A tree-sitting protester balances on a branch while watching the activity below. UC police raided the base camp for tree-sitting protesters in front of Memorial Stadium in Berkeley on Friday.
Posted on 01/12/2007 4:23:17 PM PST by SmithL
BERKELEY -- Four protesters say they were run out of their camp beneath a huge oak tree on the UC Berkeley campus early this morning by university police who then scooped up the protesters' supplies - including several laptops, sleeping bags and tables -- using a huge dump truck.
The raid comes a little more than a month after several tree sitters took up a perch high in the branches of the tree, which the university plans to cut down -- along with dozens of others -- to make room for a new athletic training facility.
The on-the-ground campers say they are there to support the six tree-sitters currently calling the oak tree home, and one member of a group called Save the Oaks said his organization plans to file a civil rights lawsuit in federal court today protesting this morning's action by police.
If the suit is filed, it would be the fifth lawsuit against the university in connection with the proposed athletic facility.
Richard Goodreau, a Berkeley resident, said he was sleeping at the base of the tree about 6 a.m. when he heard a commotion.
"I heard yelling, so I just laid low," he said. "Everyone got cleared out, and I ran down the sidewalk with my stuff. Then they brought in dump trucks and started loading stuff."
Goodreau said that 15 to 20 police officers showed up and confiscated food, two computers, tables, stoves and sleeping bags.
"As soon as they left, we all came back," he said. "People were very angry, very upset, telling police they are thieves."
Several people have been cited for trespassing since the protest began on Dec. 2, the day of the Big Game against Stanford. On that day, a group of activists climbed two oaks and a redwood, and vowed...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
*Look's down at his boy* "C'mon son, grab your pelletgun, we're going to the park."
That would have been my solution as well. I would chop away while somebody else videotaped it for upload to YouTube later.
Trees are a crop.
"Richard Goodreau, a Berkeley resident, said he was sleeping at the base of the tree about 6 a.m. when he heard a commotion.
"I heard yelling, so I just laid low," he said. "Everyone got cleared out, and I ran down the sidewalk with my stuff."
Nothing like bravery to set you apart from the rest...(rolling eyes)....LOL
I am shocked and surprized that police in BERZERKLEY would do such a thing.
Trees have rights, dontcha know!
I think there's gotta be one sane kid on campus with the huevos to just go in the middle of the night with a chainsaw and eliminate the source of the controversy. Especially since the University is too weak to do it.
Look at thepicture of the tree-sitters.
And you still don't think that humans are related to arboreal primates?
Pianos, furniture, baseball bats..
- R.H.Limbaugh
It these guys smoke some plants, why can't they tolerate cutting down some others?
Hackey-Sak?
In all seriousness, the morally correct thing to do, instead of depriving everyone else of the use of new athletic facilities, would be to dig into their own pockets (ie.e trust-fund money) and scrape-up some cash to have the trees relocated. But noooo, they expect everyone else to bear 100% of the burden for their own personal preferences.
Eco-nazi tree squatters? Property-confiscating cops? Jocks in need of a new playpen? Sorry - ain't got a dawg in that fight. The tree's the most sympathetic character in it, and, well, it's a plant.
So the University can't have this new building because a few idiots want to sit in a tree? How can these people be so stupid? I hope they get little, if any, sympathy.
They're about one step away from painting their asses blue.
Moonbats in their natural habitat, Berkeley.
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