California: Police have spent over $300,000 during enforcement actions against UC Tree Sit

UC Berkeley police have spent $300,000 and taken more than 200 police reports while managing a group of protesters living in campus trees for 17 months, says Cal Police Chief Victoria Harrison.

About a half-dozen people have been living in the oak grove next to Memorial Stadium since December 2006 to protest the school's plan to cut down the trees and build an athletic training center.

The project has been held up in court for more than a year after the city of Berkeley, a neighborhood group and a group that wants to save the trees sued the university. A judge's decision is due before June.

Some of the $300,000 the police have spent in connection with the protest has gone toward overtime and some toward 24-hour security guards at the protest site, Harrison said.

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