Police on Monday arrested Casey Robert Goonan, a 34-year-old man suspected of perpetrating four arson attacks on the University of California, Berkeley, campus during the month of June.
Goonan, who holds a Ph.D. in black studies from Northwestern University and is listed on the school’s “critical theory” website, has referred to the U.S. as a “white-supremacist state” in a blog post on a progressive literary website and declared his intention to help establish “an objectively ‘unified’ politico-military front against colonialism.”
He was arrested in fall 2023 after bringing a hammer to a San Francisco event featuring talks on detransitioning. He damaged Hilton property before being detained.
The first arson attacks occurred on Thursday, with a suspect setting foliage outside a campus building on fire. In a press release published on the Indybay website — an independent community news source — a user with the name “student intifada” claimed the attacks were in response to the arrests of 27 individuals, including students and faculty, at the University of California, Los Angeles, last week. Those arrested had set up a new round of anti-Israel encampments, vandalized university property, and ultimately injured police officers.
“UCLA STUDENTS WERE ATTACKED LAST NIGHT SO WE RETALIATED WITH A FIREBOMB ON UCB CAMPUS,” the “student intifada” user wrote.
The press release went on to include assertions that “EVERY SINGLE BUILDING ON THE UC BERKELEY CAMPUS DESERVES TO BE INCINERATED” and that the “UC SYSTEM MUST DIVEST FROM ISRAEL OR FACE OUR WRATH OF REVENGE” before ending with a message of “BLESSED IS THE FLAME.”
Another message appeared on the Indybay website on Sunday afternoon, with a writer going by the name of “marilyn’s daughters” announcing that “phase two of the #Escalate movement heats up at u.c. berkeley with a construction site set on fire in broad daylight.”
“Operation campus flood,” the name the poster gave to the series of crimes, included “successful looting of a u.c.b supply building of thousands of dollars,” “the fire bombing of a u.c.b cop car,” “the experimental burning of dry grass hills on the interior of campus,” “the torching of a building on the perimeter of the campus,” and “the arson of a construction site (mostly construction materials, wood pallets, and massive dry bush area.”
According to the Daily Bruin, UCLA’s student-run newspaper, the UCLA Students for Justice in Palestine chapter shared the initial press release on its Instagram story.
UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof told National Review that the arson attacks did not cause any injuries or significant damage to campus property and said the university immediately referred the matter to law enforcement.
A spokeswoman for California governor Gavin Newsom (D.), who has not made any public statements on the arson attacks, told NR that Newsom is very concerned with campus safety and recently “convened statewide law enforcement and education leaders” and “emphasized” the importance of protecting students.
As NR reported in March, a group of Berkeley parents raised over $40,000 to launch a private security program on the university’s campus, believing that the administration had not done enough to ensure student safety. The parents involved noted that crime rates in the neighborhood have dramatically increased over the past few years, with armed robberies, shootings, and stabbings becoming more commonplace since the summer of 2022.
However, the university was less than thrilled about the move, arguing that the use of private security “raises a number of concerns.”