“Tear gas is banned in warfare and it should NOT be used in our streets and in protests!!” announced Berkeley mayor Jesse Arreguín, heroically, back in 2020 when the “defund the police” movement was fashionable after the George Floyd killing.
Of course that didn’t stop our mayor from calling an “emergency meeting” of the City Council — virtually hours after protesters had occupied People’s Park — in the hopes that they would vote to repeal the ban on tear gas so he could authorize the police to bombard the protesters with tear gas. . . It was only after ole Jess’ “slept on it” and he realized what a double-talking, unprincipled hypocrite he would come acrossed as (which is exactly what he is) by reversing his position, that he changed his mind again and canceled the “emergency meeting.”
Have we ever had a more useless blob of protoplasm in Berkeley City Hall than this posturing little gasbag Mayor Jesse Arreguín??
It turns out when Mayor Arreguín contacted the sheriffs in the neighboring towns and asked them to send in hundreds of cops in riot gear and do his dirty work, knocking heads and running all the protesters out of the park, they basically said, “No way, Jesse boy, this isn’t our problem.” And they told Arreguín straight up that without being able to use tear gas and pepper spray, there was no way they could safely contain a large, unruly crowd. And you can bet the cops are all well aware of Mayor Arreguin’s anti-police rhetoric. So you bet there’s no love lost between the police and Mayor Arreguín.
And that explains why the riot police backed off and retreated when they were confronted by the protesters in the middle of Bowditch St. They had marching orders to not physically engage with the protesters.
Ace Backwords Photos 