| Following the example of previous years, the protest moved up Rt. 18 and stopped traffic for a short period of time - about twenty minutes. I've seen flat tires tie up traffic that long - but according to an email I received this morning (signed by Ellen Whitt of the Central Jersey Coalition Against Endless War), three students have been summoned to court to face charges (Disorderly Conduct - for engaging "in conduct which caused a physically dangerous or hazardous condition, specifically by organizing and participating in a protest march onto Route 18 disrupting traffic").
Excerpted from the email: On April 10th of 2008, Suzan Sanal (Rutgers Against the War/Campus Antiwar Network), Erik Straub (Tent State/SDS), and Arwa Ibrahim, a Rutgers senior, received a summons from the state of New Jersey for activities during the Walk Out. These three were the only ones to receive a summons for the protest despite the fact that the Walk Out was organized by a coalition of multiple student groups and gathered several hundred participants. Arwa was not even a member of the Walk Out coalition and never attended an organizers' meeting.
Seems like pretty sloppy "police work" - and I have to put that in quotes because the police at the march did nothing at all - no warnings, no citations, no "Hey, kid, go sit on the Group W bench!". Nothing. Somehow, between the time of the march and April 10, it was determined that the protest was, in fact, a criminal enterprise and these three students had perpetrated this upon society.
Let's also discuss how it is possible for them to be a nuisance and be in a "physically dangerous" situation with a police escort. It would seem that, as the email says, "These selective charges are designed to intimidate students and student organizations from organizing such antiwar protests. " If that isn't the intention, then it is a rather petty and arbitrary use of power for no reason at all.
Included in the email is a statement of solidarity from Col. Ann Wright: To the Students Who Walked Out on March 27, 2008 to Protest the 5th Year of the War on Iraq
As a 29 year US Army veteran who retired as a Colonel and as a 16 year diplomat who helped reopen the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, and who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the Iraq war, I am extraordinarily proud of the 600 students and supporters who took time from the daily lives on March 27, 2008 to leave classes and work to protest the continuation of the war on Iraq. For the peaceful, non-violent protest of Bush administration violent and criminal acts of aggression on Iraq to be met with the arrests of three of the 300 who continued the walk is truly political intimidation.
I totally support your actions in protesting this war and urge you not to be intimidated by the actions of local police. Having been placed on the FBI's National Crime Information Data base for misdemeanor violations for protesting the war (generally payable by fines less than a parking ticket) and now having been banned from entering Canada for being on the FBI list which is supposed to be for foreign fugitives, parole violators, members of violent gangs and sex offenders, I consider the actions of local law enforcement in selective identification and prosecution of those who protest the war to be blatant political intimidation of our rights of free speech and free assembly.
I urge you to argue strongly in your court the rights of us as citizens to protest an unjust and criminal war.
I am so proud of you all!
I hope you can attend the 51st New Jersey Peace Action annual banquet on Sunday, April 27th to be held in North Pompton Plains, NJ.Peace!
Ann Wright
US Army Reserve Colonel and former US diplomat
There are times when activists plan disruptive activities to push the police into arresting them so they can bring attention to injustice. This is not such a time. This is simply a group of people who are engaging in one of the most basic democratic principles of our republic - protesting the actions of our government. If the citizenry cannot organize to tell the government that it is wrong; then we no longer live in a democratic country at all.
A final point: What of the anti-protest protestors? Did they receive any summonses?
Didn't think so. |
