BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER
An animal rights rally yesterday at 104 W. Anapamu St. at a Wachovia Securities bank branch turned tense when eight protesters clad in black with bandanas covering their faces entered the bank chanting “We know who you are, we know where you live,” officials at the Santa Barbara Police Department said.
Police responded to the bank at about 9:30 a.m. Lt. Paul McCaffrey, a police spokesman, said initial reports indicated a window at the bank had been broken by the protesters, but no damage was found.
McCaffrey said all eight protesters were locals between the ages of 14 and 17 and no arrests or citations were given.
“They were just kids that were protesting,” McCaffrey said. “We basically resolved the tension between the two groups.”
McCaffrey said the protesters told police they were opposed to Wachovia’s alleged involvement with an organization that tests its products on animals.
Attempts to reach Wachovia yesterday were not successful and messages left by the Daily Sound were not immediately returned.
Though McCaffrey said it was unclear what organization or business, aside from Wachovia, that the youths were protesting, some were holding signs that referenced Huntingdon Life Sciences, which according to its web site, conducts research for pharmaceutical and other companies.
A link on the web site details Huntingdon’s efforts to conduct thorough research and though it never actually says it conducts animal testing, a pie chart indicates the company uses rodents, fish, birds, rabbits, sheep, cows, pigs, dogs, cats and monkeys for something.
When asked if the protester’s chant inside of the bank could be considered a threat, McCaffrey said it could not.
“Some of the bank people didn’t like the chant much,” McCaffrey said. “But it didn’t really meet the parameters of a criminal threat situation.”
McCaffrey said some of the protesters indicated the their actions were in conjunction with a nationwide protest that was to be held at Wachovia bank branches. This claim could not be confirmed.
He said the youth’s parents were contacted and the police gathered information about who the protesters were.
“We talked to everybody and told them this may not be the best way to do what you want to do,” McCaffrey said.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Animal rights rally gets rowdy
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1 comment:
I just read another version of this story claiming that Tobias Bateson assaulted a 15 year old girl, damaging a ligament in her knee. When a 14 year old boy tried to help her up he "beat him back with an umbrella", then managed to "break his umbrella over the back of a 16-year-old-girl".
It says in the title of this article that the "rally gets rowdy" but there's no reference to it in the actual body of text. Did this guy get arrested or what? This sounds like some serious a&b on a minor, if that's what happened, Bateson should be in jail. The report of the bank's window being broken, but no damage found by police when they arrived on the scene sounds really suspicious to me.
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