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Indybay Feature

Berkeley council tells Marines to leave

by more
Hey-hey, ho-ho, the Marines in Berkeley have got to go.

That's the message from the Berkeley City Council, which voted 6-3 Tuesday night to tell the U.S. Marines that its Shattuck Avenue recruiting station "is not welcome in the city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders."

In addition, the council voted to explore enforcing its law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation against the Marines because of the military's don't ask, don't tell policy. And it officially encouraged the women's peace group Code Pink to impede the work of the Marines in the city by protesting in front of the station.

In a separate item, the council voted 8-1 to give Code Pink a designated parking space in front of the recruiting station once a week for six months and a free sound permit for protesting once a week from noon to 4 p.m.

Councilman Gordon Wozniak opposed both items.

The Marines have been in Berkeley for a little more than a year, having moved from Alameda in December of 2006. For about the past four months, Code Pink has been protesting in front of the station.

"I believe in the Code Pink cause. The Marines don't belong here, they shouldn't have come here, and they should leave," said Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates after votes were cast.

More
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_8120433?source=most_emailed
§Demonstrators Get Space to Protest
by Daily Plant (reposted)
The question of dedicating space—a parking space—for Code Pink’s weekly demonstrations in front of the downtown Berkeley Marine Recruiting Center (MRC) raised hackles at Tuesday night’s Berkeley City Council meeting, when Councilmember Gordon Wozniak likened the demonstrations there to protests at abortion clinics.



“There’s a line between protesting and harassing,” Wozniak said, referring to possible harassment of recruits.

Wozniak was the lone vote in opposition to a resolution authored by Councilmembers Linda Maio and Max Anderson designating a parking space in front of the recruiting center for the demonstrators from noon to 4 p.m. every Wednesday for six months.

The dedicated parking space “is showing favoritism to one side of the argument,” Wozniak said, adding, “My concern is giving a parking space in front of the Marine Recruiting Center seems confrontational.”

While Dori Schmidt, whose husband owns The Berkeley Review, a test preparation business above the MRC, told the council that the demonstrations disrupt the business with their noise, other public speakers supported the parking space designation.

“It’s not favoritism,” said PhoeBe Sorgen, a member of Code Pink and the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Social Justice Committee. Rather, it’s following the Berkeley “tradition to stand up for peace,” she said.

Bob Meola, a veteran who has staffed hot lines for military personnel trying to leave the service, told the council that use of the parking space will help the demonstrators deliver the truth to possible recruits.

“People get lied to. They don’t get the jobs and training” they’re told they will get, Meola said. “It’s a community service to warn youth about the criminal liars.”

Anderson spoke as a former Marine who had protested the Vietnam War, addressing the unfair advantage of the Marines that have “millions of dollars at their disposal to bombard the nation with propaganda.”

Councilmember Betty Olds, who originally intended vote against the resolution, said she changed her mind, especially listening to one of the speakers who is a 90-year-old peace activist. Olds said it would have been hypocritical of her to oppose the resolution, since she, like many others in Berkeley, “found a psychiatrist who said their kids were all crazy to get them out of the [Vietnam] war.”

More
http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=01-29-08&storyID=29066
As published on http://www.nbc11.com:


If the City Of Berkeley has federal and state funding pulled due to this incident, I will personally pony up a $100 donation to do my part to make up for the funding shortfall. I think the city should take a stand and demand that the Marines leave. Having the Marines in Berkeley is like having Checkmate aerial spray or a Navy ship in Santa Cruz. It just doesn't wash. I don't see Santa Cruz being sanctioned for rejecting the Navy ship a few years ago.

The fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan are fighting for capitalists and their cronies, not to protect the people of the US. Have the National Gaurd troops come home from Iraq and help rebuild New Orleans and the rest of the state of LA.
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