BERKELEY, Calif. (KCBS) — One woman was arrested Tuesday as authorities removed some of the structures that have housed tree sitting protesters in an oak grove UC Berkeley wants to cut down to make way for a $125 million athletic facility.
The protester was taken into custody after she reportedly bit one of the workers removing her supplies, according to police. Officers cordoned off part of Piedmont Avenue near Memorial Grove and brought in arborists to remove the platforms and gear the tree sitters have used to maintain their perches since December 2006. A university official had earlier said the tree sitters themselves would not be removed yet.
“One of the things we’re most concerned about is safety and security, of our police officers and the people in the trees. That’s the reason we’re not forcibly removing people from the trees today,” said Dan Mogulof, a spokesman for UC Berkeley.
Tuesday was not the first time the university has removed scaffolding built by the protesters, but removing the people has proven more difficult. One witness told KCBS reporter Tim Ryan at the scene that some of the tree sitters threw urine they had collected in buckets at the police and arborists to discourage them from climbing.
Wow, I’ll have to give Butterfly some credit:
Tax redirection[edit]
In 2003, Hill became a proponent of tax redirection, resisting payment of about $150,000 in federal taxes, donating that money to after-school programs, arts and cultural programs, community gardens, programs for Native Americans, alternatives to incarceration, and environmental protection programs. She said:
“ I actually take the money that the IRS says goes to them and I give it to the places where our taxes should be going. And in my letter to the IRS I said: ‘I’m not refusing to pay my taxes. I’m actually paying them but I’m paying them where they belong because you refuse to do so.’[20]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Butterfly_Hill