Mar 28, 2008

Marines protest price tag? $210,000-plus

Anti-war groups continue to stage rallies at recruiting center

By Kristin Bender / Bay Area News Group

In the last six weeks, the city of Berkeley has spent more than $210,000 on police overtime to try and keep the peace during protests at the U.S. Marine recruiting center and Old City Hall, a police official said Thursday.

Police spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said police department overtime from Feb. 12 to March 22 was $210,814.13. The city spent roughly $93,000 Feb. 12 during an all-day protest at Old City Hall that drew about 2,000 anti-war and military supporters, she said.

By comparison, the 186-officer department spends between $2,500 and $3,500 per week on overtime during a normal week, Kusmiss said. At that rate, typical overtime spending for six weeks ranges from $15,000 to $21,000.

On Jan. 29, the Berkeley City Council called the downtown Berkeley military recruiting center "uninvited and unwelcome intruders," sparking a national outrage.

Amid heavy criticism and threats by Republican lawmakers to withdraw federal funding, council members on Feb. 12 moderated their position saying they oppose the war in Iraq but support the troops. Rallies before the council's vote drew thousands to downtown Berkeley.

Since then, CodePink, the World Can't Wait: Drive out the Bush Regime, and other groups have continued to hold weekly protests at the Marine recruiting center.

And police have continued to monitor those protests, which in recent weeks have become increasingly raucous. Kusmiss said anywhere from three to 80 officers have been on overtime during the various rallies, with the most officers on Feb. 12.

On Monday, police arrested four CodePink protesters during a rally to mark the 4,000th U.S. troop death in Iraq.

Kusmiss said police are needed at all types of demonstrations in Berkeley.

"We feel it's important to have some measure of presence at any type of protest or demonstration," Kusmiss said, adding that the department is worried about the "commingling" of CodePink with the groups the World Can't Wait and the Answer Coalition, which police say, unlike CodePink, chain themselves to buildings and purposefully antagonize police officers.

On Thursday, Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink, said there is no need for so many police in front of the recruiting station. "It's a bit of an overkill," she said. "I don't know who they are protecting."

Kusmiss, however, said the protests often attract others with differing points of view. "Having (police) presence ensures that peace and community safety will be maintained around the Marine recruiting center," she said.

Benjamin said the weekly protests will continue until the recruiting center leaves town.

"If people are concerned they should put pressure on the (recruiting center) landlord to break the lease," Benjamin said. "The recruiters are the ones who should have never come in to Berkeley. If (whoever) in the city wants to stop the protests, they should encourage the recruiters to leave. Democracy comes at a price."

Meanwhile, a group of golfing war veterans are so miffed at the Berkeley City Council for taking a swing at the U.S. Marines that they are relocating their annual fundraising golf tournament outside of Berkeley.

The Lafayette War Veterans Golf Committee will move its third annual golf tournament from Tilden Park Golf Course in Berkeley to a still undecided location, the group announced Thursday.

The tournament is scheduled for Sept. 22.

The Lafayette War Veterans Golf Committee has raised more than $60,000 the last two years to help people who have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan and are being treated at the Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Palo Alto, tournament organizers said.