Protests to Save Berkeley People’s Park Continue After 3 Violent Nights : Development: City is building volleyball courts at famed site of anti-war sit-ins and free speech. Some say it is being done to evict the homeless.

Chanting demonstrators rallied and tried to march Saturday against plans to build a volleyball court at People’s Park, the focus of three straight nights of violent protests.

More than 200 people assembled at the park and moved into the street but were blocked by police in riot gear, who earlier had warned protesters that they would not be allowed to march.

Some demonstrators sat in the street and others shouted at police. Several protesters were taken away by officers. Police said Saturday night that five arrests had been made during the day.

After the noisy standoff, in which several demonstrators played volleyball over the police line before an officer grabbed the ball, both sides backed down. Officers moved back onto Telegraph Avenue, and the crowd headed back to the park.

“We did all right, I think. We were trying to do it without hurting people,” said Berkeley police Lt. Jim Polk.

The protesters marched up University Avenue on Saturday night, shouting “Save Our Park!” as some people in lines at restaurants and movie theaters flashed them the peace sign.

Before their earlier attempt to march, demonstrators linked arms near the construction area, where a bulldozer continued to clear part of the grassy park near UC Berkeley. The machine worked behind a chain-link fence, police barricades and a line of police officers.

“Whose Park? People’s Park!” the crowd chanted as it faced the police line.

“The volleyball court is not the problem. Once the volleyball court is in there, they (the university) are going to take more and more,” said James McDaniel, a homeless man who once lived in People’s Park.

“But it’s the homeless people who won’t have a place to go,” he added.

At least 77 people have been arrested since Wednesday in what started as a peaceful daytime sit-in but turned into three straight nights of broken windows, bottle throwing and scuffles with police.

Protesters gathered Saturday just off Telegraph Avenue, where boarded-up store windows near the university showed evidence of the previous nights’ rampages.

Friday night ended with police firing dummy bullets at about 100 protesters who marched around the park and nearby shopping area, refusing to heed police warnings to disperse. A large dumpster had been turned over and set on fire in the middle of Telegraph Avenue.

Some demonstrators threw bottles at police, but most fled. There were reports of three arrests.

Earlier Friday, Berkeley Police Chief Dash Butler said he would allow peaceful marches.

“People do have basic rights you know,” Butler said. He defended officers’ use of wooden and rubber bullets, saying they were responding to the escalating violence.

The grassy, three-acre park is famed as the site of free speech and Vietnam War protests in the ‘60s, but has since turned into a haven for homeless people.

Last week’s clashes erupted over a city contract to lease the center of the park from the university for $1 and install lighting, toilets, and volleyball and basketball courts.

Merchants and city officials have said that the park’s shabbiness and filth kept visitors away but attracted drug dealers.

Street people have complained that the volleyball court project is merely a way to evict them from the place they called home.