There were literally hundreds of police officers on campus last week to prevent any violence from happening over a speech by conservative Ben Shapiro. I walked near the plaza at about 8 or 9 and there was a good sized crowd on Bancroft protesting. It was peaceful but there was a lot of anger from the students protesting, especially toward the administration for allowing the speech. Students could not enter the area surrounding Zellerbach hall unless they had I.D., tickets for the event, and went through a metal detector. The police put up concrete blockades around 5 or 6 buildings to form a perimeter and had officers form defensive lines dressed in riot gear. It was scary but luckily the police presence deterred any violence. I put on Fox news afterwards out of curiosity (because they love these stories) and they were showing video clips of hundreds of cops in riot gear - it looked like a police state. The news always exaggerates these things and I’m sure it painted the school in a bad light.