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Code Pink's Hoax Makes Some See Red
April 02, 2008
Oakland Tribune|by Kristin Bender
BERKELEY -- CodePink should be turning red.
That seems to be the consensus of many who were on the receiving end of
a bogus announcement Tuesday by the radical anti-war group that the
embattled U.S. Marine Corps recruiting center in Berkeley was caving to
the pressure of weekly protests and leaving town.
"If you want to be taken seriously as an organization of serious
protest, then you don't play jokes -- even on April Fools' Day," said
Robin Lakoff, a professor of linguistics at the University of
California, Berkeley, who has written about the politics of language.
CodePink and other anti-war groups have been protesting the Marine
recruiting center in downtown Berkeley for months, hoping to force the
recruiters to leave town.
A CodePink official defended the hoax Tuesday.
"In CodePink we tend to have a sense of humor," said CodePink co-founder
Medea Benjamin. "We tend to joke about a lot of things. It keeps us
going where other anti-war groups have gone by the wayside."
Gunnery Sgt. Pauline Franklin with the Marine Corps Recruiting Command
in Wa****ngton, D.C., verified Tuesday that there are no plans to
relocate the Berkeley office, which is conducting business as usual.
The April Fools' hoax -- certainly not the first from CodePink --
started Monday evening when the group posted a news release on its Web
site boldly announcing "Marine Recruiting Center Leaving Berkeley:
Agreement Reached with Landlord, City, and Protesters."
The release said Sasha Shamszad, the owner and landlord of the Marine
recruiting center, "has reached an amicable agreement with the Marines
to redeploy from Berkeley" and that further details would be given at a
noon news conference Tuesday.
The release included false quotes attributed to Shamszad.
"The situation was becoming untenable," the false quote said. "The
presence of the Marines sparking daily protests have had a negative
impact on local businesses. The city has been forced to pay hundreds of
thousands of dollars in police overtime. And some groups have been
calling for a national boycott of our city. So I sat down with
representatives of the Marines and we worked out a solution."
Reached by telephone Tuesday, Shamszad said, "Someone is in la-la land
here. There's a lease involved here. We live in a society where
contracts are a big deal. These people are my tenants and I'm a
professional. Once they have a lease, unless they break the rules, you
can't get them out."
The center's lease runs through December 2009, subject to termination if
the government cannot provide funding, Franklin said.
CodePink also invented quotes from a civilian Marine Corps employee
named Michael Applegate, the director of the Marine Manpower Plans and
Policy Division. The release quoted Applegate as saying the downtown
Berkeley office is not a good use of taxpayer money. Applegate was not
available for comment Tuesday, but Franklin said officials aren't angry
about the hoax.
"It's a protest group that has very strong feelings, just as all protest
groups do, and this is just one thing that they've done," Franklin said.
Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates said the publicity stunt had people calling his
office and others in the city. Although Bates initially sup****ted giving
CodePink a permit fee waiver and a free parking space at the Marine
center for their weekly protests, he criticized their prank.
"I think they have hurt their credibility with this farce," he said.
But Benjamin disagreed.
"We do believe in putting out some positive ideas of what we want to
see, and what better way to do it than April Fools' Day," she said.
Benjamin said she hopes the hoax will move people to action.
"We've got a topsy turvy world and if more people got out and joined us
this wouldn't be an April Fools' joke. (It) would be reality," she said.
"The Marines would be gone from Berkeley, the war would be over, there
would be impeachment of Bush and Cheney and we'd be upholding our
Constitution."
What's more, Benjamin said, "We do these types of things every April 1."
And on other days as well.
In October, CodePink distributed a phony news release saying Blackwater
USA, a private military contractor, was creating a new "Department of
Cor****ate Integrity" that would "put the mercy back in mercenary,"
according to published re****ts.
CBS News, the Associated Press and other news organizations ran with the
story, according to published re****ts about the hoax.
Also Tuesday, CodePink distributed an invented letter from John Conyers,
chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, that said he had decided to
start impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush and Vice
President Dick Cheney. The letter ended with "April Fools!"
At least one Bay Area television station -- KTVU Channel 2 -- ran a
short segment about the Berkeley Marine center's false departure on the
6 p.m. news Monday. KTVU re****ted that the building at 64 Shattuck
Square was up for rent. By the 10 p.m. newscast, the Oakland-based TV
station warned of the "hoax" by CodePink.
Despite criticism early Tuesday, CodePink went ahead with a "mock" news
conference at noon Tuesday where a "pink Marine" announced the Marines
were moving out.
A real Marine in uniform, who declined to give his name, was outside the
recruiting center Tuesday afternoon because he had heard re****ts that
the Marines were leaving Berkeley.
He held a sign that read, "I thought Berkeley wouldn't judge me."
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://tinyurl.com/2gcoqt
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
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News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
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Skipper: Professor, will you tell these people who is
in charge on this island?
Professor: Why, no one.
Skipper: No one?
Thurston Howell III: No one? Good heavens, this is anarchy!
-- _Gilligan's Island_, episode #6, "President Gilligan"
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