Power to all the people

Every year or so, Berkeley entertains the world with another only-in-this-town moment.

Like the time University of California students received credit for an interdisciplinary, student-taught course on the Grateful Dead. Or the failed ballot measure that would have required all coffee sold in the city to be organic or fair-trade. And the official references to manholes as “sewer openings” to avoid sexist implications.

Even its moment of atypical conservatism last fall had a note of the absurd about it. When the homeless population got so out of control that it was taking the Beatles’ exhortation to “do it in the road” literally, the city was compelled to ban sex on sidewalks. Maybe the City Council was making up for that foray when it decided two weeks ago to bedevil a U.S. Marine Corps recruiting office in town.

Calling the recruiters “salespeople known to lie to and seduce minors and young adults,” the council officially invited them to close shop and leave. Then it gave exclusive use of a parking space right in front of the office to a peace group -- we use the term advisedly -- that had been effectively blocking entry to the recruiting office, as well as handing the protesters a free sound permit so their loudspeakers could disrupt recruitment.

It’s no secret that the epicenter of the free-speech movement does not always encourage or easily tolerate speech with which it doesn’t agree. But using city powers and resources in an effort to silence one side’s speech while advocating another’s goes over the top -- and in Berkeley, that’s saying something.

Some state and federal legislators responded with salvos nearly as thoughtless, proposing to take away funding for such programs as schools and reduced-price lunches. Yeah, that’s the solution: Punish the City Council for its irresponsible action by picking on children and the desperately poor.

Besieged by complaints both within and outside the city, the council is planning to reconsider tonight, and it would be wise to leave the Marines alone. Both pro- and anti-military groups will be out in force for the meeting, and that’s the way it should be. Power to the protesters -- on both sides.