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.
http://www.kcbs.com/In-Berkeley--Down-from-the-Trees/2427277
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"At least one tree sitter on Tuesday began throwing bags of human waste on the approaching arborists."
http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/news/print.asp?id=25637
“She said activists ‘are committed to farming the land here’”
Oh, please. Like this little twit or her fellow travelers know anything about real farming. Actual farming is some of the hardest work a man can know, full of backaches and heartaches. I worked one summer on my uncle’s farm in Arkansas and had my eyes opened big time. And that was after years of experience working in the family vegetable garden every spring and summer (which is in itself more work than these folks probably have done).