Restraining order sought in animal-rights dispute

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Mar 6, 2008 | by Doug Oakley

The University of California, Berkeley, wants to get a restraining order against animal rights activists accused of harassing animal lab researchers, but the task is proving difficult.

"Our ultimate goal is to get a restraining order, but that is going to be a long process," said Robert Sanders, a UC Berkeley spokesman. "We need to prove a pattern to show the court these people should be banned from harassing people in their homes. They are domestic terrorists and the FBI has started treating them just as they would al-Qaida."

But a San Francisco animal-rights attorney, who has consulted with activists who were cited for disturbing the peace outside a UC Berkeley researcher's El Cerrito home in October, said it's the university that acts like a terrorist organization.

"There are more similarities between the vivisectionists and al- Qaida than there are with the vegan animal-rights picketers," Christine Garcia said.

Sanders said protesters started showing up at the homes of UC Berkeley researchers in the East Bay on weekends about six months ago. They usually wear masks, so it's hard to identify who they are, he said.

"They show up late at night, at 11 or midnight, and use bullhorns to denounce people as murderers and torturers, but it also has escalated to breaking flower pots and throwing rocks through windows," Sanders said.

San Francisco FBI Special Agent Joseph Schadler said his agency is working with UC Berkeley police and has sent agents to the University of California, Santa Cruz, following an attempted invasion of a biomedical researcher's home there last month.

He could not say whether the same groups were involved in the East Bay and Santa Cruz incidents.

Sanders said El Cerrito police identified about 20 protesters outside the home of a researcher there in October, when some were cited for disturbing the peace. But no further legal action was taken.

"The Contra Costa county prosecutor was not willing to go after the identified protesters in El Cerrito, so he evidently didn't think there was enough evidence to make a case," Sanders said.

More than a dozen researchers have been targeted at their homes in the East Bay from El Cerrito to Oakland, he said.

A Feb. 17 case in Berkeley -- during which protesters wearing bandannas to hide their faces smashed a flower pot and dumped garbage in a backyard -- closely mirrored a recent demonstration at the home of a UC Santa Cruz researcher, whose husband fought off six masked intruders after they banged on the porch and shook the door during their 8-year-old daughter's birthday party.

Berkeley police spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said last week that detectives are investigating leads based on license plate numbers and photographs of masked protesters captured by residents or officers as suspects fled. But she said in an e-mail this week that Berkeley police will not be sharing any more details regarding the investigation "as we are concerned about any future compromise/ exposure with respect to this ongoing investigation."

UC Berkeley Assistant Police Chief Mitch Celaya said his office is working with both police at both UC Santa Cruz and the University of California, Los Angeles, to keep an eye on the activists.

"I think there is the potential for violence," Celaya said. "When you look at other cases at UC Santa Cruz and UCLA, it has escalated and we need to be aware that it's a real possibility."

Garcia said UC Berkeley police have clearly overstepped their bounds by following activists outside the one-mile jurisdiction they have around campus.

"Not only have they gone out of their jurisdiction, they have gone outside the county," Garcia said.

Celaya admitted the UC police worked with El Cerrito police on the case in October, and the department will go outside its jurisdiction whenever its researchers are involved.

"We may not take the lead on it, but we do work with the city with primary jurisdiction," Celaya said.

MediaNews staff writer J.M. Brown contributed to this story. E- mail Doug Oakley at doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com.