Oct 18, 2007 12:29 am US/Pacific
Activists Duel At Berkeley Marine Recruit Office
BERKELEY (BCN) ―
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Pro-military and anti-war groups demonstrate in front of a Marine recruiting office on Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley Wednesday.
CBS
Pro-military and anti-war protesters demonstrated at the site of a recruiting office in downtown Wednesday in what turned out to be a rowdy but mainly peaceful protest.
The two groups, who mostly stood on opposite sides of the street, spent several hours holding up signs, waving flags and chanting slogans at each other, shouts of "USA!" mingling with "Stop the war!"
The rallies took place on opposite sides of Shattuck Avenue between University Avenue and Addison Street near a U.S. Marine Corps recruiting office that opened in that block late last year.
The anti-war group Code Pink has been holding periodic protests against the recruiting office for several months.
Pro-military groups such as Move America Forward, Gathering of Eagles and Eagles Up, as well as several talk show hosts from radio station KSFO, held a rally today to support the recruiting office, which they said has been vandalized by anti-war protesters.
Anti-war demonstrators, mostly from Code Pink, showed up to counter the pro-military groups.
Berkeley police spokesman Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said no one was arrested but a protester with the anti-war group "The World Can't Wait" was cited with an infraction for allegedly violating a section of the city's municipal code that bars throwing a flaming or glowing substance on city property.
Kusmiss said the young man, who was dressed in black, had been warned by Berkeley police after he burned an American flag, as officers were concerned about possibility of a fire or other public safety issues posed by a burning flag in close quarters with a large number of people.
The man was cited after he went ahead and burned a second American flag, she said.
At the peak of the rally, during the noon hour, there were more than 100 demonstrators in each faction. It appeared that the pro-military demonstrators slightly out-numbered the anti-military demonstrators.
Among those on the anti-war side of the street was Deborah Kearns of Berkeley, who held up a copy of a wedding photograph of a disfigured Iraq vet and his bride.
"It's a tragedy what's happening to our young people," she said. "There's something wrong with this administration and I think we all know it now."
On the other side was Jeff Ryan from nearby Hayward. The 59-yer-old Ryan, who said he served in the Navy, said this was his first time as a demonstrator.
"I don't consider this a protest; this is support," he said.
(© 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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