This front page article in The Berkeley Daily Gazette derided April Coalition volunteers for plastering posters on mailboxes, the removal of which cost the post office $68 a day.

While a relatively minor incident in and of itself, the framing of the article is nonetheless enlightening, suggesting how much the Gazette and “the greater Berkeley community” it hoped to represent thought of the April Coalition and its younger, radical political base as irresponsible, incorrigible teenagers.

The very fact that such an incident was considered front page news is remarkable; the underlined headline (It’s illegal) above the actual headline is still more so, evoking the image of disgruntled, middle-aged, upstanding citizens shaking their proverbial fists.

Though the Gazette swiftly rejected the feasibility of such a measure, it nonetheless cited Postmaster William Wollman’s calculation that “it would take 1,000 men on eight hour shifts to guard the 325 mailboxes in Berkeley.”