The opening of the annual Bohemian Grove encampment near Monte Rio was marked Friday by a handful of protesters with a wide array of grievances against the more than 2,000 wealthy members of the Bohemian Club.
Leuren Moret traveled from Berkeley to protest the powerful corporate participants at the annual encampment.
"These are not just nice businessmen camping out," she said. "These are the benefactors of, and sponsors of, the most horrific weapons of mass destruction in the history of the world."
The Bohemians, a 2,400-member, all-male club based in San Francisco, have been retreating to their wooded and intensely private grove since the 1870s. Attendees in years past have included presidents Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush; actor and director Clint Eastwood, documentarian Ken Burns and corporate and cultural leaders.
The 18-day encampment also has regularly drawn protesters who contend, among other things, that the nation's and world's business is being done behind the curtain of aging redwoods and firs.
By midday, 11 protesters lined the narrow road leading into the encampment as light traffic moved in and out.
Deborah Tavares, a vocal opponent of PG&E SmartMeters, flouride in drinking water, and nature conservancies taking over parks, unloaded stacks of signs from her Ford Expedition on the side of Bohemian and Railroad avenues while holding in her hand what she described as a "radio frequency analyzer."
Tavares suspected Bohemian Grove participants and organizers of directing frequencies at protesters to cause headaches, anxiety, naseau, brain inflammation and heart attacks.
"This is a form of crowd control," she said.
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