Parents of students at University of California Berkeley have become so concerned about their offspring’s safety they have hired private security to secure the local vicinity.
SFGATE reports that parents were forced to take matters into their own hands amid a surge in violent crime around the UC Berkeley campus located outside of San Francisco:
Parents and community members of SafeBears, a nonprofit organization started in 2022, raised $40,000 at the end of 2023 to launch the pilot program, which started March 6 and concludes on Saturday, according to the group’s website. Six security guards from Streetplus, a third-party contractor, are patrolling five routes around the campus and the university’s residence halls on foot and by bicycle from 6:30 p.m. to 3 a.m. daily.
The security guards are not armed and will not enter university property, the website says, but are trained in de-escalation and CPR. They also must earn a California “guard card” from the California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, requiring them to clear a background check from the California Department of Justice and FBI.
While the program will not be continuing beyond this weekend, parents hope that they will be able to convince the university to take more action.
“While we will not be extending the length of our private safety pilot beyond March 23, we will certainly continue to push the administration at UC Berkeley to do more to protect students from violence,” Sagar Jethani, president of SafeBears, told SFGATE.
The move comes amid a surge in violent crime in the local area, which is notorious as one of the most left-wing places in the entire country.
According to the Berkeley Scanner, over the course of 2023 robberies increased by 29 percent, property crime by 58 percent and sex crimes remained around the same.
Despite its reputation as a left-wing breeding ground with a total disregard for freedom of speech, UC Berkeley remains one of the most prestigious universities in the English speaking world.
Among its most famous alumni include Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich.
The post COMMIEFORNIA: UC Berkeley Parents Hire Private Security to Protect Children From Violent Crime Surge appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
