Bernice Ng
Berkeley Daily Californian
BERKELEY, Calif. (U-WIRE) - Equipped with a large duffel bag and climbing gear, an animal-rights activist made his way up the south side of UC-Berkeley's Campanile tower, resting above the clock's hands earlier this week.
Five protesters entered the Campanile early in the morning and stood in the tower's observation deck to protest animal abuse.
After reaching the top of the tower, the activists blocked the doorway at the top of a flight of stairs that give access to the observation deck, according to UC police Capt. Bill Cooper.
Protester Michael Kennedy began his climb up the clock tower at 10:45 a.m., finishing at the top of the clock's face in the path of the end of the minute hand.
There he set up a green platform on which to rest.
"He climbed up from the bottom," said senior Brandie Barrows, who saw Kennedy as she walked to and from class. "I'm a little worried about the minute hand."
Josh Trenter, who is affiliated with the protest groups, said Kennedy decided to hang from the Campanile in observation of this week's World Week for Animals and Laboratories.
Trenter was charged in 1996 for trespassing after camping out on the side of Berkeley's Tolman Hall for three days.
At 3 p.m., after removing a glass panel on the door that led to the observation deck, police entered and arrested the protesters.
Kennedy was not arrested for reasons concerning safety issues, police said.
"I just hope he doesn't fall," said graduate student Eric Samuels.
"It's the kind of thing that makes Berkeley an interesting place to be."