Vandalism suspect who targeted the Berkeley College Republicans has been arrested

His female accomplice is still unknown

The man who was caught on camera destroying the Berkeley College Republicans’ signs last Tuesday was identified and arrested on Thursday.

University of California Police Department (UCPD) announced that they had found and detained the suspect. The police’s official statement read: “A UC Berkeley student was arrested in connection with one in a series of vandalism incidents targeting signs posted around campus by the Berkeley College Republicans group”.

The unnamed student was cited for misdemeanor vandalism charges and released at 4pm on Wednesday. The man’s female accomplice, who also appeared in the video, is still unidentified and police are in pursuit. The arrest was made in response to the post the Berkeley College Republicans made on their Facebook page, calling on the public for help in bringing the suspects to justice.

The post garnered over 985,000 views and 7,675 shares in less than 3 days, gaining the attention of students, campus faculty, and the greater community.

The arrested suspect is reported to have posted on his Facebook page, “UCPD used an hour of their resources to detain me for an hour over a Trump placard. I almost became a hashtag because UC Berkeley protects racist organizations.”

His mention of almost becoming a hashtag may be an allusion to the Milo Yiannopoulos protests in February, whereby #UCBerkeley became the most trending hashtag on Twitter.

UC Berkeley is currently a hotbed for political disputes, but even in the face of anti-conservative backlash, the Berkeley College Republicans continue to set up their booth on Sproul Plaza to assert their platform.

 

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