Law officers outnumber demonstrators at VAFB

Protests held in Santa Barbara, around globe

By By NORA K. WALLACE, DAWN HOBBS and JENNIFER GOLLAN
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITERS
March 23, 2003

Three protesters were arrested for trespassing
Saturday at Vandenberg Air Force Base's front gate,
while more than 40 others
stood silently for two hours expressing "mute horror"
over the war in Iraq.

Although the number of demonstrators was dwarfed by
the thousand or more who marched through downtown
Santa Barbara, civilian law enforcement and members of
the national media directed their efforts
at Vandenberg -- fearing larger crowds and illegal
infiltrations into
the sprawling installation's backcountry.

But despite being hyped on the Internet, and heavily
in the Bay Area and on the South Coast, civilian
and military law enforcement outnumbered the
protesters.

As of early evening, no protesters appeared to have
made it onto the
base's backcountry to damage or
vandalize sensitive equipment they believe is helping
guide the war effort.

At the front gate, Ojai resident Sanderson Beck was
up front about his intentions. Screaming "Stop the
war, Stop the war" to the cheers of fellow protesters,
Mr. Beck yelled at military police as he was
arrested: "You are murdering the people of Iraq. ...
You people are war criminals. ... People need to rise
up and nonviolently protest."

Sister Mary Pat White, of the
San Luis Obispo Religious of the Sacred
Heart community, and Sheila
Baker, also of San Luis Obispo, took a
quieter approach. While rows of
military police wearing riot gear stood
nearby, the two women knelt in
prayer after passing orange barricades
and a green demarcation line on
the asphalt -- meant to keep
protesters off base property.

Dozens of supporters stood
behind the line, singing, "Courage sisters,
you do not walk alone, we will
walk with you and see your spirit on."

All three were given two-minute
warnings, and arrested when they did
not move before the deadline.
They face up to a year in jail, $5,000
fines, and will be permanently
barred from entering the base.

"I am absolutely convinced this
war is unjust and immoral," said Sister
White, whose wrists were later
clasped in plastic handcuffs.

"My conscience compels me to take this public stand."

Across the street from the peace group, about a dozen
people stood with
American flags and signs
reading "Support Our Troops."

While people in cars passing the two groups mostly
yelled jeers like "traitors" and flashed obscene
gestures at the peace rally, hundreds of cars honked
horns and waved toward the others.

"They should cover their faces," said Lompoc resident
Lorin Bronson, who held a flag across from the
group. "What they're doing is shameful."

On Friday night, a half-dozen activists said they
planned backcountry actions within the next few days.

"They're not going to catch me," predicted Justin
"Tex" Squires, who
livesin Northern California.

"I'm going to find their (radar) towers and put some
foil over it, hopefully to save some lives."

Mr. Squires, sporting a mohawk haircut and a new
"anarchy" tattoo on his hand, said he's "tired of
being told what to do by the government. I support
the troops but I don't support the killing of
innocent people to do it."

Security police teams did disrupt what appeared to be
a potential infiltration, said base spokeswoman Maj.
Stacee Bako. Friday around 5
p.m., security forces saw a van full of people on
Lompoc-Casmalia Road, but the vehicle drove away
without incident. Saturday morning
around 10:30 a.m., another group was spotted at the
end of Miguelito Canyon Road, but they were not
arrested.

Hours before the Vandenberg event, more than a dozen
people gathered on H Street, near Central Avenue.
Holding large and small
American flags, they stood near a sign that said "Love
our troops."

The cacophony of horns honking was deafening at times,
and people applauded out car windows and raised
thumbs-up to the participants.

"The purpose is to support the troops," said Mr.
Bronson, who later went to Vandenberg. "To let them
know we're thinking of them."

Norma Chierichetti, wearing flag earrings and
sporting a red blazer, firmly
backs men and women in uniform. "I hope the troops
don't see all the protests," she said.

"It can't be good for their morale. I wish they could
hear the horns honking."

In Santa Barbara, honking came from frustrated
drivers as antiwar demonstrators took over downtown
streets at lunchtime, with many protesters lying in
the middle of intersections staging "die-ins."

Saturday's protest, following two nights of
demonstrations around town, was largely taken in
stride, with tour-bus loads of tourists leaning out to
snap photos of the
crowd.
Determined shoppers buffered
State Street stores from the swarm of demonstrators,
which one police
official estimated at 1,200 people.

A Houston couple, who asked not to be named, took a
break from shopping to
observe the procession,
and said that although they didn't agree with the
activists, they enjoyed
the show. "It is very
interesting. We have never seen anything like this."

Civil disobedience was kept to a minimum in a crowd
that seems divided
on how dissent should be expressed.

Bayard Stockton, 72, who was stationed in Germany
during the Korean War,
said, "We know war. Some of us suffered deeply from
it. We veterans have chosen to avoid
violence and confrontation in the
streets of our city because we believe that style of
opposition gives the wrong message to those who
support the war."

However, others believe civil disobedience is
necessary.

"Intelligent civil disobedience is the only voice we
have right now," said
Jan Smith, who was arrested
Thursday afternoon and spent the night in County Jail
after blocking Highway 101 traffic near Milpas
Street.

Steve Stormaen carried a tattered flag he and his
friends had burned holes into.

"I think the politics this nation supports is in
tatters," he said.

"That's what this flag represents."

One woman silently walked the opposite way of the
crowd, holding her nose in symbolic protest of the
demonstrators as the crowd chanted "Bush Out Now!"

In a twist from Thursday and Friday nights'
demonstrations, protesters continued marching up State
Street rather than heading up Carrillo Street toward
the freeway.

Some said they thought about trying to head to the
freeway ramp at
Carrillo, but weren't sure if others
would follow. Instead the crowd took a turn off State
Street onto Victoria
Street and then head-on into
traffic on one-way Chapala Street.

Donna Faulkner sat stuck in her SUV as protesters
walked by.

"I'm mad right now," said Ms. Faulkner, 59, who was
wearing a "God Bless
America Shirt" with an
American flag on it. "I support the war."

But one protester said that violence abroad must be
countered with
nonviolence at home.

"I am in support of nonviolence because violence
never solves anything, it
just creates more," said
Bubbha Wilkins, a transient of Santa Barbara.

But some bystanders felt the protest was futile.

"It was all right before the war started, but now
that it has, why bother?" asked Francisco Serrano, a
19-year-old clerk at Quizno's Subs on State Street.

County protesters were joined Saturday by hundreds of
thousands of protesters who took to the
streets around the globe, continuing the daily
marches against war in Iraq
with the same resolve and
tenacity as U.S. troops marching to Baghdad.

In New York, an estimated 120,000 protesters clogged
Broadway, while
smaller crowds chanted and
jammed main thoroughfares in Washington, Chicago and
other cities.