Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Parks, Farms, and Police Power
What if history is just a series of circles, loops? The Euro-American way of looking at things is that history, time, is linear: Point A to Point B. A beginning and an ending. Maybe that’s wrong; Vine Deloria, Jr., in his last book, posited that both evolution and so-called “intelligent design” were modern myths. I like that. It’s always good to have unexamined assumptions challenged.
So what this is about is that 17 years and three months ago, a struggle erupted in Berkeley, California over a piece of land owned by the university. It got bloody: there were cops and National Guard, shootings, even a death. And today, about 400 miles south, a group of urban farmers tangled over a piece of land.
I remember going over to Berkeley to march. That was the first time I marched past soldiers with loaded weapons and bayonets, Oakland cops looking for heads to break, all sorts of people with cameras, and felt like I was in some narrow corridor of danger. That was when I first realized the awesome power of the State. The iron fist didn't have a velvet glove over it.
The more things change, etc., etc..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Park
Hollywood stars face eviction from urban farm
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Tuesday June 13, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
The struggle to save an urban farm that has drawn celebrities from around the world came to a halt on Tuesday as 100 police moved in to evict farmers and their supporters from the site.
With helicopters circling overhead, police forced their way on to the 14-acre [5.6 hectare] site at 5am after giving protesters a 15-minute warning. Inside they found the actor Darryl Hannah, who has been living in a walnut tree on the community farm for two weeks.
Bulldozers moved on to the property to knock down fences and demolish the small plots of land, while 17 people were resisting the eviction inside the two-city block farm.
***
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
So what this is about is that 17 years and three months ago, a struggle erupted in Berkeley, California over a piece of land owned by the university. It got bloody: there were cops and National Guard, shootings, even a death. And today, about 400 miles south, a group of urban farmers tangled over a piece of land.
I remember going over to Berkeley to march. That was the first time I marched past soldiers with loaded weapons and bayonets, Oakland cops looking for heads to break, all sorts of people with cameras, and felt like I was in some narrow corridor of danger. That was when I first realized the awesome power of the State. The iron fist didn't have a velvet glove over it.
The more things change, etc., etc..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Park
Hollywood stars face eviction from urban farm
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Tuesday June 13, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
The struggle to save an urban farm that has drawn celebrities from around the world came to a halt on Tuesday as 100 police moved in to evict farmers and their supporters from the site.
With helicopters circling overhead, police forced their way on to the 14-acre [5.6 hectare] site at 5am after giving protesters a 15-minute warning. Inside they found the actor Darryl Hannah, who has been living in a walnut tree on the community farm for two weeks.
Bulldozers moved on to the property to knock down fences and demolish the small plots of land, while 17 people were resisting the eviction inside the two-city block farm.
***
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
