Editing 79-08-A5 (section)

= People's Park II =

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=== Transcript ===
On the last commentary I discussed an article which appeared on the tenth
anniversary of the tragic and ugly "People's Park" riot at the University of
California, Berkeley. One person died and another was blinded on that terrible
May 15th. Hundreds were injured.

Here is the truth about that riot. The university had acquired a piece of
property a few blocks from the campus. The intention was to develop it as an
outdoor recreational field for the students.

Berkeley had attracted a colony of squatters known as the "Street People".
They aligned themselves with the radical dissenters on the campus. Their current
cause was that no one had the right to own land just because they'd bought it.
The land, according to them, belonged to everyone.

They homesteaded the university property and defied the university to proceed
with its plans for development. The Chancellor met with and tried to reason with
them and of course got no where. At the same time he was receiving countless
complaints from the homeowners neighboring on the Park. Their nights were made
miserable by raucous all night parties complete with bonfires and bongo drum
serenades. Their lawns were used for romance as well as substitutes for the park's
non-existent toilet facilities.

Housewives were afraid to use the sidewalks even in daylight hours and
evidence was overwhelming that drug use among the squatters was commonplace.
May 15th was set as the day work would start on the recreational field.
A fence was erected in the early morning hours. A noon time rally on the campus
ended with the cry, "on to the park!" A mob of 2,000 armed with broken chunks
of concrete and footlong pieces of steel reinforcing rod, which were thrown end
over end, with horrifying results, swept down on the Berkeley police.

The officers never drew their guns and in a matter of seconds 75 of them were
on the pavement over by the mob. Sheriff's deputies had been held in reserve.
Armed with shotguns they fired the lightest of birdshot into the mob as they came
to the rescue of the downed police more than forty of whom had to be hospitalized.
The mob grew and spread out into the shopping areas near the campus. A reserve
policeman's car was overturned and set on fire. He was knocked down by the rock
throwing mob and might have lost his life if he hadn't been rescued by citizens
who dragged him into the building under a shower of rocks.

It was late afternoon when I received a call from the President of the University
who told me was with the Mayor, the Sheriff, and the Police Chief and they were
unanimous in their belief they could no longer guarantee the safety of the citizens
of Berkeley. They asked that the National Guard be sent in.

The "People's Park" is not, as the author of the news article said it was, "a
romantic memory".

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.
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=== Details ===
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<TR><TD WIDTH="150">Batch Number</TD><TD WIDTH="150">{{PAGENAME}}</TD></TR>
<TD>Production Date</TD><TD>05/29/[[Radio1979|1979]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Book/Page</TD><TD>[[Radio_Commentary_Books#Reagan.27s_Path_to_Victory|RPtV-449]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Audio</TD><TD></TD></TR>
<TD>Youtube?</TD><TD>No</TD></TR>
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===Added Notes===

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