Posted on 11/15/2007 11:39:15 AM PST by SmithL
BERKELEY - Three people were arrested early today during a scuffle with UC Berkeley police near Memorial Stadium, where tree-sitters have been camped out in a grove for 11 months.
Protesters said the clash happened after about 50 people walked over to grove late Wednesday as a show of support for the sitters, who are hoping to save about 100 trees from a proposed $125 million sports training center.
Protesters and their supporters have been engaged in a waiting game with university officials after a judge ruled last month that the university can remove the tree-sitters, even if they are not identified in a court order by name. Wednesday night's clash was not an attempt by authorities to clear the tree-sitters from the grove, however.
A man identifying himself only as Ayr said the supporters came to the grove from a benefit concert nearby around 11:30 p.m. Ayr said the group included Native Americans who believe that the grove was a burial ground for Ohlone Indians. UC anthropologists have said there is no evidence that is true.
Ayr, part of the ground crew that helps the tree-sitters, said the arrests occurred after one of the protesters came down to the ground and started to cut the chain-link fence that university officials erected around the grove in August. The university said the 8-foot-tall barrier was meant to separate football fans and the protesters.
"We went to deliver sage and tobacco and water to the tree-sitters, because we had heard earlier that (police) were denying them food and water and threatening people helping them with arrest," Ayr said. "We got the stuff up to them and we were doing some chants and songs when one of the tree-sitters came down and started cutting the fence."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Weird. I think I know what the writer means, but it sounds like the sports center is going to attack the trees. It's a quagmire!
These tree-sitter stories remind me of the old war movies where the marines are always blasting Jap snipers out of palm trees. A little bit of that would clear up the problem immediately.
I don't care who you are, that's funny.
You know how much it pained the writer to write that second sentence?
I am sure the UC Anthropology Department is getting it's teeth kicked in by the freakazoids over this. If you knew the UC Anthropology Department, you would understand the humor of this situation.
Sure, "sage"... I'm sure it wasn't some other type of fragrant green herb...
It wasn't wisdom either.
They're smoking tobacco? Off with their heads!
“The university said the 8-foot-tall barrier was meant to separate football fans and the protesters.”.....L.O.L.! Good thinking!
“The university said the 8-foot-tall barrier was meant to separate football fans and the protesters.”....(captian obvious moment!)...My team just lost and I’ve had a six pack to drink...now what?...Lets get medieval on some treehuggers?
As an American Indian (you all are probably “Native Americans”) let me say that when the Indians get involved in this sort of crap, it really gets my goat. It makes all of us Natives look like a bunch of cry baby idiots. This and the bull crap about mascots. A couple hundred years of “poor me” is about enough. Get a job and get in the real world. Sprinkling tobacco and burning sage does not fit in the 21 century. (although a good sweat bath might do some good)
It’s no worse than demanding money for sll that sex you failed to have after a accident.
Simply amazing. I’ve added 125 trees to my property over the past 15 years. (Pine, hardwood, fruit trees, flowering shrubs, etc.)
Where’s my freakin’ MEDAL from dopes of this ilk? *SMIRK*
Does it ever occur to them that if they REALLY want to “help the environment” they get a JOB, buy some land and plant some trees themselves? Yeesh!
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