After night of violent protests, Berkeley cleans up damage

Berkeley residents woke up Thursday to boarded-up businesses, shattered glass and the remnants of fires — sprawling destruction left by protesters in the wake of a scheduled speech by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.

Police canceled the talk on Wednesday night by the Breitbart News editor as the demonstration escalated into chaotic turmoil that left five people with various degrees of injuries.

Several dozen UC Berkeley students showed up with brooms and trash bags to clean up the mess as dawn broke Thursday, revealing the scope of the previous night’s vandalism.

Workers clean up a an area where a mobile light tower stood which was set on fire during protests against a planned speech by right-wing writer Milo Yiannopoulos at the University of California, Berkeley, Feb. 3, 2017. The university announced the cancellation of Yiannopoulos� speech about an hour after the protests began Wednesday night. less Workers clean up a an area where a mobile light tower stood which was set on fire during protests against a planned speech by right-wing writer Milo Yiannopoulos at the University of California, Berkeley, Feb. ... more Photo: JIM WILSON, NYT Photo: JIM WILSON, NYT Image 1 of / 85 Caption Close After night of violent protests, Berkeley cleans up damage 1 / 85 Back to Gallery

Student Alexander Espinosa Pieb, a junior, said he cut his hand picking up shards of glass, but shrugged it off.

“It’s part of the job,” he said. “The group that did all the violence wasn’t students. They were a bunch of destructive anarchists.”

By 8 a.m., workers at the Berkeley Art Museum had painted over graffiti reading “f— art” with white paint on its white front wall.

“This is our way to show the world we’re not about violence,” said Juliana Mora, a sophomore, who threw together a “Clean Up Berkeley” Facebook event that already had 500 responses from students on Thursday morning.

Joining the cleanup groups was William Morrow, student body president, who said in a statement that the cleanup proved students “care about this campus, about the buildings, the people, about maintaining a campus atmosphere that’s inviting to the rest of the world.”

UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks called the violence an “attack on our fundamental values” and vowed that the campus would remain “committed to free speech.” He praised the actions of police and student leaders who had tried to keep order.

One person, identified as a nonstudent, was arrested Wednesday night for failure to disperse, according to campus police. On Thursday, two nonstudents were arrested for attacking two members of the Berkeley College Republicans, the group that invited Yiannopoulos to campus, while they were being interviewed during the protest. Police said they were studying videos from the Wednesday violence in an attempt to identify suspects.

Damage to the campus was estimated at $100,000, including broken windows, a broken generator, a fire-scarred tree and graffiti, according to a statement from the university. Ten downtown businesses were also damaged, officials said.

Much of the destruction was focused on businesses along Center Street near Shattuck Avenue and on buildings at Sproul Plaza on the UC Berkeley campus.

Vandals damaged six ATMs at the Wells Fargo branch along Shattuck Avenue, where 13 plywood planks covered smashed doors and windows.

Sixteen similar boards covered broken doors and windows at Chase Bank across Center Street along Shattuck, where four ATMs were smashed.

At Bank of America, three ATMs and 12 windows were broken, and the Starbucks at Oxford and Center had boarded-up and broken windows.

“Destruction and violence are contrary to progressive values and have no place in our community,” Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín said in a statement Thursday. “I support those who peacefully come together in pursuit of a just and inclusive country that stands united with our immigrant population and the many others who are being targeted in this national political climate.”

UC Berkeley painter Tony Lopez was preparing to scrape graffiti off a window at Sproul Plaza, where more windows were smashed.

“This is a lot of broken windows,” he said. “We have one glazier. We’ll probably have to call in someone from outside.”

Steve Rubenstein and Evan Sernoffsky are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com, esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF, @EvanSernoffsky