Outrage: Berkeley proposal would regulate military recruiting centers like adult businesses

Last week, Jason Mattera hosted Vent and took a little flak for saying that young liberals are less likely than young conservatives to join the military. Jason responded to his critics with facts here and here, but as if to back up his point, just take a look at what left wing Berkeley, CA is considering doing to military recruiting offices.

In response to a Marine Corps recruiting office established in Berkeley last year, local activists are trying to make it more difficult for future recruiting centers to open in the city.

If passed by a majority of Berkeley voters, a proposed initiative would require military recruiting offices and private military companies in Berkeley to first acquire a special use permit.

To obtain this permit, a business must hold public hearings and a public comment period.

If the initiative passes, recruitment offices could not be opened within 600 feet of residential districts, public parks, public health clinics, public libraries, schools or churches.

Currently, a recruiting office is held to the same standards as most other businesses, which do not require a public hearing or have limits on where offices can be established.

The author of the initiative, Berkeley-based lawyer Sharon Adams, modeled the initiative after current zoning law that restricts the location of adult-oriented businesses.

“In the same way that many communities limit the location of pornographic stores, that’s the same way we feel about the military recruiting stations,” said PhoeBe sorgen, an initiative proponent and a member of the city’s Peace and Justice Commission. “Teenagers that really want to find them will be able to seek them out and find them, but we don’t want them in our face.”

These activists not only don’t support the military, they actively hate the military. Or they “loathe” it, as Bill Clinton infamously said. His saying that didn’t cost him any liberal votes. This initiative in Berkeley probably won’t cause a single liberal anywhere to reconsider just what values they support either directly or by alliance. In fact, this thing has the support of at least one member of the Berkeley city council.

Berkeley Councilmember Dona Spring said she supports the wording of the initiative, but said she would prefer the issue be passed by council so it can be enacted faster rather than waiting for the initiative to be placed on the ballot in November.

“I think we should just go ahead and pass it,” she said. “We can’t take everything to the voters.”

So, liberals, what is Berkeley to you guys? Is it an outlier on the fringe, or does it represent how you would all act and think if you could live exclusively among the hard left set the way they do in that crazy town out west? I’ve spent enough time around liberals when they had their hair down to suspect that it’s the latter.