Do you think chalk, posters and a 5-foot cardboard mosquito can result in over $400 in property damages? Do you think it’s a sound decision to arrest student demonstrators for felony vandalism while they’re exercising their freedom of expression?  

If you answered yes, you’d be a perfect fit in UC Berkeley’s campus police department. 

If you answered no, well you’d be like most students severely annoyed with last week’s arrest of four UC Berkeley student demonstrators, who, in protest against an upcoming event hosted by a political organization they disagree with, took it upon themselves to decorate a portion of UC Berkeley’s campus with posters, chalk and a, now notorious, 5-foot cardboard mosquito. 

According to the University of California Police Department’s police report, the on-scene authorities arrested the students for felony vandalism, CA Penal Code Section 594(b)(1), which requires a minimum property damage of $400.

So how much damage did they cause? 

According to Dan Mogulof, a spokesperson for UC Berkeley, $0.

Based on the Alameda 2024 Misdemeanor and Felony Bail Schedule, which labels standard bail amounts for specific charges, the standard bail for felony vandalism is around $20,000, while the standard bail for misdemeanor vandalism is $2,500.

According to The Daily Californian, Berkeley’s independent student newspaper, three of the four posted bail the same day of their arrests at $20,000, with the other posting bail at $10,000.

This is egregious in two ways: First, there was no damages, so the felony charge was baseless and only made their bail much more expensive. Second, expressive conduct is protected under the first amendment of the Constitution; therefore, accusing the students with any sort of vandalism — misdemeanor or felony — is a clear bending of the truth and an unmistakable breach of their rights.

That can explain why the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office chose not to proceed with their scheduled arraignment on Nov. 13, signaling the possibility of their cases being dropped.  

But regardless if they are prosecuted or not, the Berkeley four not only had to post bail, but they also had to go through the process of being arrested, and jailed.

“It is disempowering to see people get arrested for doing an art installation.” Vi Lee said, who is an elected leader for SF State’s Student Union. “That really shows, like, where we’re at when it comes to protest.” 

The event was run by Turning Point USA, a right-wing organization that often claims to be one of the nation’s main proponents of freedom of speech. 

I reached out to both the UC Berkeley and SF State chapters of Turning Point USA. Only Takumi Sugawara, president of SF State’s chapter, responded, declining to comment. 

He explained he couldn’t comment due to the recently announced Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation on UC Berkeley’s holding of the event. Sugawara declined to answer why the DOJ investigation, which is unrelated to the four vandalism arrests, would prevent him from commenting.

UC Berkeley also declined to comment when asked for a response to students who believe it is wrong to arrest people expressing their beliefs and are worried this will chill student action.  

“The decision is the DA’s to make,” Mogulof said in an email when asked whether UC Berkeley would support prosecution.

I reached out to Lynn Mahoney, asking for her opinion on how universities should approach controversial events, and while she highlighted her commitment to upholding the freedom of speech for everyone, encouraging people to “meet speech with which they disagree with more speech,” she also emphasized the importance in supporting students.   

“I also feel strongly that universities have an obligation to support students for whom the speech is deeply disturbing and even unwelcoming,” Mahoney said via email. “I do not support any activities that chill freedom of expression.”

By law, public universities must uphold the freedom of speech for all organizations. 

Universities are placed in this catch-22 situation, which was also described by Xpress earlier this year: Either upset students by holding these potentially-dangerous events with gun-toting police presence or apply restrictions against certain organizations resulting in an inevitable hellfire from free speech activists and, more likely than not, a massive lawsuit.  

Maria Norris, a UC Berkeley student who attended the event, acknowledges this dilemma. However, she still feels like the Berkeley Administration could’ve done more, like make sure the MLK building, which Norris described as “an all-encompassing resource center,” was not shut down as a result of the event being held near it, barring students access to its resources. 

Norris says the arrests won’t faze her and hopes other activists use this situation as motivational fuel, rather than let it silence dissent.

Wherever you stand, controversial organizations won’t be banned from campus anytime soon; I just hope students are afforded that same right.  

This is the first rendition of a new column: Testing the Waters with Josh Miranda, intended to inject student opinions, including his own, directly into public discourse in order to uphold the fact that Xpress Magazine is an organ for SF State students, not just student journalists.