The year was 1969 and the campus at Berkeley grew violent and one student was killed during the scuffle between students and police. The conflict was over the city’s planned use of a park near the campus.
At the time that the hostilities broke out Reagan ordered the California Highway Patrol and Berkeley Police to the university and told to use whatever method they saw fit to put down the riots. Reagan put a ban on assembly at the university for two weeks.
In the confrontation that was referred to as “Bloody Thursday,” one student was killed and dozens more were hospitalized when law enforcement used buckshot and tear gas against the protesters. That night, Reagan declared a state of emergency where he sent the National Guard to Berkeley and banned public assembly for two weeks after the protest.
Reagan defended his actions during later a press conference, but when asked if he considered negotiating with the protesters, he asked “what is to negotiate?”
“All of it began the first time some of you who know better…let young people think that they had the right to choose the laws they would obey as long as they were doing it in the name of social protest.”