SACRAMENTO, March 6 (UPI) -- Police said more than 70 people were arrested at the California Capitol in Sacramento late Monday during a protest over rising college tuition.
Most of the arrests were for trespassing after demonstrators, many from the Occupy movement, parked themselves in the Rotunda area or roamed the halls looking for legislators to buttonhole.
The California Highway Patrol began making arrests after the demonstrators refused to leave at the capital's 6 p.m. PST closing time.
"We're getting pushed against a wall," Carson Watts, 23, a student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told the Los Angeles Times.
Watts and the others were protesting a recent series of tuition increases accompanied by cuts to the higher education budget as California wrestles with revenue shortfalls lingering after the recession.
The protesters received a measure of support from Gov. Jerry Brown and other lawmakers. "We've cut billions of dollars, and I've hated every minute of it," State Senate President Pro Tem Darrel Steinberg told the Times.
The Sacramento Bee said Brown issued a statement the protests were "reflecting the frustrations of millions of Californians who have seen their public schools and universities eroded year after year."
