The State : 30 Arrested in Berkeley Melee

Thirty people were arrested and at least one police officer was injured during what Berkeley police said was a riot set off by a series of charges by nearly 400 masked demonstrators on phalanxes of police officers near the University of California campus. It was the third such demonstration in five months by protest groups, said Berkeley Police Lt. Michel de Latour. Although the demonstrators would not talk to reporters, wire services and campus police said the crowd was made up mostly of people who had been attending an anarchists’ convention in San Francisco. The masked group threw soft drink cans, rocks and other debris at police and the campus ROTC building, commandeered a Coca-Cola delivery truck and looted it, and dragged burning trash dumpsters into the street, authorities said. One officer received a minor cut from a thrown bottle. Police said those arrested were jailed for violations ranging from assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer to disturbing the peace.