Two arrested in Berkeley Marine recruiting center protest

[darrels joy]

Two arrested in Berkeley Marine recruiting center protest
Contra Costa Times
Article Launched: 02/22/2008 07:41:12 PM PST




BERKELEY -- Two people were arrested Friday after they encircled police during a protest of the U.S. Marine recruiting center, a police spokeswoman said.

A group called The World Can't Wait -- Drive Out the Bush Regime was demonstrating at the downtown center Friday to protest military recruiting in Berkeley.

The issue has been in the limelight recently after the City Council last month called the recruiters "uninvited and unwelcome intruders."

Police spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said about 20 protesters marched from the Marine recruiting center at 64 Shattuck Square to Shattuck Avenue and Center Street to rally for their cause.

Two Berkeley police bike officers followed the group to protect the community, she said.

At the corner of Shattuck and Center, a protester screamed into a megaphone, a violation of a city permit because it was away from the recruiting center, where protesters have a sound permit.

Police tried to detain him to talk about the violation, Kusmiss said.

At that point, the crowd surged and surrounded the bike officers and closed in on them, she said.

Police called for backup and at least a dozen cars arrived in downtown, Kusmiss said.

Kusmiss said officers had to use some force to make the arrests and protect their colleagues during the surge. No one was seriously injured although a couple of police officers sustained minor injuries, Kusmiss said.
Police arrested Rafael Schiller, 26 of Berkeley, and another
man who refused to give his name, police said.

Officials from World Can't Wait

(YOUR GOVERNMENT, on the basis of outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights. YOUR GOVERNMENT is openly torturing people, and justifying it. YOUR GOVERNMENT puts people in jail on the merest suspicion, refusing them lawyers, and either holding them indefinitely or deporting them in the dead of night. YOUR GOVERNMENT is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule. YOUR GOVERNMENT suppresses the science that doesn't fit its religious, political and economic agenda, forcing present and future generations to pay a terrible price. YOUR GOVERNMENT is moving to deny women here, and all over the world, the right to birth control and abortion. YOUR GOVERNMENT enforces a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance. People look at all this and think of Hitler - and they are right to do so. The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come. We must act now; the future is in the balance.)

were not immediately available for comment.

Police said the arrests were for resisting arrest, but the two could also face other charges for refusing to give their names and violating the city permit.

-- MediaNews

[Keith_Hixson]

Anti-War, Anti-Violence protesters becoming violent.

Keith