Survey: How Far Should One Go When Protesting?

For 18 months, protesters have been living in giant oak trees on University grounds in Berkeley. It is against the law to chop down oaks, but the University says that the law does not apply to them because they are a State institution and exempt from City law. As the police started fencing the area to prevent supporters from providing them with food and water, the protesters started throwing human excrement at them.

TreeHugger Kenny thought " this is nothing less than madness indeed. There is a fundamental need for basic civic action of many types in the environmental movement, but this is not one of them. It’s simply drawing undue negative attention that distracts from the real issues while gaining little at all in return." Many of our commenters profoundly disagreed. What do you think?