BERKELEY — Some worry that the shattered windows at a Subway sandwich shop on Telegraph Avenue could be a harbinger of more damage Thursday, when demonstrations against education budget cuts will take place statewide.
Some hope protests scheduled for that day do not overshadow the message.
The protests will come less than a week after rioters defaced buildings on and around the UC Berkeley campus between late Thursday night and early Friday morning. Some student leaders have urged calm behavior for next week, worrying that Berkeley's protesters could influence widespread riots. Participants in the riots at UC Berkeley posted signs reading "March 4.""There's a lot of good activism planned for (Thursday)," said Reid Milburn, a student at Sacramento City College and president of the statewide Student Senate for community colleges. "But I'm nervous about the idea of people getting out of control."
Milburn and others were worried even before the Berkeley riot. Rather than backing next week's protests, student-government leaders with the community-college and California State University systems are focusing on a March 22 event in Sacramento.
An October meeting in Berkeley on next week's demonstrations — coined as a "Day of Action" — was chaotic, said Steve Dixon, a Humboldt State senior and president of the California State Student Association.
"We felt the message wasn't totally educational," Dixon said,
