Posted on 08/30/2007 11:09:40 AM PDT by SmithL
BERKELEY -- With more than 72,000 people expected to converge on Cal's Memorial Stadium on Saturday for a sold-out football game, the university on Wednesday erected a chain-link fence to separate fans and the band of protesters living in trees near the stadium.
A protest over the fence led to two arrests late Wednesday afternoon after some scuffling with police officers and an impromptu blockage of Piedmont Avenue by protesters sitting in the street. But by Wednesday evening, campus police had relaxed an earlier ruling barring any food, water or supplies being delivered to the tree-sitters.
The tree-sitters are protesting plans by the university to build a $125 million sports training complex in front of Memorial Stadium. Cal wants to build the training site for its 13 athletic teams because Memorial Stadium -- where athletes train, eat and get medical treatment -- is seismically unsafe. The project would require that the live oak grove be razed.
Before sunrise Wednesday, yellow police tape was wrapped around the perimeter of the tree grove, and a construction crew surrounded the grounds. They poured concrete, put up metal fence posts and started the hours-long process of installing an 8-foot chain-link fence.
Ground crews supporting the tree-sitters alternatively yelled at workers and peacefully strummed guitars as the crew worked.
A top UC Berkeley police official warned that anyone trying to enter the grove to bring food, water or supplies to the eight to 10 activists sitting on platforms in the trees would be cited for trespassing and possibly arrested.
Two protesters were arrested when several scuffles broke out between police and activists after activists held a 5 p.m. emergency meeting and rally Wednesday at the grove.
Tension erupted shortly after the protest began, when a university police officer grabbed and tackled a man trying to hoist a backpack full of supplies over the fence to the masked tree-sitters.
"Shame on you," the protesters shouted, shaking the chain-link fence, which they later surrounded while holding hands and chanting "food and water."
Protesters also managed to block northbound traffic for about 15 minutes by lying in the middle of busy Piedmont Avenue during evening traffic.
University police made one arrest for battery of an officer and resisting arrest, assistant Chief Mitch Celaya said, but he did not have information about the second arrest.
By 7 p.m. police were allowing supplies to be lifted to the tree-sitters.
Talk of tearing down the fence abounded among the crowd as police set up floodlights inside the fence in preparation for sunset. Police said they had no intention of forcibly removing the tree-sitters.
Celaya said the fence went up for safety reasons.
Memorial Stadium is sold out for the 5 p.m. game Saturday against the University of Tennessee.
"We're putting up the fence to try to prevent any altercation either before or after the game," Celaya said.
If you get my drift.
Girdle the trees & walk away. Short time, no problem.
Ah those crazy Berkeley kids! Always up to something.
sounds like some of hippy have devolved.
Is this satire?
Time to bring out the fire hoses?
Alas, they appeared not to be up to frequent bathing. 8-)
Talk about LOSERS. I would rather have my kid picking up dudes in bathrooms than having him/her be one of those brats up the tree at UC Berzerkly.
There’s a cool device that consists of a canvas pouch and two loops of surgical tubing that is usually used to launch water balloons... I like your idea with the cans.
Seems natural to me that these scrungy hippy protestors would be tree dwellers. Maybe they’re just unconsciously returning to their natural habitat. Might be amusing to see a counter-protest deriding the damage done to the resident symbiots (algae, fungi, lichen, etc) and disturbance of bird nests when these fools ascend/descend their roosts in those oak trees.
I’d prefer Bird Shot.
Eliminate the “soft” science, ethnic and gender studies degrees at Bizerkely, and that would allow them to concentrate on the basics of education again, rather than wasting time, money and energy on a 99% of the moon bat gadflies there.
A fence to keep people out? What a novel idea.
LOL! Dim and Gimmie Libtards are such road trash!
Ripe tomatos, too.
Let a dozen hungry goats loose inside that fence. Those trees ‘ll be “ring barked” within a few days, and dead before year’s end.
The tree livers must have missed the Darwin Express......
FMCDH(BITS)
Alas, the fence was not installed. The Militant Lesbian Alliance objected to the word “erect.”
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