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Berkeley City Council will meet December 16 at Longfellow School

Erin Baldassari (BCN)
Thursday December 11, 2014 - 04:15:00 PM

Next week's Berkeley City Council meeting has been relocated to a larger venue after the mayor canceled Tuesday's meeting due to large anticipated crowds. 

The regular City Council meeting is scheduled for Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. in the Longfellow Middle School Auditorium at 1500 Derby St. in Berkeley, and a special City Council meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in the same location, according to a meeting agenda posted on the city's website.  

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates said on Twitter that Tuesday's canceled meeting has yet to be rescheduled. Bates postponed the meeting because "the council chambers, which hold about 125 people, could not accommodate the large turnout expected to attend," he said. 

On Tuesday, hundreds of people rallied outside City Hall in Berkeley, where council members Kriss Worthington and Jesse Arreguin addressed the crowd.  

It was the fourth night of demonstrations in as many days protesting recent grand jury decisions to not indict white police officers in the deaths of unarmed black men.  

On Saturday, Bates said police assisted the demonstrators by diverting traffic but dispersed the crowd after it became violent. 

Bates said some protesters decried the officers' use of tear gas on demonstrators and said police used excessive force on the crowd. 

"It was at the Public Safety Building, when some individuals began throwing dangerous objects at police -- including fist-sized rocks, bricks, an ice pick and metal bars -- that the police took action and began to disperse the crowd," Bates said in a statement. "In the wake of the protests, some citizens have voiced strong support and sympathy for police, while others have criticized police for using tear gas and allegedly excessive force." 

The California Highway Patrol arrested more than 150 demonstrators on Monday after they blocked Interstate Highway 80 in Emeryville and Berkeley police said they have arrested a total of 27 more, including 21 men, four women and two juveniles.  

Of those arrested by Berkeley police, 19 were from cities outside of Berkeley, including Oakland, San Francisco and Richmond, police said.  

The most common charges have been resisting arrest or failure to disperse, but three were charged with assault with a deadly weapon, three with battery against an officer and two with weapons charges, police said. 

On Wednesday, a much smaller crowd of 100 to 150 people gathered at the University of California at Berkeley and continued to march into Oakland.  

The demonstration ended abruptly after an undercover law enforcement officer pulled out his gun and pointed it at protesters after the demonstrators outed him and his partner.