Berkeley protesters defy authorities, pitch tents

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45319327/ns/us_news-life/#.TsPI4bLASFg

Protesters at the University of California, Berkeley, pitched tents Tuesday night in defiance of campus officials a week after police removed a nascent anti-Wall Street encampment.

The late-night escalation by students and other protesters followed a day of peaceful demonstrations against economic inequality and set the stage for a possible showdown with police.

It also came hours after nerves on the campus famed for its 1960s student activism were jarred by an afternoon shooting in a computer lab that police said appeared unrelated to the rallies in Sproul Plaza, about half a mile away.

Police estimated the size of the crowd reached as many as 3,700 people at its peak a few hours after dark.

The protesters cheered wildly when former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich implored them to take a moral stand against the very rich owning so much of America's wealth.