UC Berkeley Weighs Legal Action To Evict Occupy Farmers
BERKELEY (CBS / AP) -- University of California, Berkeley officials said they're prepared to take legal action if Occupy activists refuse to leave school-owned land where they have pitched tents and planted crops.
In a letter Tuesday, UC Berkeley administrators said they are evaluating civil and criminal legal actions to evict a group called Occupy the Farm from a 10-acre parcel in Albany.
The campus response comes a day after the activists said they would only leave if the university gives them continued access to the Gill Tract and meet other demands.
About 200 Occupy squatters broke into the property on April 22 to protest planned housing and commercial development nearby. The protesters want the land preserved as an urban farm.
Berkeley officials say university research on the tract must resume by mid-May.
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