© Reuters / Stephen LamPolice in riot gear standing at the ready as opposing factions gather over the cancellation of conservative commentator Ann Coulter's speech at the University of California, Berkeley, last April.
Hailing from the University of California's own police forces as well as drawing on reserves from the state police, the officers cordoned off an area from nearby protestors after a suspicious package was found in an Amazon store on campus and a bomb threat was declared.
While Berkeley has for decades been a hotbed for activism from all sides of the political spectrum, the recent bomb scares, seemingly daily protests and threats of violence from groups as diverse as Antifa to white nationalists has forced police on this leafy college campus to rethink their tactics totally.
"We can't turn a blind eye to what happened here, or in the city of Berkeley or any other city across the country for that matter," Dan Mogulof, a UC Berkeley spokesperson, told Fox News.
The transformation of the UC Berkeley police force from campus cops whose main role was busting underage drinking to a sophisticated anti-riot unit kicked into high gear back in February when an overwhelmed and undersized group of officers had to sit by as more than 100 black-clad Antifa members vandalized university buildings and started fires to prevent conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos from giving a speech on campus.
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