Jun 26, 2008 5:27 pm US/Pacific
UC Berkeley Police Deliver Water To Tree-Sitters
BERKELEY (CBS 5 / BCN) ―
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Tree-sitters in the Cal Berkeley disputed oak grove.
UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley Police Deliver Water To Tree-Sitters
cal, tree, sitters, UC Berkeley, police, Memorial Stadium, water, health
BCN55 -TREE PROTESTERS
BERKELEY (BCN)
University of California, Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said campus police delivered water to a remaining group of about six protesters at a grove of oak trees near the university's football stadium about 1 p.m. today.
Mogulof said campus police Chief Victoria Harrison, Assistant Chief Mitch Celaya and other university officials expressed concern about the protesters' health and inquired about their remaining supplies of food and water.
Protesters have been living at the grove since Dec. 5, 2006, when a UC Board of Regents committee approved building a training center next to the football stadium. The project calls for tearing down the trees.
The project has been on hold since Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller issued a preliminary injunction against it in January of 2007.
The judge issued another ruling on the case last week and the parties in the case are submitting additional legal documents this week.
Mogulof said that after Harrison was told by the protesters that they were in fact in need of food and water supplies, she offered to begin providing them with food and water in return for a commitment to begin lowering their waste on a daily basis.
Mogulof said the protesters rejected that offer, but campus police "decided to act unilaterally in the interests of health and safety" and placed a case of 24 half-liter bottles at the base of the tree.
A line was lowered and the protesters raised the water up in to their last remaining structure.
Doug Buckwald, a spokesman for the protesters, said the tree-sitters only wanted water and other supplies from their own support team on the ground but they decided to accept water from campus police "because they needed it."
Buckwald said he thinks the university's delivery of water to the protesters "was strictly a public relations move" and he doesn't think the university really cares about their health and welfare.
Mogulof said campus official stress that while they stand ready to provide for essential needs, re-supply of the protesters from outside sources "will not be allowed under any circumstances."
He added that efforts will also continue to secure an agreement for the daily removal of the protestors' waste for the sake of health and hygiene.
Buckwald estimated that about six protesters remain in the grove of trees.
Harrison said, "At this point, with but a handful of people in a single tree, we now have a more manageable situation in the grove."
She said, "Today's action is the beginning of an effort to stabilize the situation until we get further information on when construction of the new athletic facility can begin."
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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