May 19, 1989: 35 years ago, May 19 1989, thousands gathered in Berkeley to celebrate the [...]

35 years ago, May 19 1989, thousands gathered in Berkeley to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the People’s Park movement, leading to a riot and street fight with police. A number of Telegraph Ave businesses, especially new “gentrifying stores” were smashed up, burned, and looted

While the rioters saw themselves in the lineage of earlier struggles over the park (they screened Newreel’s 1969 People’s Park film before the riot), they also signaled a new phase in those struggles, centering concerns over homelessness and gentrification
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Telegraph avenue was being rapidly gentrified. As new boutiques popped up, the homeless population drastically increased. The riot was understood by many participants as a “social protest,” with large numbers from the homeless community and neighborhood youth joining the crowd

Despite constant harassment at People’s Park and police presence on Telegraph, one cop said they were wholly unprepared for the riot that night. Had rioters aimed their sights at the cops “they would have had us for lunch,” he told a Slingshot reporter

The riot was also influenced by then-ongoing protests in China’s Tiananmen Square, and “Beijing to Berkeley” was a prominent slogan of the night. The rioters not only confronted police, but also faced off with “white frat boys” who assembled to defend The Gap from looting