thedrifter
01-18-08, 06:00 AM
Berkeley group opposes military-recruiting offices
By Kristin Bender, STAFF WRITER
Article Last Updated: 01/18/2008 02:39:47 AM PST
BERKELEY — After weekly, sometimes volatile protests at the U.S. Marines service center in Berkeley, a group of residents is trying to get an initiative on the November ballot to make it more difficult for military recruiting offices to open in Berkeley.
The way it stands now, opening a military recruiting office, such as the one the Marines opened downtown in late 2006, is a routine administrative process through the city of Berkeley.
It requires obtaining a zoning certificate, which doesn't require a public hearing or a public comment period. It's much like the process for opening an insurance office or a flower shop, city officials said.
If the measure makes the ballot and passes with a majority vote, a military office looking to open within 600 feet of homes, parks, public health clinics, libraries, schools or churches, would require a use permit with a public hearing. It's a longer and more complicated city process that sometimes can be stalled or nixed in city bureaucracy.
Proponents say they hope making it more difficult for military recruiters to locate in Berkeley will force them to stay away from the city, which has a long history of approving anti-war proclamations and opposing war.
"We believe that the youth in society today are susceptible to pressure from military recruiters," said Sharon Adams, a Berkeley-based attorney who helped draft the proposed initiative. "As a policy matter, we are trying to make it so that youth have a little bit more ability to discern what is going on."
The group wants to tighten city regulations on military centers because they say the military "fails to properly take care of veterans after they serve our country," "the U.S. military openly discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation" and "the U.S. military allows sexual abuse and discrimination to occur in its ranks," according to their initiative.
The group, which includes Berkeley Peace & Justice Commissioner PhoeBe Anne Sorgen, needs to collect roughly 2,000 signatures within the next six months to put its measure on the Nov. 4 ballot.
But already there is public outcry over the proposed measure.
"This whole thing strikes me as discriminatory against poor, middle class, people of color, both black and brown, who come out of the military more prosperous than when they went in," said Melanie Morgan, the chairwoman of Move America Forward, a grass-roots, pro-troops organization with more than a million members nationwide. Morgan also has a conservative talk show on KSFO.
"They are making it more difficult for these young people to succeed in society by denying them easy access to the military recruitment procedure," she said.
The group defines a military recruiting office as a "building, establishment, storefront, business, office or other space used to recruit a person or persons to enlist in or otherwise join the U.S. military."
They say it includes but is not limited to the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Air National Guard, Army National Guard, and Special Operations.
It doesn't not apply to the Reserve Officers' Training Corps or the Junior Officers Training Corps.
Carole Kennerly, formerly Carole Davis, a Berkeley woman who served on the Berkeley City Council for six years several decades ago, said she wants to tighten city regulations because she has heard that young people are misled about the benefits of joining the military.
"I think we still have some public policy responsibility to insure that there is some balance in terms of (the information that goes to) young people," she said.
The current Marine Corps recruiting center at 64 Shattuck Square in Berkeley, has come under fire in recent months by CodePINK and other groups who have held weekly protests at the site.
Some working on the ballot initiative have been at those protests.
At one of the protests last fall, CodePINK, Grandmothers Against the War, Berkeley East Bay Gray Panthers, and similar groups met resistance from flag-waving military veterans, mothers and fathers of soldiers, members of the UC Berkeley College Republicans and Morgan.
For many of the demonstrations, the Marines recruiting office was closed.
Capt. Richard Lund, the Marine Corps' officer selection officer for the northern Bay Area, has said he chose the downtown spot because of its proximity to UC Berkeley and the BART station. It was formerly located in Alameda. He was not available for comment Thursday.
Even if the measure passes, it may not have that much impact.
Over the last several years, Berkeley has not been a hotbed of military recruiting.
Statistics show that in fiscal 2001, which ended three weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, 22 Berkeley residents joined the armed forces, according to Department of Defense enlistment data.
By 2006, with the Iraq war in full swing, just 15 signed on, nearly a third fewer.
Berkeley's drop mimics a California-wide trend. The Golden State in 2001 was the nation's largest source of new enlistees, with 23,503 residents joining the military in 2001. But in 2006, 2,400 fewer residents heeded the call, and today California ranks second, behind Texas, in recruitment.
While the proposed initiative would not have a direct impact on the current military recruiting center, Zanne Joi, a CodePINK activist, said she hopes it would create enough political pressure to drive it out of Berkeley.
"There are many other convenient places for the Marines to be where they are wanted. We are asking the military to respect the people of Berkeley," she said.
Ellie
By Kristin Bender, STAFF WRITER
Article Last Updated: 01/18/2008 02:39:47 AM PST
BERKELEY — After weekly, sometimes volatile protests at the U.S. Marines service center in Berkeley, a group of residents is trying to get an initiative on the November ballot to make it more difficult for military recruiting offices to open in Berkeley.
The way it stands now, opening a military recruiting office, such as the one the Marines opened downtown in late 2006, is a routine administrative process through the city of Berkeley.
It requires obtaining a zoning certificate, which doesn't require a public hearing or a public comment period. It's much like the process for opening an insurance office or a flower shop, city officials said.
If the measure makes the ballot and passes with a majority vote, a military office looking to open within 600 feet of homes, parks, public health clinics, libraries, schools or churches, would require a use permit with a public hearing. It's a longer and more complicated city process that sometimes can be stalled or nixed in city bureaucracy.
Proponents say they hope making it more difficult for military recruiters to locate in Berkeley will force them to stay away from the city, which has a long history of approving anti-war proclamations and opposing war.
"We believe that the youth in society today are susceptible to pressure from military recruiters," said Sharon Adams, a Berkeley-based attorney who helped draft the proposed initiative. "As a policy matter, we are trying to make it so that youth have a little bit more ability to discern what is going on."
The group wants to tighten city regulations on military centers because they say the military "fails to properly take care of veterans after they serve our country," "the U.S. military openly discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation" and "the U.S. military allows sexual abuse and discrimination to occur in its ranks," according to their initiative.
The group, which includes Berkeley Peace & Justice Commissioner PhoeBe Anne Sorgen, needs to collect roughly 2,000 signatures within the next six months to put its measure on the Nov. 4 ballot.
But already there is public outcry over the proposed measure.
"This whole thing strikes me as discriminatory against poor, middle class, people of color, both black and brown, who come out of the military more prosperous than when they went in," said Melanie Morgan, the chairwoman of Move America Forward, a grass-roots, pro-troops organization with more than a million members nationwide. Morgan also has a conservative talk show on KSFO.
"They are making it more difficult for these young people to succeed in society by denying them easy access to the military recruitment procedure," she said.
The group defines a military recruiting office as a "building, establishment, storefront, business, office or other space used to recruit a person or persons to enlist in or otherwise join the U.S. military."
They say it includes but is not limited to the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Air National Guard, Army National Guard, and Special Operations.
It doesn't not apply to the Reserve Officers' Training Corps or the Junior Officers Training Corps.
Carole Kennerly, formerly Carole Davis, a Berkeley woman who served on the Berkeley City Council for six years several decades ago, said she wants to tighten city regulations because she has heard that young people are misled about the benefits of joining the military.
"I think we still have some public policy responsibility to insure that there is some balance in terms of (the information that goes to) young people," she said.
The current Marine Corps recruiting center at 64 Shattuck Square in Berkeley, has come under fire in recent months by CodePINK and other groups who have held weekly protests at the site.
Some working on the ballot initiative have been at those protests.
At one of the protests last fall, CodePINK, Grandmothers Against the War, Berkeley East Bay Gray Panthers, and similar groups met resistance from flag-waving military veterans, mothers and fathers of soldiers, members of the UC Berkeley College Republicans and Morgan.
For many of the demonstrations, the Marines recruiting office was closed.
Capt. Richard Lund, the Marine Corps' officer selection officer for the northern Bay Area, has said he chose the downtown spot because of its proximity to UC Berkeley and the BART station. It was formerly located in Alameda. He was not available for comment Thursday.
Even if the measure passes, it may not have that much impact.
Over the last several years, Berkeley has not been a hotbed of military recruiting.
Statistics show that in fiscal 2001, which ended three weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, 22 Berkeley residents joined the armed forces, according to Department of Defense enlistment data.
By 2006, with the Iraq war in full swing, just 15 signed on, nearly a third fewer.
Berkeley's drop mimics a California-wide trend. The Golden State in 2001 was the nation's largest source of new enlistees, with 23,503 residents joining the military in 2001. But in 2006, 2,400 fewer residents heeded the call, and today California ranks second, behind Texas, in recruitment.
While the proposed initiative would not have a direct impact on the current military recruiting center, Zanne Joi, a CodePINK activist, said she hopes it would create enough political pressure to drive it out of Berkeley.
"There are many other convenient places for the Marines to be where they are wanted. We are asking the military to respect the people of Berkeley," she said.
Ellie