Posted on 03/06/2008 7:49:30 AM PST by SmithL
"Our ultimate goal is to get a restraining order, but that is going to be a long process," said Robert Sanders, a UC Berkeley spokesman. "We need to prove a pattern to show the court these people should be banned from harassing people in their homes. They are domestic terrorists, and the FBI has started treating them just as they would al-Qaida."
But Christine Garcia, a San Francisco animal rights attorney who has consulted with activists who were cited for disturbing the peace outside a UC Berkeley researcher's El Cerrito home in October, said it is the other way around.
"There are more similarities between the vivisectionists and al-Qaida than there are with the vegan animal rights picketers," she said.
Sanders said protesters started showing up at the homes of UC Berkeley researchers in the East Bay on weekends about six months ago. They usually wear masks, so it's hard to identify who they are, he said.
"They show up late at night at 11 or midnight and use bullhorns to denounce people as murderers and torturers, but it also has escalated to breaking flower pots and throwing rocks through windows," Sanders said.
San Francisco FBI Special Agent Joseph Schadler said the FBI is working with UC Berkeley police, and the bureau has sent agents to UC Santa Cruz after an attempted home invasion of a biomedical researcher there last month.
He could not say whether the events in the East Bay and Santa Cruz are related.
Sanders said that El Cerrito police identified about 20 protesters outside the home of a researcher there in October, when some were cited for disturbing the peace. But no further legal action was taken.
"The Contra Costa County prosecutor was not willing to go after the identified protesters in El Cerrito, so he evidently didn't think there was enough evidence to make a case," Sanders said.
More than "a dozen" researchers have been targeted at their homes in the East Bay, he said.
A Feb. 17 case in Berkeley -- during which protesters wearing bandannas to hide their faces smashed a flower pot and dumped garbage in a backyard -- closely mirrored a recent demonstration at the home of a UC Santa Cruz researcher, whose husband fought off six masked intruders after they banged on the porch and shook the door during their 8-year-old daughter's birthday party.
Berkeley police spokesperson Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said last week that detectives are investigating leads based on license plate numbers and photographs of masked protesters captured by residents or officers as suspects fled. But she said in an e-mail this week that Berkeley police will not be sharing any more details regarding the investigation "as we are concerned about any future compromise/exposure with respect to this ongoing investigation."
UC Berkeley assistant police chief Mitch Celaya said his office is working with both UC Santa Cruz and UCLA police to keep an eye on the activists.
"I think there is the potential for violence," he said. "When you look at other cases at UC Santa Cruz and UCLA, it has escalated and we need to be aware that it's a real possibility."
Garcia said that UC Berkeley police have clearly overstepped their bounds by following activists outside the one-mile jurisdiction they have around campus.
"Not only have they gone out of their jurisdiction, they have gone outside the county," Garcia said.
Celaya admitted that the UC police worked with El Cerrito police on the case in October, and the department will go outside its jurisdiction when its researchers are involved.
"We may not take the lead on it, but we do work with the city with primary jurisdiction," Celaya said.
If you sleep with dogs, you get fleas.
LOL, even pinko-leftists can’t stand the animal rights people. Whatever happened to free speech? I guess when the speech bothers the elitists of the school, it must be stopped. What hypocrites.
Itf they are banging on doors and fighting with the homeowner, wouldn’t be within the rights of the researcher to shoot them?
You reap what you sow.....
Setup a heat-beaming weapon and scald the scofflaws.
I’d be willing to come on as a consultant to the UC Berkely P.D.. If asked, I’d serve. (please take note of my tagline for op. order 1.)
Er, no. Not unless 'terrorism' has lost all meaning. 'Protesters', yes; 'public nuisances', yes; 'idiots', yes; even 'rioters'; but not terrorists.
Those protestors must be a bunch of RINOs. /sarc
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