"april 1st...court date, no joke".

video:
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www.youtube.com/watch
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"tangled up in a situation with all these troublemakers".
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dailycal.org/article/100706/student_reflects_on_arrest_at_wheeler_hall_tree-si
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Student Reflects on Arrest At Wheeler Hall Tree-Sit
Choice Wasn't a Matter Of Supporting the Protester-It Was About Human Decency

Jessica Schley

Last Thursday I gave water to a young man sitting in a tree on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. I was arrested for it. It took only a moment to make the decision to throw him water, and I was told by another student that I would likely be arrested, but I acted because I doubted the existence of a law in which a person could legally be denied water, a basic human need. I was cited for PC 148a(1), which is disobeying the orders of a police officer.

I didn't do it because I knew the man, or think his cause is just. He calls himself "Fresh," and he is advocating, among other things, the democratization of the UC Regents. Before Thursday, I hardly knew a movement such as his existed.

The whole point of being arrested is that it is supposed to be humiliating, but when you know what principles you stand for, and you know what you are getting yourself into, the process is not shameful; it is enlightening.

I held up a peace sign with my cuffed hands while I was being led to the cop car. People were chanting. The car would not start; the battery was dead! "That's the fleet for you," an officer said under his breath. The crowd began to jeer and taunt. They brought in another car, and finally drove me away.

I talked with the police officer on the way to the jail. He asked me why I "had to go getting myself tangled up in a situation with all these troublemakers". I was silent. "You don't know, do you?" "Sir, I know exactly why I did it."

It turns out that cop actually sympathizes with the protesters: "The world is going in the wrong direction, and you can't get change fast enough through the bureaucratic way. Sometimes you got to break the law to get people's attention." And cops have got to do their part, and arrest you.

When we got to the station, a booking cop said "Oh! What a relief, a tree- sitter! So glad not to be dealing with those Code Pink people anymore." She had misidentified me. I am not "a regular," but at least the tree people have a reputation here at the station for being compliant and polite, and I followed suit.

The iron hand of the law was light on me. I'd never been in trouble before and I am a student, so they let me go before the night was out. I filled a special role in a grand play on Thursday. Just the way my handcuffed arms behind my back fit into the molding of the squad car seat, my actions fit into the molding of the events that unfolded.

Many objective observers have come before me, many others will come after, and my story is not special or unique. I did not do anything particularly criminal; in fact, the police act of denying water to a person is questionably legal, so my choice was to comply with human rights and not with the alleged order of the officer.

Fresh's cause is not mine, and mine is not his. But for a fleeting moment, our purposes, our basic human needs -his for water and mine for human decency-coincided.

Jessica Schley is a UC Berkeley student. Reply to opinion@dailycal.org.