(Written by kencraw)

In a stronger move than I would have expected, this morning the Berkeley police put up a fence around the trees where the tree-sitters are wasting their lives away. I’ve not been able to get a hold of any pictures of the fence so I don’t know what kind of fence we’re talking about. Is this one of those VERY temporary fences that can’t even be climbed because they fall over from the weight? Or is it something that is staked into the ground? I think that makes a big difference as to what kind of impact it’ll have.

The tree-sitters are of course moaning about this, saying it violates the court injunction with their usual dubious legal logic. They also say that this is a way to “starve” the protestors out of the trees. Somehow I doubt this will be the case because I can’t imagine a fence they could build in a day that could prevent the passing of supplies when no one was looking (and I doubt the police are planning on a 24-hour watch).

My guess is that this is a “protest barrier” to prevent incidents at the games and not much more. Perhaps it is a move to prevent more protestors from moving into the trees, although, again, sans a 24-hour police watch, I don’t see how they can effectively do that. If anything it’ll do more to protect the protestors from angry fans than harm them with the possible exception of not allowing their on-the-ground protest at the games to be as cohesive as it would be.

I’ll post pictures if I can find them.

UPDATE (at 11:00 AM): An e-mail that was sent out today to the states the following:
This morning a temporary barrier was placed around the trees that are currently occupied by protesters. Based on the UC Police Department’s analysis and recommendations we decided that this would be a necessary and prudent step to ensure the safety of game-day fans and the protesters. We must emphasize that this is not in any way part of an effort to forcibly remove protesters from the grove. We have reluctantly accepted their unauthorized presence since last December, and while we will continue to evaluate that policy of tolerance we expect it to continue until the lawsuits are resolved.