I was told that a cop who harassed Rosebud had posted a review of this new book on Amazon, trying to discredit all the investigating that had gone on since the young girl was killed in l992. People should be aware, as we who knew her, that the police bungle was hushed and glossed over. I've read the book and seen the documentary that the writer did in *94 and am grateful that someone , a non violent person at that, has finally tried to tell the truth. Why didn't they negotiate and take her to a psychiatric unit where she might have gotten help or jail where she could have at least gotten a trial? This cop would probably excuse the torturers of Diallo.

Until Rosebud's death in l992, she worked steadily as a young idealist,for a cause, People's Park. We knew she was scared and depressed. Sure the cops put her down and Burch's successful attempt to humanize her in this book, but the truth is that if the intruder had been a drunken frat boy, the police would have sent in tear gas and transported him to a mental ward for evaluation. I cried reading the book. It was as though the writer had entered Rosebud's mind and was writing as she might have. The childhood pictures are heartbreaking and so is this beautifully written story of a young girl,daughter of intelligent well meaning people, who still evokes rage and smear tactics on the part of an anonymous police officer.

What a self-serving pile of s**t! This book should be listed under "fiction" or at least "history as Burch would like to think it was!" As a police officer who dealt with Miller and her ilk in the months leading up to the night of August 12 1992, and who was at Chancellor Tien's home that night, I can tell you that Burch's account of these events is nothing but a transparent attempt at revisionist dribble. She blames everyone except the one who was personally responsible for her own actions. Save your money!

Rosebud Abigail Denovo was shot by an Oakland police officer while alone and hiding in the bathroom shower stall of the Chancellor's mansion in UC Berkeley. The autopsy reports and newspaper clippings found in Claire Burch's latest and greatest book What Really Killed Rosebud?, published by Regent Press, of Oakland, CA, tackle the truth in the killing of a.k.a. Laura Miller on the campus of UC Berkeley on August 25, 1992. The questions answered here in Ms. Burch's biography are many. Those who were closest to Rosebud speak their mind with heart-breaking recall. Here are her lovers, her friends, fellow anarchists and revolutionaries for the counter-culture and the hidden people. This reviewer was a friend of Rosebud's and with others, carries on her political eco-activist work.

Before coming to California, Rosebud passed through Ohio and hooked up with the Green Panthers. They have a cannabis smokers newspaper, called "The Revolutionary Toker," which she ended up selling for donations in Berkeley. At that time, when she had established herself in the Bay Area, Rosebud set up a local branch of the Green Panthers' info table at the corner of Haste and Telegraph Avenue in front of then homeless and activist-friendly Cody's Bookstore. She gathered signatures for various petitions and helped teach the locals and tourists about the situation in people's park.

She often slept in People's Park and was more-than-often kicked awake by a UC policeman's jackboot. She was a small young lady, just starting to bloom physically and mentally. She was still young and had the mentality of a warrior. And she was in every sense of the word a warrior. The world was at war with her. It attacked her religious beliefs or seeming lack of them-she called herself an atheist. Her political ideas and actions were called a "mental illness" at a psych unit where she was sent as a young teenager, years later writing that they tried to coerce and drug her into submission. Rosebud was also involved in helping victims of the mental health system. She wrote of her torturous experiences as a young, misunderstood, and truly defenseless girl, and comforted others who had also been hurt by "professionals." Some of her ideas were off base. She never would hear me when I'd debate with her, feeling that violence begets violence. I'd implore her to see that the manifestation of a utopian, peaceful co-existence could never be the result of violent actions. She felt as many revolutionaries felt: that the way to peace was to prepare for war. I argued that being prepared for war was in fact wise-but to instigate war was unforgivable and fatal. You can't bring hell with you to Heaven, and expect Heaven to stay Heaven, can you? But often that view on life is in the minority. Sometimes those around you offer other roads to "glory."

In Rosebud's case she decided that instead of going to jail she was going to go out fighting and even take a couple of people she considered the biggest offenders with her. She dyed her hair black, and this leads me to think she did hope to return from her horribly misguided deadly mission. Some feel she just wanted to trash the mansion in retribution of cop harassment and UC attacks on People's Park.

People's Park was a gigantic part of Rosebud's life. It was in fact her home for quite a while. All of us would sit in the grove under the plum trees by Haste Street and talked of ways to fix this mess that those before us had created.

Back in those days, People's Park was full of visionaries and idealists working together hoping to bring a better future for the world. The spirit of the 60's was still alive and kicking in Berzerkeley (as Rosebud and most of the others called Berkeley). They planned and had concerts, and rallies to free the weed in the park and Rosebud did the flyers.

When a couple of hundred people spark up the free joints thrown to them for a minute, they almost feel truly FREE! Rosebud and all of us lived for those moments of bliss. They are so very hard to find in this life and in these times. Rosebud was just another one who slipped through the cracks, and disappeared.

No one was held accountable for the mishandling of the situation. Police protocol, as well as standard operating procedure, was ignored. Rosebud called the one friend she knew with a phone when she was alone in the mansion. She told him that they were going to murder her. Yet no one tried to contact her (like they do on TV and in the movies). No one said, "Come out with your hands up! " No phone call from a sobbing mother or lover begging her to just give up. No teargas to drive her out so that she could be arrested and properly dealt with by the authorities. NO. Rosebud was made an example. Now, finally, in Claire Burch's book What Really Killed Rosebud? the story is told.

It's just sad that Rosebud's family couldn't understand her better, and all of us in her family on the street feel it's also sad that her "real" family didn't demand an investigation and sue the people responsible for this travesty of justice. She was such a sweet person-funny, intelligent, inventive, and secretive. She moved in many circles and was welcomed in them all as a friend and ally. On the wall of the home where we lived-another of Rosebud's fights was squatting vacant and unused buildings to house the homeless-someone has painted a beautiful picture of this beautiful soul. We still miss her like hell and Claire Burch and Rosebud's friends carry on her quest for a better world. In this book we see the many facets of Rosebud's personality, how her death has affected her community-her death sparked arrests of her boyfriend Andy, and a riot in Berkeley-the aftermath of her death and its sad conclusion. Here now are the facts the newspapers distorted, the truth the authorities obscured. Here now is the whole story of young Rosebud Abigail Denovo, a.k.a. Laura Miller, infamous would-be assassin of the UC Berkeley Campus.

The first part of What Really Killed Rosebud? shows thirteen photographs of her as a pretty little girl. In them we can see her individuality and personality as it developed. At age eleven she's at bat in her baseball team uniform, while on the next page, at fourteen, she's playing her electric guitar. In her high school class picture Rosebud defiantly wears a Guns & Roses t-shirt instead of a dress. She believed a person should Live Free Or Die. Pages twenty-four to fifty-four contain reproductions of the many newspaper articles, tribute items for her memorial, and even the page from the University of California Police Department Field Training Manual that explains how the police are to react to a situation such as Rosebud's.

We can see protocol was not followed. Why? Political reasons killed Laura Miller. Not just bullets, not just the officers, but politics. She would say that she lived and died for People's Park. I think Rosebud would be very pleased with Claire Burch's biography of her. I know she would definitely appreciate the final section of her book: The People's Park Chronology 1957 to 1997. This part shows many of the events in People's Park history. Of course, "The Park," as locals call it, is the home of so many events and political actions (as well as good times and bad) that some may be disappointed that their hippy wedding or free concert or meal or party may not be listed. The author apologizes for any omissions but an entire encyclopedia worth of material on People's Park could be written. Maybe someday a complete history of Rosebud's favorite place on earth, People's Park, will be produced, but not yet. The book What Really Killed Rosebud? wasthe logical result of Claire Burch's documentary on the subject-"What Really Killed Rosebud?" This hour long video was created because Rosebud's street family, her friends, needed to tell her real story- not the story told by the press. When Rosebud was alive she was unknown to Claire Burch, Berkeley's unofficial video historian. All Claire's work had chronicled life in the City of Berkeley, especially those people living on the edge. One evening while filming in People's Park as she often does, she stumbled upon about thirty of Rosebud's friends having a memorial service for her. Claire Burch approached some of them and asked the big question, "Who's Rosebud?" These two words brought forth an outpouring of emotion from the circle and Burch's video project was born. As she sat filming those closest to Rosebud, she decided somebody had to do something. She worked on the project for more than two years, and gave emotional support to Rosebud's survivors. Interviews with the different activists about what really happened and their take on the whole thing, offer new insights into the details of this case.

Free speech People's rights. Anarchy rules.

Few people expressed these principles more demonstratively than the iconic Rosebud Abigail Denovo, the tormented homeless 19-year- old People's Park resident who was fatally shot by an Oakland police officer on Aug. 25, 1992, after she illegally entered the UC Berkeley Chancellor's residence, machete in hand.

"What Really Killed Rosebud", a new book by Claire Burch, documentary filmmaker and East Bay homeless rights activist, investigates Rosebud's short life and untimely death and gives a multifaceted view into her character.

Was Rosebud Abigail Denovo - who'd changed her name from Laura Miller so her initials would spell the word "RAD" -fighting injustice and greed? Or was she a mentally ill and dangerous troublemaker who posed a threat to herself and others?

Several chapters contain interviews with Rosebud's friends and lovers, who speak evocatively of their appreciation for this 5-foot-1, 105 pound, blue eyed, brown haired, fierce, energetic and often angry activist. She's remembered as articulate, opinionated and intelligent. Her friends' grief is brought home to the reader by cold-blooded reportage from autopsy reports.

What Really Killed Rosebud? Were the police impatient and disrespectful? Did they kill a young woman in order to protect the chancellor's home furnishings? Did they send in a jittery officer - freshly back on the force after being shot five times by a burglar on his last case - on purpose to wipe Rosebud out?

Or was Rosebud on a suicide mission, despondent over facing a court date for sentencing on a previous offense, seeking martyrdom by adding yet another act of near-futile resistance to a history of near-futile revolts against authority.

One thing is certain: Rosebud's short life was rough. Institutionalized in a psychiatric ward in childhood, she'd moved into an adulthood in which she couldn't be certain of sleeping through the night. Homeless shelters were dicey, there were rumors she'd been raped, and when she slept outdoors she was often wakened in the early hours by a police officer's flashlight shining in her face and curt orders: "Get moving, Denovo!"

The officer who shot Denovo claimed he acted in self-defense. Rosebud's friends felt regret that they hadn't rushed to her defense. As with any legend, there are unanswered questions. The truth about Rosebud's last moments will probably never be known. But Rosebud's fight to provide a haven for the homeless in People's Park, and to homeless rights, is broadly acknowledged. People's Park - bordered by Telegraph Avenue, Bowditch Street, Dwight Way and Haste Street - has long been at the center of the struggle between people's and institutional rights.

A chronology at the close of Burch's book describes the controversy over People's Park, which started in 1957 when residents were evicted and houses demolished in order to make room for a UC Berkeley dormitory - which was never built. Eventually, the lot became an eyesore. But in 1969 - when locals planted flowers and put in a playground - UC Berkeley put up a fence and "No Trespassing" signs and then the real trouble began. People's Park was at the center of riots against the Vietnam War. A "state of emergency" was called, and shotguns were fired. Over a hundred demonstrators were wounded, including Allen Blanchard who was permanently blinded, and James Rector who was killed.

Does Rosebud's spirit keep watch over the tamped down grass and the damp, worn, pawed-over donations in the "free box"? What will happen to small bedraggled People's Park? And what will happen to the legacy that Rosebud and other protesters left behind?

I read the book "What Really Killed Rosebud?". I skipped over the autopsy part. I really didn't want to read the details. It was a heavy book, I was kind of depressed after I read it, but I'm glad I did. (I learned some things I didn't know before, and I didn't think there was that much more to know about this thing.)

I met Rosebud back around 1990 or 89. It was a year or two before she was killed. She was a quiet girl, quieter than most actually, but we didn't know each other too well. She was usually smiling, and that's mainly what I remember her like. It seems to me that she always wore a black coat, I think it was a leather coat.

I never thought she would do something like break into the Chancellor's mansion. If she had mentioned that idea to me, I would have told her she was crazy, or asking to get killed, because that's the way they operate.

I lived on the street for several years, starting back in 1980, in Berkeley. After a while, if you live on the street, eventually the cops will stop you and ask you for ID. They check out everyone who hangs out here for any amount of time, and they put the information into some kind of file.

I'm talking about a "red file", in other words a separate file that includes mostly street people. So when I read that they could have treated her better (not likely), and that they are supposed to have procedures to deal with situations like that... well I was just shocked when I heard that she got killed.

I was driving cab at the time. The night before she got shot, I remember seeing her on Telegraph. I was driving my cab up Telegraph Avenue, and I remember looking to my left at Cody's bookstore. She was sitting there, kind of gazing up at the sky. That was the last time I saw her alive.

Now, I've read that she was an "Anarchist/Communist" in some paper somewhere...and I thought that doesn't make sense to me, because anarchists and communist don't (always) get on so good with each other. (For example, the Spanish Civil War) Their ideas are opposed to each other. So I wondered about that article.

I remember some of the articles in the papers after it happened, and they were trying to say she was crazy... I thought that was bullshit.

But I couldn't figure out what she was thinking to go in a building like that, especially alone. Maybe she was a little out of it, I thought. I've been in a few demonstrations, and one thing you learn is to stick together, it's safer. Don't get caught by yourself by the police.

It was just tragic to me. And the police and authorities were completely wrong to send in that cop with the dog. (If you just got shot at a few weeks before, you'd be ready to shoot first) They could have just sealed the building and waited for her to come out. That's why some people call it an execution.

I remember one night, I was sitting with a few other guys in a circle outside of one of the "Tombs",(that's an old nickname for the Unit 1 through 4 buildings) and we were passing around a 40 ounce of beer.

We were sitting there smoking cigarettes and not bothering anybody, pretty mellow scene I remember... and all of a sudden, there's about three maybe four cops snuck up on us. One of them pulled out his pistol, and had it pointed at the guy sitting next to me, he was yelling "Freeze!" He was wacked (I remember. He was shaking) that cop. He was so scared... (and he had the gun!) We were lucky that none of us got shot that night.

His partner standing next to him said something to him like "It's ok, man. Put it away." Meaning his drawn pistol.

That was only one instance of what I experienced out here that taught me what some cops are like.

On pages 40 and 41, is a copy of an article entitled "Intruder at UC Home Was Shot in the Back" (SF Chronicle October 8, 1992). At the end of the article it says UC police Lieutenant Bill Foley said those rules did not apply because police did not know Denovo had any mental problems. (!) (in parentheses from the word UC)

I think that is complete bullshit. As I said before, the police have their database and when they arrest you, they send your name through the NCIC computer, which is a national FBI database.

Now, if she had been stopped all those times like it says in the book, then you know they are going to check out her past. And if she had been in some institution... well I think they knew what her background was and I wonder about that.

The main thing here is, they didn't have to shoot her. I'm shaking my head as I type this because it is so tragic. I think maybe they drove her to it. I know what it's like to be woke up by the police here, I must have been rousted a hundred times.

Over the course of several years, I and people I know on the street have been hassled and rousted innumerable times by the Berkeley and UC Berkeley police. (On April 11 or 12 there is going to be a demonstration, at city hall I think, over police harassment of street people. I can understand wanting to strike back. To retaliate, to get even. How they have treated people in the park and on the street over the years. It is still a crime to live on the street.

The police still hassle people, but now they have a cloak they use. It's called "mental health". (A poster made by a homeless woman came out about this subject a couple days ago. Part of it as follows..."Mayor Dean is ignoring police brutality and property damage by her police force , is doing nothing to help the economy or the city, ignores the problems of Berkeley High and all other issues, and her way of dealing with harmless homeless is to send out social workers who take us in on 5150's for nothing."

They have been trying for years to get rid of what they consider to be "undesirables", people like me. Make it into a plastic Disneyworld on Telegraph. I remember when they said stuff like, We just want to make the park safe for everybody, bla bla. The cops would tear apart people's tents and throw their stuff into trash trucks... I saw a lot. And their bullshit is still the same. Herd everybody into a shelter, get them off the street so we won't have to look at them.

You know that type of thing really can get you down. Well, maybe Rosebud said" that's it." Some said she had a suicide note. I never saw it. But I know they didn't have to shoot her.

I skipped over the autopsy part, Maybe I'll read that part later, but it's a very heavy book. It says a lot about our "society" that is so brutal. It runs people into the ground if they ain't got the money. It tries to make you feel like shit.

The part about her telling her parents she was thinking of enrolling in UC Berkeley was really kind of strange. She probably would have done real well.

UCB still doesn't have a police review board, as far as I know. I was riled at times while reading the book because it made it so clear that somebody was lying about something. At the end of the book is an updated history of Peoples Park.