Berkely, CA Council Votes that Marines are not Welcome

[Seamus Fermanagh]

No.

The armed forces are the power of a state. A state is the one capable of silencing Joe Citizens, and that's the reason for free speech laws. If Joe Citizens somehow manages to silence a state, I'd say good job.

Must go get another cup of coffee. Just found myself in complete agreement with HoreTore....

Now, don't mistake me, I think Berkeley is -- at the least -- out of step with reality. If you are THAT opposed to the will of the larger polis, then it is your duty to secede and establish a different form of government, not to pass ordinances WITHIN the context of that government just to annoy people and call for attention. Government is NOT a protest forum -- it should be listening to protests not enacting them.

That said, these code pinkers have a right to protest as they are, just as the local authorities have a duty to arrest them when they move beyond polite protest and into civil disobedience. King and the others knew that "sitting in" at the restaraunt would get them jailed -- so you must be willing to pay the price if you go beyond simple protest.

@ Kukri:

Did you really get doused that way? How LOATHSOME! I suspect that I, had I been standing there, would have quickly been under arrest for decking and beating senseless the person who could do such a thing. I'd read about such things of course, but a lot of it has been described as "overblown" by some subsequent researchers. Now it would seem that some kind of agenda was driving the "research."

[KukriKhan]

"Blood Bombs" were indeed hurled at both 6th Army HQ and Letterman Hospital in San Francisco, when I was stationed there.

In honesty, the throwers were probably aiming at the buildings themselves (so they said after their arrests by SFPD), but they were lousy hurlers, and many of the bags landed amongst we troops, who were barring access to the buildings.

(They were quite organized by then - the crowd would advance to about 25 meters away; we would close ranks and go to "Port Arms"; some leader up front would hollar: "Chicks up front!"; young women with blood-bombs moved up front, the crowd advanced to about 10 meters from our line, and the 'bombs' would get flung. Then they'd retreat back to about 25-30 meters and say their piece over bullhorns)

I'll see if I can find photos in the SF Examiner archives.

What I've seen discounted as "overblown" was the 'spitting on returning Vietnam vets' thing, which disgusting practice I never personally saw.