UC Police Raid 'Occupy the Farm' Protest in Albany

Editor's note: This article was updated Monday, May 13, soon after it originally appeared, with three more arrests of activists at the site after UC workers began plowing under crops that the Occupy group had planted. However, technical problems with the Patch platform changeover Tuesday night caused the updated version to disappear. Photo captions and credits also were removed. Another article published Tuesday evening about the Occupy members returning to the lot for a couple of hours that evening and a counter-demonstration by Albany residents against the Occupy group also disappeared. (Our engineers are trying to restore what was lost.)

One person was arrested Monday morning when UC Berkeley police evicted the Occupy the Farm activists who had occupied a university-owned lot next to University Village in Albany.

Around 4:30 a.m., about 30 UC police officers moved in and instructed the 20 people then camping at the site to leave within 10 minutes or be arrested, said Berkeley Associate Vice Chancellor Claire Holmes. One person was arrested "because he was unable to follow the instructions," Holmes said.

The raid was timed for the early morning because it was "safe and least disruptive," she said.

The activists sent out text blasts and tweets shortly before 5 a.m. saying the encampment was being raided and asking for supporters to come to the site.

The activists have been allowed to go back onto the lot to retrieve belongings, Holmes said. A group of them have been congregated on San Pablo Avenue, she said.

The occupation started with nearly 100 people marching from Albany City Hall Saturday afternoon to the lot, which UC wants to develop as grocery store/retail complex. The proposed anchor tenant is Sprouts Farmers Market.

The activists began planting crops in the plot, which sits on the northwest corner of San Pablo and Monroe Street.

Occupy the Farm took over the nearby crop-growing Gill Tract field for three weeks a year ago before being evicted at that time.

Asked if Occupy the Farm would be permitted to tend the crops they planted on Saturday and Sunday, Holmes said, "I think that's not going to be possible given our experience with them last year."

She said the planning for the lot that was cleared this morning has been a five-year cooperative process involving the city and citizens of Albany. She said a number of Albany residents came out Saturday to show their support for development plan and opposition to the Occupy the Farm action.

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