Showdown in Berkeley

In a town known for its raucous protests, Tuesday was a doozy even for Berkeley.

The City Council, meeting last night, appeared set to rescind its resolution telling the Marines they were unwelcome intruders and urging members of a recruitment office to get out of town.

It only took a massive outpouring of anger from across the country, threats of losing pork-barrel project money and thousands of protesters during a daylong confrontation yesterday to get the council to this point. Even as its members considered rescinding the one resolution, however, they made no move to rescind other actions that had been passed at the same time that also slapped the Marines in the face.

Code Pink, a radical group of aging leftists, still gets its free parking space in front of the recruitment office and its free noise permit to protest the Marines. And the city staff is still directed to find a way to sue the Marines over alleged violations of gay rights (”don’t ask, don’t tell”).

Liberal hypocrisy was on full display throughout the day’s protests, with one left-winger after another saying they support the troops but just hate everything they do. Yelled Ann Wright, 61, through a megaphone: “We don’t support an illegal and immoral war … we want this recruiting station out of here. They lie, they cheat and this system is sucking our young men and women in.” But she supports the troops.

Three people were arrested. One was  a pro-military supporter arrested for brandishing a knife after a  horde of Code Pink wackos tried to tie him up with a pink banner and he used the knife to free himself. The other two were teen-agers who tried to pick a fight with military supporters.

Joining the professional protesters were many Berkeley high school students who skipped school at the urging of their professors, also among the anti-war demonstrators. By all counts, however, the military supporters outnumbered the Berkeley anti-American radicals.

The petulant childishness of the Berkeley left was on prominent display as the protests dragged on and the degenerates began lighting fires, including burning bicycles and an American flag.

This Oakland Tribune picture by Alex Molloy captured the moment as 7-year-old Kayden Elmer-Schurr, hugging his blanket, and his mother watch the boy’s bicycle burn after some bonehead lit a nearby sign on fire.

The war protesters like to pretend that they are for peace, but they stir up trouble and violence on purpose. They pretend they want to chase the Marines out of town to “help the children,” but you can see from the above picture how that works out.

It’s too much to expect that the flakes, bullies, fascists and assorted nuts in Berkeley would have a sudden realization about how trivial, backwards, ungrateful and downright nasty they seem to the rest of the world. It’s too much to expect them to change.

But maybe, if we’re lucky, they’ll remember the resistance they encountered when they attacked the Marines and they’ll think twice next time.