MARINES ATTACKED

[travelinman]

City Calls Marines ?Unwelcome Intruders?

SAN FRANCISCO ? The City of Berkeley, California has passed two resolutions attacking the United States Marine Corps, calling the Marines, ?uninvited and unwelcome intruders in the city.?

The Berkeley City Council voted to condemn the Marines on Tuesday night (January 29th) as part of a campaign by anti-war activists to shut down a U.S. Marine Recruiting Center located in the city of Berkeley.

[Lew]

Here's additional information about them:

http://www.bayareacodepink.org/


Lord knows I'm a huge proponent of free speech and assembly (albeit there have to be reasonable restrictions). I certainly have no problem with people protesting the military, that's entirely their right to do so. (I personally think their attacks are way off-base, but I would never suggest they don't have the right to make such attacks in the first place)

But....

I notice these cats are immediately in front of the doorway to the recruitment office. I would presume that, if a young man or woman went down there for purposes of enlisting, the fine folks at CodePINK would harass them to no end.

The LewMan has a solution. In many states (and I admit I don't know about California) there are "buffer zone" restrictions on protesting towards a specific building. And we all know where these laws came from, don't we? I would love to go up to the CodePINK crowd and ask them what they think about pro-life protesters who harass women going into an abortion clinic. So that's all we have to do is invoke those laws, and try to create a "buffer" around the Marine Corps office that the protesters can't penetrate. And I'm sure the CodePINK crowd would have no objections, after all I presume they fully support the buffer zones around the abortion clinics (ahem).

Now, there is also a "business interference" tactic that has been tried in some places. You may be familiar with the a-holes at Westboro Baptist Church (they run the godhatesfags website). They're the ones who protest funerals and hold up signs celebrating how the deceased has just entered hell. In the past, there have been restaurants in Wichita (I believe that's where they are) that have hired a gay waiter/waitress, and when Westboro finds out about it, they'll show up in front of the restaurant and protest. Well, obviously this drives off custormers and puts a lot of pressure on the restaurant owner. What some of them have tried to do is argue that freedom of assembly must be balanced against business interests. I mean, it's nice if you're Wal-Mart and you own a big parking lot surrounding your building, so that there's no way a protest group could get near your front door without trespassing. But so many small businesses, they're located on public streets and are entered from public sidewalks.

Some cities will designate certain areas (like a Fountain Square, or a street corner) to be "free speech zones."

Again, there has to be balance. I would never advocate limiting protests to the middle of the desert. On the other hand, I don't believe in protesters being able to blockade a building (be it the abortion clinic, a restaurant with gay employees or a USMC Recruitment office).