Berkeley council tells Marines to leave
contra costa times
Hey-hey, ho-ho, the Marines in Berkeley have got to go.
That’s the message from the Berkeley City Council, which voted 8-1 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.
A Marines representative did not respond to requests for comment.
The resolution telling the Marines they are unwelcome and directing the city attorney to explore issues of sexual orientation discrimination was brought to the council by the city’s Peace and Justice commission.
The recommendation to give Code Pink a parking space for protesting and a free sound permit was brought by council members Linda Maio and Max Anderson.
Code Pink on Wednesday started circulating petitions to put a measure on the November ballot in Berkeley that would make it more difficult to open military recruiting offices near homes, parks, schools, churches libraries or health clinics. The group needs 5,000 signatures to make the ballot.
Even though the council items passed, not everyone is happy with the work of Code Pink. Some employees and owners of businesses near the Marines office have had enough of the group and its protests.
“My husband’s business is right upstairs, and this (protesting) is bordering on harassment,” Dori Schmidt told the council. “I hope this stops.”
An employee of a nearby business who asked not to be identified said Wednesday the elderly Code Pink protesters are aggressive, take up parking spaces, block the sidewalk with their yoga moves, smoke in the doorways, and are noisy.
“Most of the people around here think they’re a joke,” the woman said.
Wozniak said he was opposed to giving Code Pink a parking space because it favors free speech rights of one group over another.
“There’s a line between protesting and harassing, and that concerns me,” Wozniak said. “It looks like we are showing favoritism. We have to respect the other side, and not abuse their rights. This is not good policy.”
Ninety-year-old Fran Rachel, a Code Pink protester who spoke at the council meeting, said the group’s request for a parking space and noise permit was especially important because the Marines are recruiting soldiers who may die in an unjust war.
“This is very serious,” Rachel said. “This isn’t a game; it’s mass murder. There’s a sickness of silence of people not speaking out against the war. We have to do this.”
Anderson, a former Marine who said he was “drummed out” of the corps when he took a stand against the Vietnam War, said he’d love to see the Marines high tale it out of town.
“We are confronted with an organization that can spend billions of dollars on propaganda,” Anderson said. “This is not Okinawa here; we’re involved in a naked act of aggression. If we can provide a space for ordinary people to express themselves against this kind of barbarity, then we should be doing it.”
Wild Thing’s comment……..
I wish the Marines would get orders to clear the area of rebels. Oh YEAH! I believe that we need to give the Marine Corps very specific orders regarding Berkley. “Secure the city.” They will know what to do, and I do not mean securing a 20 year lease.
Bastardly, traitorous, leftists. They are not worthy to tie the bootlaces of these Marines who defend their freedom to act in such an atrocious way. My contempt for these Berkley bastards is so strong.
Berkeley needs to be beaten at its own game. Someone needs to buy up property near or next to the Marine Recruiting Station and offer it to the Army, Navy and Air Force for recruiting offices also.
This is the ONLY COUCIL MEMBER that stood up for the Marines:
Wozniak, Gordon
GWozniak@ci.berkeley.ca.us
Phone: (510) 981-7180
Fax: (510) 981-7188
So when do we start bombing Berserkly??????????
The Old Retired Petty Officer.
Berkeley has always been full of liberal weiners!
OF course, everyone has the right to protest, but this is bordering on insanity.
I suppose none of the code pinko ladies remember the carnage that Saddam brought under his regime and that he broke UN rules that led us to go back.
And yes, he did have weapons of mass destruction–it doesn’t have to be a bomb. They did find Sarin and Mustard gas in Iraq. Sarin is extremely lethal. One teaspoon in the air could kill everyone in a city the size of Manhattan!
And Osama did have a hand in the 9-11 bombings and the Spanish bombings 911 days after 9-11.
Code Pinko makes women only look like bitches.
We aren’t all that way.
Code Pink Kooks, San Fransickos, La La Land, earthquakes, fault lines, mud slides, raging brush fires, and Hollyweirdos? Typical left coast applicants for Cal U, eh? – Revelation 2008
Social Darwinism; in this case the bad drives out the good.
I wouldn’t be offended by this. Berkeley is full of alpha males, both male and female, who are always elsewhere when the fighting starts.
Opposed to violence themselves, they aren’t opposed to living in an environment guaranteed to them by the willingness of others to engage in it. This includes police and standby military.
I long ago wrote off these moral deformities. They’re one of the byproducts of civilization, like waste products and junk.
“Golleee.” Seargent Carter maybe we should move away from there. It’s obvious that enclaves of Communists prefer their own kind to provide for their security, and they have an excellent track record, Berkely is not alone, move up the coast to Portland, Oregon they have the same mentality, next stop Olympia, Washington, yep the anti-military are esconced there too. Even Tacoma, Washington with it’s Air Force and Army Base have their hateful detractors but they pale compared to the dhimmi’s of Seattle where Jim McDermott reigns. The Marine Corp is a convenient target for the anarchists everywhere as are the Army, because they are in direct contact with the enemies of freedom and that distrurbs all the little Marxists in the major university cities. Tehran is one of those cities, maybe that is the type of military presence the red diaper doper babies of Berkely prefer.
“A Marines representative did not respond to requests for comment.”
That’s because they’re too civil, polite and dignified to respond. Well, I will for them.
Holy Shit, there’s no one in Berkeley worth recruiting for ANY of the services. I wouldn’t even want the Muslim terrorists to recruit there. Even the insurgents deserve better.
All those Faggots, Limp Wrists and Easy Gliders are just upset because we don’t want them in the military to contaminate normal human beings. The ones who are not Fagged Out are just fu**in’ nuts. It’s the water I guess.
On the positive side, get my Marines out of there and let the Berks have their space. Encourage all the deformed humans in the USA to congregate there so that G_d can take them with ease, in one quick quake.
Infantile paralysis of the mind. Priviledged, pampered, protected hippies of the 60s set up communal teepees in such cities as Berkeley, Boulder and Austin. Once they gathered and parked their asses, they decided to always be 14 yrs old. In that respect, they have been exceptionally successful. They have snubbed Darwin by proving that not all organisms advance.
There is an old saying…….”Be very careful what you wish for; You may just get it”!!! I think it would be an excellent idea for the Marines, and any other recruiting station in Berkeley, to move out and leave the wackos to their own resources. Why waste our time on a bunch of losers?!?!?! Personally, I would just as soon NOT have idiots like those spawned on the West Coast in our Great Military!!! Someday when they really need help, (i.e a large forest fire or massive earthquake) maybe the PinkO Goons will help them out!!!
Obviously, Anderson has an ax to grind for being “drummed out” of the Marines. Apparently he didn’t understand that part about the Marines are only looking for a few GOOD men!!!! Could it be that he liked men over women?!?!?! Hmmmm…..He does appear to prefer PINK!!!!!!!!!!!! LMFAO!!!!!!!!!
Based on their line of thinking, it would be perfectly ok for a group to protest their police offices. After all, don’t the police recruits “volunteer” to join and then risk their lives everyday trying to protect idiots like the Berkeley City Council and the Code Pink twinks!?!?!?!
Ramblings of an Old Navy SeaBee PO
I think it was 1963, I had just gotten to the 2nd MarDiv. what used to be called FMF, ‘Fightin’ MFs'(actually, Fleet Marine Force). I think it was August and it was a normal day. Went to lunch, er… Chow, and usually there was a platoon size muster at 1300. At about 1245 the Company Gunny came in to the Squad Bay and said there was a Full Battalion sized muster at 1315, …that was a big deal.
1315 came and everybody was outside.. Everyone was milling around and finally the ‘Old Man’ Colonel Breckenridge came out gave orders to the Battalion Sergent Major, (it is extremely unusual for all the staff of the Battalion to be at a muster), to call the Battalion to attention and after the proper presentation to the CO, the Battalion was ordered ‘At Ease’.
Up near Command Quarters two MPs escorted a little guy couldn’t have been more that 5’5 and was ordered to face the Battalion. He was shackled and had two of the biggest MPs I had ever seen standing on either side of him.
The CO read the charges: ranging from Auto Theft, to rape and burglary, he was awarded a Bad Conduct Discharge, 6 months in the Brig, 6 months loss of pay, better known as 6, 6 and a kick.
With the reading of the charges finished, The Sergent Major called the Battalion to Attention., paused and ordered ‘About Face’. and the little scumbag was escorted from the base.
That is being drummed out of the Corps.
So if this maggot was drummed out of the Corps, he is a complete screw up and belongs in Berkely with the rest of those terminally anal retentive morons.
In California, does the legislature have control over city charters? If I were a conservative congressman in California, I would be strongly tempted to introduce a bill revoking Berkeley’s charter. I know of instances in which other states dispatched unworthy towns similarly.
Dave’s right. Cities and towns, as a rule, have no legal existence apart from state charters.
I’m confused. Is Berkeley still part of the United States?
… The Japs hit our Pacific Fleet at Pearl on December 7, 1941 as their secondary target. Their intel nixed CALIFORNIA as the primary target because of the left coast moonbats that exist there! Tora Tora Tora 2008?
Lynn, Amen my friend.
GMC, Yes!I would love to hear that some group there fights back and stands up for our soldiers. But I never heard of any and shame on them too. If I lived there you can bet I would get people together and protest the pinko’s.
Darth, they sure are, the land of fruits and nuts.
Rhod, thanks, I agree they sure are “like waste products and junk.”. I try to ignore them but sometimes it just gets to me that they even exist.
Jack, OMG I love this……Hahahahahahhahaa
” red diaper doper babies of Berkely”
When we lived in Calif. we took a drive up the coast and then to Oregon. We were thinking about moving there when Nick retired from his stuntwork. It was so gorgeous, I fell in love with it, all those trees and the air was so clear. Then we ended up where we live now in Florida. But is was so beautiful, too bad like you say Portland too is heave liberal. It is all over the USA though it seems in almost every State, some just more then others.
Our little city we live in is pretty much Republican, lots of retired military here. So at least we get to fly the Flag in our front yard. That was important to us.
SSgt Steve, USMC, good one, I wouldn’t trust them if one of them did enlist.
Tom….”have snubbed Darwin by proving that not all organisms advance.”….perfect way to describe them.
John, love your ramblings and thank you for your service.
This has me laughing so hard….”He does appear to prefer PINK”…..heh heh
Mark, thank you so much for sharing about that, It was really interesting!!!
Like you said too, someone drummed out of the Corps would fit right in living in Berkley.
Dave I never heard of that before, but that would be a good idea.
Les, hahaha yes it is, for now anyway.
drstrangeloveb52isok, interesting, it must be in the water or something. amazing
FYI, Move America orward has a response posted here:
http://www.moveamericaforward.org/index.php/MAF/FullNewsItem/shameful_berekeley_city_council_attacks_marines/
Enjoy.
Ok, SO the Mayor Tom Bates (hates) is a retired U.S. Army Captain ! What the hell. He and his wife, assembly woman Loni Hancock HATE AMERICA and on October 13, 2005 – Cindy Sheehan joins Assemblymember Hancock in Urging Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to Recall National Guard from Iraq. WTF. We cant let our proud men and woman of the military suffeer for acid brained hippies who are so burned out they have no idea about morals! NEVER BUY A HOME OR SHOP IN BERKLEY PERIOD!!!
Next news story..
Berkley city council arrested for conspiring to induce “by force, intimidation and threat, officers of the United States to leave the place where their duties as officers of the United States are required to be performed”
Your “screwedupness” would have to be the stuff of legend to get drummed out of the Corps tell us (adopt Agent Smith voice) Mr. Anderson what is the real reason you were drummed out?
Carrying a grudge is kinda like wearing the same suit everyday..sure it looks good at first but pretty soon it’ll start to stink.
Hmmmm.
Last time I checked the Federal government had a power called “Emminent Domain” that allows it to take land and property for the common good. I propose that the Congress use it to take some land and build a new Marine Corps base–Camp Berkeley!