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Merchants vent after lootings on Telegraph

By Matthew Artz
Thursday October 31, 2002

Telegraph Avenue merchants demanded justice Wednesday, one day after about 30 teenagers looted more than $2,000 in merchandise from a sporting good store. 

But police said arrests in the case were unlikely. “We are taking the matter very seriously,” said Officer Mary Kusmiss. But Kusmiss noted that without good descriptions of the kids, the looters would probably not be found. 

According to police, a group of teenagers left an AC Transit bus slightly before 11:30 a.m. at Durant and Telegraph avenues. Several of the kids ran into the Gap on the 2300 block of Telegraph, where they reportedly threw clothes on the floor and tried to steal merchandise. After being stopped by Gap security, they barged into the Foot Locker across the street and ran off with jerseys and other clothing. It is not known which high school the teenagers attend. 

Merchants connected the looting to a nearby protest held by the pro-affirmative action group Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN). They noted that BAMN held a similar rally March 8, 2001 in which an estimated 75 high school students scheduled to attend the protest instead stole about $12,000 in footwear from The Athlete’s Foot on the same block of Telegraph as the Foot Locker. No arrests were made in that case. 

“The big question is who is By Any Means Necessary and what is the message being delivered to the schools,” said Kathy Berger, president of the Telegraph Area Association. 

Police, however, say that unlike last year there is no evidence tying Tuesday’s looting to the rally. According to police, the protesters were attending a pre-rally event at the First Congregational Church at 2345 Channing Way when the looting was taking place. 

BAMN organizer Yvette Felarca said Wednesday that she was not aware of any violence and refused to discuss which high schools participated in the rally and what level of supervision was provided by the schools. 

Local high school officials were also hesitant to address the subject. 

An assistant principal at Oakland Technical School, the only school confirmed to have sent students to Wednesday’s rally, insisted that they were chaperoned by school staff. The assistant principal declined to give his name. 

 

Berkeley High School security officer Craig White said students in Berkeley were not authorized to attend the rally and that he did not see any large exodus of students heading by bus to Telegraph Avenue. 

No other officials from local high schools returned telephone calls. 

According to UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore, BAMN failed to alert university officials that they planned to bus in high school kids for the rally. Nevertheless, she said, in light of last year’s violence, UC Berkeley staff telephoned local schools to anticipate attendance. 

Merchants vented most of their anger at the police department. 

“What’s disturbing here is that the police knew this was taking place and they knew what happened last year, but they didn’t inform the merchants and they didn’t put police on Telegraph,” said Ed Munger who owns the property leased to Foot Locker. 

Kusmiss said that UC Berkeley police advised Berkeley officers that the rally was expected to be peaceful. Acting on that information, Berkeley police dispatched six bicycle officers to the church rally, about two blocks from the site of the looting. 

According to Kusmiss, at 11:27 a.m. while the protesters were still at the church, police received a non-emergency call from the Gap about teenagers ransacking the store. The bike officers were sent from the church to the Gap, but when they arrived at 11:31 a.m., the kids had left the store. Then at 11:33 a.m. police received a 911 call from Foot Locker, directly across the street from the Gap. Berkeley police dispatched 25 officers to the scene, but none of the officers, including the officers at the Gap, were able to catch the kids. 

Munger insisted that the response was inadequate and indicative of the city’s lack of will to protect Telegraph merchants. “We’re trying to make this an attractive place, but those stumblebums in City Hall don’t seem to really care,” he said. 

 

Contact reporter at matt@ 

berkeleydailyplanet.net