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A VICTORY FOR THE ANTIWAR MOVEMENT
UPDATE ON THE CITY 4:
Students and Staff Member
Return to Campus!
The City Defense Campaign is proud to announce that the three students
and one staff member who were arrested and suspended for protesting military recruiters are set to return to campus this Monday, April 11th!
Their supporters
will gather to greet them at 12:15pm at 138th and Convent Avenue. From there, they will reenter the North Academic Center (NAC) building for the first time, and make brief statements.
The disciplinary hearings scheduled for the 8th
and the 14th have been cancelled. Instead, the City Defense Campaign will hold
a teach-in on campus this Thursday, April 14th (Details TBA).
City Defense Campaign
www.citydefensecampaign.org
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BACKGROUND
CAMPUS SECURITY ASSAULTS STUDENTS FOR PROTESTING
MILITARY RECRUITERS
"We didn't even get through one round of chanting,"
according to Tiffany Paul, a junior at CCNY and a
member of the Campus Anti-War Network, who was one of the protesters. "We were completely peaceful, it was the officers who were violent." DEFEND FREE SPEECH AT CITY
COLLEGE OF NEW YORK (CCNY)
The three CCNY students
arrested and brutalized Wednesday, March 9, for
peacefully protesting the
presence of military recruiters at City College’s
“career fair” were
arraigned and released Thursday. They were charged with
misdemeanor counts
of assaulting an officer, resisting arrest, and
disturbing the peace, among
other things. Hospital records from Mt. Sinai
confirm that Nick Bergreen and
Justino Rodriguez suffered multiple
contusions and postconcussion syndrome.
Their court date is set for April 5.
CITY COLLEGE HITS BACK WITH SUSPENSION AND ANOTHER
ARREST
Friday, March 11, Hadas Thier, an undergraduate
student at CCNY, was
informed that she had been suspended from the
University for “posing a
continuing danger,” and was banned from even
setting foot on campus, pending
a hearing to take place sometime in the next
seven days. Meanwhile, Carol
Lang, a CCNY staff member, was arrested in
connection with Wednesday’s
protest and also charged with
assault.
Gregory H. Williams, the president of the College, sent an email
to the
entire faculty and student body repeating allegations against the
students
as if they were facts. “The confrontation escalated and several of
the
demonstrators grabbed and hit the officer. At this point, the three
students
involved in the attack on the officer were arrested,” he
wrote.
It is a disgrace that the administration has so clearly sided with
campus
security without any evidence or due process, rather than looking out
for
the rights and safety of its students, faculty, and staff. Together, the
actions of the security guards, the City of New York, and the CCNY
administration have served to stifle dissent and create a climate of
intimidation.
WHAT YOU CAN
DO
1. Let them know what you think:
(and copy
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on your
emails)
Gregory Williams, President
Maureen Powers, VP for Student Affairs
212-650-7285/7286, 212-650-7680
(fax) 212-650-5426, 212-650-7080 (fax)
c/o Chief
of Staff Michael Rogovin
c/o Assistant to the VP George Rhinehart
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George Crinnion, Director of Public Safety Danny Vasquez,
Security
Specialist
212-650-7992, 212-650-7991 (fax)
212-650-7988,
212-650-7991 (fax)
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2.
Sign on to the letter supporting free speech on campus
Please find the
letter attached. To sign onto the letter, send an email to:
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3. Picket the administration (and deliver your letter in
person)
Meet in front of the administration building, 138th
and Convent Avenue
THURSDAY, March 17, at 12:30
p.m.
Bring signs and placards in support of free speech on
campus!
Students at San Francisco State
University and UW-Madison also need support
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Dear
President Williams,
We, the undersigned, are outraged that freedom of
speech for faculty, staff,
and students of the City College of New York
(CCNY) was so blatantly
attacked last week.
We were dismayed to learn
that three students were attacked and arrested by
campus security guards for
exercising their constitutionally protected right
to assemble and to
protest.
We were further outraged to learn that you swiftly moved --
without
evidence, due process, or a discussion with the arrested students --
to
suspend one of the students and to arrest another protester after the
fact.
This guilty-until-proven-innocent approach sends a chilling message:
security forces have free reign on campus.
We demand that you defend
the CCNY students, drop all disciplinary
proceedings against the students
involved in the protest, and launch an
investigation into the actions of
campus security.
Signed,
Hadas Thier, CCNY Class of
2005
Justino Rodriguez, CCNY Class of 2007
Nicholas Bergreen, CCNY Class
of 2007 CONTACTS
Activist: Meredith Kolodner (917)
881-3896
Lawyers: Sean Maher, Darlene Jorif (212) 876-5500
Background:
Democracy Now! interview with Hadas Thier, Carol Lang, and Chris Dugan,
former Marine
recruiter (now CAN member)
click
here to listen
COUNTER-RECRUITERS CHARGED WITH FELONY
ASSAULT
Three undergraduate students at the City College of New York (CCNY)
were
arrested Wednesday in the course of a peaceful protest against
military
recruiters. Hadas Thier, Nick Bergreen, and Justino
Rodriguez, along with
approximately a dozen other protesters attended
a job fair organized by the
college, and stood up in front of a
National Guard recruitment table
chanting anti-war slogans. Private
security and campus peace officers
immediately surrounded the
protesters, pushed them into an empty hallway
outside of the job fair,
closed the hall door and assaulted two protesters
and arrested a third
who was taking pictures. The two students who were
assaulted are
now being charged with felony assault, and the third
with obstruction of a government
administrator.
MILITARY RESPONDING TO
COUNTER-RECRUITER'S SUCCESS
"Counter-recruitment" has
become a national issue (USATODAY "Counter-
recruiters shadowing the
military" 3/7/5), and it's working. Between
these efforts, and general
disagreement about the war, recruitment is
down - according to a 3/6/5
Reuters report, "The regular Army is 6
percent behind its year-to-date
recruiting target, the Reserve is 10
percent behind, and the Guard is 26
percent short."
After similar counter-recruitment efforts have taken off
from New York
to Seattle, the military has clearly become concerned. At
William
Patterson University in New Jersey an activist was arrested for
simply
handing out counter-recruitment leaflets. Twice last semester, CCNY
student protesters drove military recruiters off the campus with
peaceful protests. This time campus security was ready. "We didn't
even
get through one round of chanting," according to Tiffany Paul, a junior at CCNY and a member of the Campus Anti-War
Network, who was one of the protesters. "We were completely peaceful,
it was the officers who were violent."
UNNECESSARY BRUTALITY
When Mr.
Rodriguez was being arrested, his head was slammed into the wall. He called out "look what
they're doing to me!" According to Ms.
Paul, to silence him one of the
guards pulled Mr. Rodriguez's hood
over his head and slammed his head into
the wall again.
"He just stood on the guy," remembers Mark Turner, a
staff member at
CCNY, recalling the manner in which Mr. Bergreen was subdued
by a
private security guard, Mr. Robertson. "His foot was on his back,
after he had tackled him. Private security are not supposed to touch
us."
Ms. Thier was arrested simply for taking pictures. Several witnesses
recall that the guards were pulling on her hair. Juan Alduey remembers
that the guards pushed Ms. Thier when she tried to give a statement to
students who began filming the event. "I'm being arrested for
exercising my right to free speech" Mr. Alduey recalled.
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