On Dec 10th, undercover officers who were instigating the breaking of windows were approached, began violent, and one of the officers pulled out a gun.  (See: http://boingboing.net/2014/12/11/undercover-cop-aims-gun-at-pho.html)   It can be theorized that the Dec 6th window breaking was instigated by police agents.  The timing of the windows being broken followed the firing of the tear-gas.  The people who broke the windows at Trader Joe's attacked those who tried to stop them, similar behavior to the known undercover officers on Dec 10th.  The police did not try to move the crowd away from Trader Joe's; they stood back letting the vandalism occur.  The breaking of the windows divided the crowd.  And the vandalism became a talking point in news coverage of the protest.

Another theory is that the police shot tear-gas into the crowd hoping it would incite a few people to start vandalism, and that the vandalism would continue into something that could divide and discredit the protest.  Even if the people who broke the windows were not acting on behalf of police agencies, the fact remains that the police did not motion towards the crowd to stop multiple windows from being broken at the grocery store, and did not make any motions to prevent damage to other stores in the area, or to prevent looting at Radio Shack.

There was no particularly compelling reason to drive people away from the police station.  The protest was non-violent, and was not particularly loud or offensive in any way.  It was more of a vigil for people to express their distrust in the police agencies across the US.  There was a feeling that the protest on its own would have dispersed on its own, if left alone by police.  But the police agitated the situation, by needless deploying tear-gas into the crowd, and driving a now angry group of people down University Avenue.

The police social engineered the dynamic of the protest.  The social cohesion of the rally had been disrupted.  What would have been remembered as a peaceful vigil of solidarity, became noted in the press for anger and vandalism.

Video is here: https://vimeo.com/114310913