More than 1,000 protest in Berkeley, shut down I-80

BERKELEY, Calif. — More than 1,000 protesters marched for hours on city streets, shutting down Interstate 80 and stopping a train in the third night of demonstrations Monday over police killings in Missouri and New York.

They confronted a line of police officers in riot gear outside police headquarters before heading to a BART train station, prompting authorities to close it. Protesters then headed west on University Avenue, a four-lane divided street to shut down Interstate 80 in both directions.

A line of police officers in riot gear blocked the ramp to the freeway.

Some protesters managed to get around officers and onto the freeway but were forced back. Then protesters retook the highway, halting traffic in both directions.

Dozens of protesters also marched to the railroad tracks, blocking an Amtrak train. A protester held up a sign "Black lives matter" in front of the stopped train.

Leman Woods, 41, came to the protests after getting off work at UC Berkeley.

"I'm here because I am tired of police brutality," Woods, an Oakland resident, said.

He said it has been painful to watch news coverage of the police shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown and the chokehold death of Eric Garner.

"It's sad, it's hard," Woods said. "It shouldn't be happening to nobody of any race or color. And police just get away with it."

The protests were peaceful in contrast to Sunday night when some protesters vandalized and looted businesses, lit garbage cans on fire and blocked a nearby freeway despite calls from many in the crowd for a "peaceful protest."

"I am very unhappy with the violence. What people in Berkeley are generally in favor of the issues involved and they are very sympathetic with the people in Ferguson and people in New York. But what has happened is that peaceful rallies have all turned into violent confrontations," Mayor Tom Bates said in an interview late Monday.

"We are used to having peaceful demonstrations in Berkeley. But it looks like a whole group of people coming from the outside are bound and determined to get confrontation."

He called violent elements of the protesters "cowards and thugs who need to take off their masks," Associated Press reported.

SUNDAY DESTRUCTION

On Sunday night violence ignited when a man in a mask smashed the window of a Radio Shack and began stealing merchandise. Protesters swarmed the man and his accomplice, throwing boxes of merchandise back into the store. A protester who tried to stop the man from vandalizing and looting was hit with a hammer.

Home to the University of California's flagship campus, and with a history of demonstrations, Berkeley leaders place limits on their police. Officers cannot use search dogs, stun guns or helicopters and are restricted in the type of gear they can wear, said Berkeley police union President Sgt. Chris Stines.

Around 9 p.m. protesters got past California Highway Patrol officers onto Highway 24 in Oakland and blocked multiple lanes of eastbound traffic. The Highway Patrol said officers fired tear gas after protesters threw rocks and bottles and tried to set fire to a patrol vehicle.

While many marchers remained peaceful, groups of protesters roamed the downtown area for hours, throwing trash cans in the streets and lighting garbage on fire, smashing the windows of businesses and looting stores including Sprint and Whole Foods. Protesters also smashed windows at the Civic Center building.

By the time the demonstrations ended at 3:30 a.m., 16 businesses in Berkeley had their windows smashed, Bates said. Police made eight arrests.

Peaceful protesters confronted protesters vandalizing and looting businesses and cleaned up trash they left in the streets.

Bates said protesters causing damage are undercutting the point of the demonstrations.

"It's really striking out at the wrong thing and diminishing from the message which is we need to do something about police and community relations," Bates said.

The demonstrations were just the latest to express growing frustration across the country with grand jury decisions in Missouri and New York not to indict white police officers in the deaths of two African-American men.

Bates said police would continue to try to keep the demonstration "as peaceful as possible and protect the public's lives and safety."

Contributing: William M. Welch in Los Angeles; Associated Press