Queena Kim and Trey Bundy/The Bay Citizen

Sproul Plaza before the raid, left, and after

About 30 hours after Occupy Cal protesters set up tents in UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza Tuesday night, police in riot gear dismantled the encampment in a quick operation that began around 3:30 a.m. Thursday morning.

Most of the protesters left quickly and peacefully, authorities said, but two campers were arrested, taken to jail and charged with illegal lodging and failure to disperse, both misdemeanors.

“There were two demonstrators that decided they wished to be arrested by violating the dispersal orders,” said UC Police Lt. Alex Yao.

Alex Kim, a 24-year-old English student at UC Berkeley, and Mike Porter, a 24-year-old protester who had previously demonstrated at the Occupy Oakland camp, did not resist arrest, Yao said.

Officers from Oakland, Emeryville, Union City and Newark police departments, as well as the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department, assisted UC police in the operation.

Yao would not say how many officers participated and that it was too early to say how much the operation cost.

Protesters were allowed to leave with their tents and other belongings. Work crews cleaned up the area and reopened Sproul Plaza this morning. Occupy Cal protesters are expected to gather again Thursday afternoon for a general assembly.

"I'm sure we'll be back and that's what we're deciding tonight," said Eric Blanc, 26, a Berkeley City College student involved in Occupy Cal.