CALIFORNIA — About 23,000 copies — the entire press run — of The Daily Californian, the student newspaper at the University of California at Berkeley, were stolen yesterday morning after the paper ran an editorial supporting a state referendum that would end affirmative action programs.
Daily Californian editor in chief Mike Coleman said he believed that thieves followed the newspaper’s delivery trucks and took the newspapers after they were dropped off. One of the delivery truck drivers reported that when he arrived to drop off papers at the school’s main square, he was met by 20 to 30 “loiterers” who immediately ran off with aboout 4,000 copies.
Coleman said that the paper had printed an “emergency run” of 5,000 copies, which the newspaper staff planned to distribute by hand yesterday afternoon.
No group has yet taken responsibility for the theft. University police have begun an investigation into the matter.