Welcome to Camp Berkeley!

Well. Code PINK has set up camp in the back of a large flatbed truck this week. The police have given them some latitude on parking meters and such, as long as the whole thing stays calm and pedestrian and car traffic aren't impeded by their presence. Yoga every morning at 8:30, singing, houseplants. Tra la, la. You can go to SF GATE and Google Code PINK to read the latest. I was starting to feel a little bored with everything so calm....

Then this morning the word came down that the Berkeley Police Review Commission has received a petition from World Can't Wait! and Code PINK alluding to police misbehavior and bad behavior. http://www.ibabuzz.com/politics/ Apparently the petition, with 65 votes (of which a minimum of 50 must be Berkeley voters --- which might be iffy, in my opinion) was presented last night, and the meeting was scheduled for tonight. The notice is too short for me to get there, but I did get to fire off a written statement supporting the Berkeley Police for their decency and patience, and professionalism, dealing with the protesters ---- especially with World Can't Wait! --- a group with such a lousy attitude that they have made me almost like Code PINK. The url above will take you to video of WCW! being "abused" by police while violating all the terms of the permit they held to protest two or three weeks ago.

Until recently I felt fairly neutral about Marxists and anarchists. For that I apologize. My heart goes out to anyone who has to impose law and order on a group that WANTS to be arrested, or maybe beat up, so they can cry brutality. As Roger Young [the vet who drove up from Orange County (twice) to guarantee at least one Marine supporter would be on hand for the WCW! protests] explained to me, "Code PINK is just annoying. They aren't really hurting anyone". WCW! is aggressive and invasive, and will exploit anyone for their agenda. They are the group that handed scarves to high school students on 2/12, and promised them they'd be on t.v. if they were loud enough. They offered support to Code PINK, and then chained themselves to the Marines' office one week, chained themselves to each other a week or two later and screamed at unarmed bike cops, while smacking chains against newspaper boxes and trying to get high school kids to join them, again (its in the video from the URL above). This time the students ignored them and went straight for the camera. How disappointing when the kids don't at least pretend to be on your side.