Posted on 11/17/2008 10:20:37 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
A fight that broke out last Thursday in Eshleman Hall may be classified as a hate crime pending further investigation by police.
Police said racial remarks were made during the altercation-a result of Palestinian flags that were hung from a second-floor balcony overlooking a pro-Israel concert-that may cause investigators to classify the fight as a hate crime.
"We're looking into the possibility of it being a hate crime, based on the statements (made to police by) Palestinian students," said UCPD Assistant Chief Mitch Celaya. "Clearly these two groups have some conflict."
Celaya said it appeared the Palestinian protesters were exercising their free speech rights when they hung two Palestinian flags on the second-floor balcony of Eshleman Hall to protest what they said were anti-Palestinian lyrics they heard in a concert promoting Israeli Liberation Week.
In response, former ASUC Senator Gabe Weiner and Yehuda De sa, the concert's opening act, went to the balcony from Lower Sproul Plaza to ask that the flags be removed, Weiner said. ASUC Senator John Moghtader said he accompanied the two to observe.
Both Weiner and Moghtader are organizers with the UC Berkeley chapter of the Zionist Freedom Alliance.
When they reached the second floor balcony, a fight broke out between the two groups, police said.
Campus police say Weiner, 23, was cited with three counts of battery. Two of the three Palestinian students who displayed the flags-senior Dina Omar, 22, and senior Husam Zakharia, 23-were each cited with one count of battery. The third, junior Dalia Marina, was not cited. Nobody was taken into custody.
Omar, Zakharia and Marina declined to comment.
Weiner, who graduated last spring, said he did not feel the incident was a hate crime. "All I did was defend myself," he said.
Police are also asking the Alameda County District Attorney's Office to file battery charges against Moghtader based on witness statements, Celaya said.
Moghtader, a junior, said he became involved when attempting to break up a fight between Weiner and Zakharia.
"I had absolutely no part in the altercation," he said. "After 20 to 30 seconds, I decided to intervene."
Moghtader said that as of Sunday night, he had not been approached by campus police to recount his story.
Celaya said the situation could have been resolved more peacefully.
"Both sides did not handle this on the most tasteful or intellectual level," he said.
know = known
the source link has a comments area wide open to freeping...
I wouldn’t be surprised if they received all sorts of grants as well. In other words, the California tax payers are probably footing the bill.
More Islamophobia. :)
(/sarcasm)
“Clearly these two groups have some conflict.”
Ya think? Duh!!
Sproul Plaza is an open, public place at the center of campus and there are banners and signs of all sorts hanging around it. It sounds to me like these “Zionists” should have just ignored the “Palestinians” instead of going to “confront” them. Whatever one feels about the relative merits of the two sides to the conflict in Israel, nobody has the right to shut down someone else’s free expression of ideas on Sproul Plaza.
“...So if I ever get into some fisticuffs it has to be someone of my exact race or it will be a hate crime? ...”
That’s right! You have say loudly, ‘I love your buddy!’; ‘You da man!’ Never raise your voice in anger as you pound his head in the dirt.
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
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Hate crime? It's battery, investigate and prosecute that. If the judge feels a long sentence is appropriate due to risks of recidivism for any reason, so be it.
Maybe so, but the huge problem is selective muzzling of free speech on college campuses in general, with Berkeley undoubtedly leading the charge.
Somehow, I doubt if putting up Israeli flags and banners at the same location would have been considered "legal" by campus authorities. They would have been considered "racist" and "too provacative" to pass the PC test. Perhaps the placement of American flags there would have been declared illegal as well, and those involved in such activities would be "disciplined" by the university.
Berkeley's leftist administrators have long adhered to the motto "Free speech for me, but not for thee."
"Free speech," as Justice Holmes once famously said, does not include the right to shout fire in a crowded theater. Neither does it include the right to hang Pali flags at a pro-Israel concert.
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