Posted inCrime

Case dismissed against 2 homeless men after review of Berkeley beating video

Image: Bryan Hamilton The Alameda County district attorney’s office has dismissed the case against two men who pleaded guilty to battery charges last week. The decision came after authorities reviewed a video that showed an interaction, between the men and two Downtown Berkeley Association workers, that began as a verbal altercation and took a violent turn. In the video […]

Posted inCommunity

Activists, homeless demand end to campaign of ‘brutality’

Activists angered by a video that caught a downtown ambassador assaulting a homeless man hold a rally March 27 to protest the violence and proposed new laws regulating homeless behavior. Photo: Ted Friedman One day after a video that showed a Downtown Berkeley Association ambassador assaulting a homeless man went viral, a group of activists held […]

Posted inCrime

2 men take plea deals after 1 is beaten on video

Image: Bryan Hamilton Update, April 1: The Alameda County district attorney’s office has revisited the case, dropped the charges against both men, and had a judge declare them factually innocent. See the update. Original story, March 27: Two homeless men shown on video in a heated interaction that turned violent, when a Downtown Berkeley Association staffer appeared to punch […]

Posted inCrime

Video: Downtown Berkeley worker assaults homeless man

Image: Bryan Hamilton A Downtown Berkeley Association ambassador assaulted a homeless man Thursday evening behind CVS in what appears to be a violent incident that was captured on video. That homeless man and an associate were arrested by the Berkeley Police Department before the video came to light. After reviewing the video this week, police asked the district […]

Posted inBusiness

Telegraph Ave. scrubbed, cleaned in beautification effort

Ambassadors hired by Block by Block are engaged in a month-long cleanup of Telegraph Avenue. Photo: Ted Friedman The deployment of neon-clad “ambassadors” to paint over graffiti, power-wash streets, and sweep sidewalks along Telegraph Avenue is the latest in a series of attempts to revitalize a business district which has seen better days. The “Big […]

Posted inCommunity

Downtown Berkeley ambassadors help, monitor homeless

Carmen Francois, a downtown Berkeley Ambassador, talks to someone on Shattuck Avenue. Photo: Natalie Orenstein On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Carmen Francois was on a mission. “We’re supposed to say hi to 60 people in 60 minutes,” she said. Francois, one of Berkeley’s downtown “ambassadors,” didn’t have any trouble meeting the quota. She ducked into […]