22,000 Berkeley papers stolen

An editorial supporting anti-affirmative actionAn editorial supporting anti-affirmative actionlegislatio prompted the newspaper theft. Protesters stole 22,000 copies of the University of California at Berkeley's free student newspaper Tuesday morning -- almost the entire press run. The theft occurred in response to an editorial in Monday's Daily Californian that supported Proposition 209, a state referendum that would end affirmative action programs, said Mike Coleman, the independent paper's editor-in-chief. California residents approved the referendum during Tuesday's general election. Coleman called the theft a "childish prank," adding that an additional 1,000 papers were stolen yesterday. "Whatever group did this clearly did not agree with our editorial stance," he said. He explained that the perpetrators stole the newspapers in a coordinated effort Tuesday. They followed newspaper delivery trucks and stole the papers as they were delivered to 260 locations across campus and throughout the city of Berkeley. "I'm appalled at the tactic," Coleman said. "It squelches our right to free speech. "Stealing free newspapers is not going to change the way people vote," he added. Newspaper staff members distributed an additional 5,000 copies of the newspaper to students by hand Tuesday afternoon. A group of about 250 students and other members of the Berkeley community continued to protest the editorial yesterday, roving campus and shredding newspapers inside the Daily Californian building, Coleman said. And members of the protesting group occupied the campus bell tower -- known as the Campanile -- Wednesday night. Campus police arrested 23 people yesterday, including 22 Berkeley students, said Berkeley spokesperson Bob Sanders. The editorial's publication in Monday's paper prompted the theft of nearly 4,000 papers that day. The editors reran the piece in Tuesday's paper in an attempt to reach the entire readership, Coleman said. But that backfired when Tuesday's press run was taken. Sanders said an organization calling itself The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action by Any Means Necessary is suspected of stealing the papers. But no one has taken responsibility for the thefts. "The newspaper is suggesting that the group is responsible," Sanders said. "But I'm not sure they have any hard evidence they were responsible." Campus and city police are investigating the case. "We won't be intimidated, and we won't stop printing the papers," Coleman said, adding that he hopes prosecution will occur as quickly as possible. Affirmative action has recently been a volatile issue at Berkeley and throughout California. The public university system's Board of Regents voted in July 1995 to end racial preferences in admissions and financial aid on all UC campuses, a decision that sparked a series of protests. Penn Law School Dean Colin Diver called the theft of the newspapers "illegal conduct." "When you steal newspapers, for whatever reason, it's theft," Diver said. "This is an example of people who are so sure of the rightness of their position that they feel they can take criminal action to stifle the opposition. That's very dangerous." The Berkeley newspaper theft is the latest in a chain of such incidents that began at Penn in April 1993, when a group calling itself "The Black Community" stole 14,000 copies of The Daily Pennsylvanian -- the day's entire press run. Those responsible for the 1993 incident said they were unhappy with the newspaper's depiction of blacks on campus, particularly focusing their anger on a conservative DP columnist named Greg Pavlik. Last March, the University of Michigan's daily newspaper had half its press run stolen --E8,700 copies because of what those responsible called the Michigan Daily's "racist nature."