Berkeley protest swells to more than 1,000, closes I-80

UC Berkeley student Zaynab Abdulqudir stands in front of an Amtrak train as protestors demonstrate against grand jury decisions in Ferguson and New York, in Berkeley, CA, on Monday, December 8, 2014. UC Berkeley student Zaynab Abdulqudir stands in front of an Amtrak train as protestors demonstrate against grand jury decisions in Ferguson and New York, in Berkeley, CA, on Monday, December 8, 2014. Photo: Michael Short / Special To The Chronicle Photo: Michael Short / Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 105 Caption Close Berkeley protest swells to more than 1,000, closes I-80 1 / 105 Back to Gallery

More than 1,000 protesters marched through Berkeley on Monday night, confronting police outside their headquarters before heading west and blocking Interstate 80 off and on throughout the evening before being herded off by police.

California Highway Patrol officers arrested more than 150 protesters after they were corralled in Emeryville and prevented from getting back onto the freeway. Several journalists were caught in the dragnet but were released. The demonstrators were booked at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on a variety of allegations, including resisting arrest.

The freeway demonstration was the latest instance in which protesters clambered onto a highway in the East Bay, blocking traffic.

The CHP said it would allow people to protest but that the freeway “is not the place to express one’s opinions. Vehicles on the freeway travel at extremely high rates of speed, and it is difficult for even the most prepared drivers to stop if a pedestrian steps out in front of their vehicle.”

The rally, the third in as many nights, began on Telegraph Avenue near UC Berkeley around 5 p.m. as hundreds gathered to denounce police killings of unarmed black men in Missouri and New York.

Now-familiar chants of “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” and “Out of the houses! Into the streets!” rang out as the march moved up Durant Avenue and protesters called for students to leave their dormitories and join the demonstration.

The crowd swelled to more than 1,000 after 6:30 p.m. and wound its way through downtown Berkeley and to police headquarters on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, where officers in riot gear stood behind barricades as protesters chanted, “Who do you protect?”

BART station closed

BART officials closed the Downtown Berkeley Station just before 6:30 p.m. as the huge crowd swept through the area. It reopened a few hours later.

From there the march proceeded west as its ranks continued to grow. Police closed off all traffic in the vicinity of University and San Pablo avenues well before the march reached there and formed a skirmish line at Sixth Street.

A lengthy standoff ensued as the line of officers attempted to keep the marchers from gaining access to I-80, just a few blocks to the west. The protesters proved too numerous for the officers, though, as dozens piled onto the freeway at University Avenue, blocking traffic in both directions for a brief time before being pushed back to a nearby frontage road. Officials said one woman stuck on the freeway was in labor and had to be taken to a hospital by ambulance.

Later in the evening, the demonstrators got back onto I-80 and walked in the northbound lanes — stopping traffic there — down to Powell Street in Emeryville before police were able to again clear the freeway.

Another group tried to cross a pedestrian bridge in Berkeley, but was confronted by a line of officers on motorcycles. The protesters staged a sit-in before meeting back up with the larger group.

Just south of the bridge near Addison Street and Essex Way, a group blocked an Amtrak train while another tore down a fence and again blocked traffic on the interstate in both directions, the CHP said.

Danielle Fung, 30, was one of more than a dozen who linked arms and stood on the tracks to stop the slowly rolling train while one blew a conch shell and the others yelled, “Shut it down! Shut it down!” She said she felt like stopping a train represented power.

“We’re standing up for what we want, standing up for ourselves,” she said. “We are bringing attention to humanity.”

Navid Shaghaghi, 30, of Berkeley said blocking a locomotive perhaps had even wider reach than blocking a freeway.

“By shutting down this train, it will delay the rest of the trains in the Bay Area,” he said. “Now everyone will be asking, 'Why are the trains delayed?’ Because of the protesters. Unless we’re free, we will prevent the system from operating.”

Earlier Monday, Berkeley business owners assessed the damage from the weekend’s violent demonstrations. Protesters vandalized and looted stores, set fires and clashed with police on a freeway Sunday night.

Berkeley police arrested five people on suspicion of unspecified crimes stemming from Sunday night’s protest. Two of those arrested had also been sought by police in crimes during the first protest Saturday night, said Officer Jennifer Coats, a Berkeley police spokeswoman.

One was a man who used his skateboard to break a window at the Trader Joe’s store at University Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Coats said. The other was a protester who threw an object at an officer, causing injuries, she said. Two officers suffered minor injuries Sunday night, police said.

“There was significant damage caused to several businesses” along Telegraph and Shattuck avenues, Coats said.

A protester who tried to stop a looting crowd at a RadioShack at Shattuck and Dwight was struck in the head and hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening, police said. The vicious exchange was captured on video.

'It doesn’t make sense’

Carol West, 64, a Berkeley resident for more than 30 years, surveyed the damage while walking her dog on Shattuck near Ashby Avenue on Monday morning.

“I think they have valid points, but all the destruction doesn’t have anything to do with it,” West said. “I was here for the Free Speech Movement. It was never this bad.”

Yvette Valencia-Williams said she heard police helicopters circling for hours above her Berkeley home Sunday night.

“Why destroy these businesses? It doesn’t make sense,” said Williams, who uses a wheelchair and was waiting for a paratransit ride near Walgreens for a doctor’s appointment. “It’s sad. You catch more bees with honey than vinegar.”

Businesses vandalized

Earlier Sunday night, eight protesters were arrested after crowds climbed past lines of California Highway Patrol officers and clambered onto eastbound Highway 24 in Oakland. CHP officers said they deployed tear gas and herded them off the freeway.

The crowd then migrated to downtown Berkeley. Among the businesses where windows were smashed on Shattuck were a Citibank, Chase Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, McDonald’s and Missing Link bike shop. People set trash bins on fire and forced the closure of the Downtown Berkeley BART Station, which opened before 9 p.m.

By midnight Sunday, a few hundred people were still on the streets. The Whole Foods Market on Telegraph was looted, with people taking and passing around bottles of Champagne.

Chronicle staff writers Kevin Fagan, Henry K. Lee and Erin Allday contributed to this report.

Vivian Ho, Evan Sernoffsky and Kale Williams are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Twitter: @VivianHo, @EvanSernoffsky, @sfkale