More to the Story::Santa Cruz Sentinel
Police probing possible ties to attacks on UC Berkeley, Santa Cruz researchers
By J.M. BROWN
02/28/2008 09:25:11 PM PST
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_8399299Berkeley police detectives investigating a two-month string of animal
rights-related vandalism targeting the homes of UC Berkeley scientists
will begin probing possible connections to a spate of similar crimes
in Santa Cruz, including last weekend's attempted home invasion of a
local biomedical researcher.
Sgt. Mary C. Kusmiss, a Berkeley Police Department spokeswoman, said
detectives have not identified suspects in the rash of sidewalk
chalking, brazen daylight trespassing and bullhorn-powered yelling
incidents that have unfolded every Sunday afternoon since New Year's
Day outside the homes of at least six Berkeley researchers who use
cats, mice, rats and other animals in their research.
Kusmiss said detectives are investigating leads based on license plate
numbers and photographs of masked protesters captured by residents or
officers as suspects fled. A Feb. 17 case - during which protesters
wearing bandanas to hide their faces smashed a flower pot and dumped
garbage in a backyard - closely mirrored Sunday's 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.
The Berkeley incidents have not been widely reported by police or UC
officials until Thursday, and there is no immediate evidence they are
related to the Santa Cruz cases, though Berkeley detectives and Santa
Cruz city police have yet to compare notes, Kusmiss said. However,
officials said university police in Santa Cruz and Berkeley campuses
have been working together to determine possible links, as have
Berkeley campus and city police.
"It's always prudent and intelligent to collaborate and share
information with each other," Kusmiss said.
Animal rights protesters also have targeted UCLA researchers in recent
weeks, prompting the university to seek a restraining order against
animal liberation groups with suspected involvement. No groups have
taken responsibility for the Santa Cruz or Berkeley incidents.
Several targeted Berkeley professors - whose names have been posted by
protesters on activist and social networking Web sites - did not
immediately return messages seeking comment Thursday. Some of the Web
sites have published home addresses and phone numbers of the
researchers, as well as graphic descriptions of the alleged animal
testing protesters say the professors conduct.
Santa Cruz scientists, four of whom have been targeted by a series of
chalking and other vandalism during the past two weeks, say their work
with animals is not harmful and furthers vital cancer research. In a
1999 university news release discussing her work recording signals
from "deep within the brain of a cat," one of the targeted Berkeley
professors, Yang Dan, said "Fundamental understanding of brain
processes is crucial to understanding illness and eventually could
help us come up with treatments."
Santa Cruz police have declined to disclose the content of chalking
scrawled outside local researchers homes say, but Kusmiss said the
messages scribbled in front of Berkeley residences said: "bird killer"
and "animal killer lives here."
Berkeley professors first reported vandalism incidents in December,
but it wasn't until after Jan. 1 that detectives realized they were
dealing with serial demonstrators. Every Sunday afternoon in 2008,
nearly the same set of professors or their relatives have called
Berkeley police to report incidents at their homes, prompting police
to station officers near the houses every Sunday.
Kusmiss said some targeted professors leave their homes to avoid the
weekly harassment, but "others feel strongly that their homes are
their protected places and sanctums for them and their family, and
therefore they should have the right to live peacefully and not be
bullied into leaving every Sunday."
Kusmiss said professors and family members have reported that
demonstrators using megaphones have stood outside their homes yelling
"bird killer" or "cat murderer," and written in chalk on the sidewalk.
Protesters also have affixed 3-by-3 inch stickers to front windows and
mailboxes that show a rat behind jail bars and carry this inscription:
"Unseen they suffer, unheard they cry, in agony they linger, in
loneliness they die."
Kusmiss said all of the incidents have happened during the day.
"Their activities have been quite public," she said. "Part of their
approach is to not only share their message to a particular
researcher, but to other homeowners to get attention for their cause."
The incidents have been what Kusmiss called "minor" until Feb. 17,
when a faculty member reported that 15 protesters entered his property
at 3 p.m. and smashed a flower pot on the front porch before turning
over a garbage can in his backyard. He and his family were in the
residence, and told police protesters had visited 10 other times.
"We are concerned about any form of escalation," Kusmiss said.
Berkeley has a long history of animal rights advocacy, including among
student populations, but Kusmiss said it is not clear if students are
involved in the recent vandalism or trespassing cases. After Sunday's
incident in Santa Cruz, police raided a home where three UCSC students
live but have not named them as suspects.
Contact J.M. Brown at 429-2410 or jbrown@santacruzsentinel.com.