Tree-sitters remain in oaks at UC Berkeley

[struggle4progress]

Protesters clear grounds at police request
By Willian Brand, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 02/14/2007 10:54:42 AM PST

BERKELEY - A standoff continued Wednesday between a group of tree sitters trying to save a grove of live oaks in front of Memorial Stadium and the University of California, Berkeley police.

Mike Kelly, a supporter of the half-dozen protesters who have been camping out in the trees since December, said the group also has complied with a police request to clear the ground beneath the tree of camping paraphernalia, tarps and equipment.

``On Monday, the police came and said, `This is a public safety risk,' " Kelly said. "This is illegal, you'll have to remove everything,' they said. They conformed to the police request and moved everying out except the information table -- that is protected under the Constitutional right to free speech, he said.

University spokeswoman Marie Felde said the campus is keeping all options open. "The scene at the trees is increasingly worrisome," Felde said, "Campus police are finding that it is turning into a place for street people, homeless and other non-campus people to hang out." ...

http://orovillemr.com/news/bayarea/ci_5225747

[TacticalPeek]

1. Right on.

:kick:

[SteveM]

2. Same thing happened at University of Texas in 1970.

I don't have a site for you, but in that year a number of demonstrators (some in trees) were forcibly evicted to allow oaks to be bulldozed for an expansion of football stadium facilities. I remember that the Chairman of the UT Board of Regents at the time, Frank C. Erwin, was heard to call the students "dirty nothings," and on another occasion: "this is a great university if it weren't for the students."

[EvilAL]

3. .

Get back to class.
Trying to save some plants.. Instead of hanging out in trees and making spectacles of themselves why don't they use thier time to go actually plant some trees? No, that's too much like work.
The time they waste in those trees could have been used to plants hundreds of trees.