A Dangerous Home

What are the holidays made of? Good faith, cheer, peace for fellow man and civil disobedience. At least, according to one of the tree-sitters camping out in the oak grove. The tree-sitter was part of KRON-TV 4’s piece on how the protesters celebrated their Thanksgiving holiday, oak grove-style. The video showed individuals packing dinner and cheering as they were hoisted into the trees. Someone played the fiddle and others sang along. It was a very Berkeley Thanksgiving.

The news feature essentially presented the scene at the oak grove as a novel but lovely holiday celebration. What the clip neglected to point out were the police officers who had to miss Thanksgiving with their own families because they had to patrol the oak grove. Most annoyingly, the feature skipped over the dangerous reality of the tree-sit.

It’s been almost a year since a few individuals first scaled the oaks in protest of the trees’ planned demolition. During this time, the protesters have developed a mini-village in the trees, complete with a pulley system to bring food and supplies to the sitters. The conditions are unsanitary and hazardous. Two individuals have already been injured from falling out of the grove. Now, the next physical threat lies in the inevitable removal of the tree-sitters.

Even though the campus has had the legal right to remove the tree-sitters since they first scaled the trees, it has chosen to wait until the results from the stadium lawsuit are announced.

Eventually, however, the protesters will have to come down and the school is faced with the difficult task of determining how. The options that lie before the university are few and risky, and almost certain to result in injury. Already scuffles have broken out at the site between protesters and police, and any removal will undoubtedly produce more intense clashes. Indeed, the situation in the grove is nothing to be thankful for.