79-08-A5

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People's Park II

Transcript On the last commentary I discussed an article which appeared on the tenth anniversary of the tragic and ugly "People's Park" riot at the University of California, Berkeley. One person died and another was blinded on that terrible May 15th. Hundreds were injured. Here is the truth about that riot. The university had acquired a piece of property a few blocks from the campus. The intention was to develop it as an outdoor recreational field for the students. Berkeley had attracted a colony of squatters known as the "Street People". They aligned themselves with the radical dissenters on the campus. Their current cause was that no one had the right to own land just because they'd bought it. The land, according to them, belonged to everyone. They homesteaded the university property and defied the university to proceed with its plans for development. The Chancellor met with and tried to reason with them and of course got no where. At the same time he was receiving countless complaints from the homeowners neighboring on the Park. Their nights were made miserable by raucous all night parties complete with bonfires and bongo drum serenades. Their lawns were used for romance as well as substitutes for the park's non-existent toilet facilities. Housewives were afraid to use the sidewalks even in daylight hours and evidence was overwhelming that drug use among the squatters was commonplace. May 15th was set as the day work would start on the recreational field. A fence was erected in the early morning hours. A noon time rally on the campus ended with the cry, "on to the park!" A mob of 2,000 armed with broken chunks of concrete and footlong pieces of steel reinforcing rod, which were thrown end over end, with horrifying results, swept down on the Berkeley police. The officers never drew their guns and in a matter of seconds 75 of them were on the pavement over by the mob. Sheriff's deputies had been held in reserve. Armed with shotguns they fired the lightest of birdshot into the mob as they came to the rescue of the downed police more than forty of whom had to be hospitalized. The mob grew and spread out into the shopping areas near the campus. A reserve policeman's car was overturned and set on fire. He was knocked down by the rock throwing mob and might have lost his life if he hadn't been rescued by citizens who dragged him into the building under a shower of rocks. It was late afternoon when I received a call from the President of the University who told me was with the Mayor, the Sheriff, and the Police Chief and they were unanimous in their belief they could no longer guarantee the safety of the citizens of Berkeley. They asked that the National Guard be sent in. The "People's Park" is not, as the author of the news article said it was, "a romantic memory". This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 79-08-A5 Production Date 05/29/1979 Book/Page RPtV-449 Audio Youtube? No
		Added Notes