Yesterday, Tuesday February 21, four University of Chicago students were arrested for protesting Marine Recruiters who were on campus. The four students are Jeremy Cohan, Ben Fink, Tom Discepola, and Brian Stapleton. They have been charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct. You can read about what transpired and see some cell phone pics of the events at the website of undergraduate student Jarrett Belle-Isle (
http://www.jbelleisle.com/ ), from which I quote the story below the jump.
Protest Ends in Arrests
4 students taken to CPD precinct and charged
by Jarrett C. Belle-Isle
Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006
Two students protested the presence of Marine recruiters in the Reynolds Club. They designed the protest as a mock Nazi recruitment campaign, dressing as members of the "American Nazi Youth Corps" to draw attention to parallels between the Third Reich and the US military under the current administration. ORCSA staff ordered the protesters to disband; when they refused, they and two other students who had joined in were arrested by UCPD. I watched the events and photographed them on my cell phone.
Two fourth-years and friends of mine, Jeremy Cohan and Ben Fink, planned and spearheaded the protest. Dressing in all black and carrying a banner that read "Don't join the Marines, join the American Nazi Youth Corps," they stood at attention in the Reynolds Club marketplace at 12:15 Tuesday and competed for recruits. They claimed that the Nazi Party was a better choice than the Marines because the former, unlike the latter, was at least honest about its bloodlust and hate-mongering. As a visual aide, they provided plastic baby dolls, which they encouraged students to rip to pieces as preparation for a career with either the Nazis or the Marines.
US military recruiters can be seen from time to time in the marketplace, providing information about careers in the armed forces.
Cohan and Fink could not be reached for comment, as the police have kept them busy. I will interview them shortly. Laura Gluckman, a friend of both and a supporter of the protest, related their intentions: "They wanted to make students aware of the parallels between the US military and the Nazi party, like the wholehearted blind faith members are expected to have, the inability to ask questions, and global aggression."
Coincidentally, members of Hillel, the Jewish student organization, were tabling in the marketplace during the protest. They expressed offense at the use of Nazi imagery.
ORCSA staffers arrived and asked Cohan and Fink to move out of the center of the room. Cohan and Fink complied. A short while later, the staffers demanded that the students end their protest, citing the hurtful nature of their rhetoric. The two protesters refused to leave and stated the intentions of their protest. The ORCSA staffers said that they had the authority to order anyone to leave the Reynolds Club at any time. When I asked them to cite a particular law or university policy, the staffers said that the relevant text could be found in the student manual, but refused to point to a particular passage.
So, I looked it up. I showed the staffers the section of the manual entitled Civil Behavior in a University Setting. Part of this section reads:
"The ideas of different members of the University community will frequently conflict and we do not attempt to shield people from ideas that they may find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even offensive. There are, however, some circumstances in which behavior so violates our community's standards that formal University intervention may be appropriate. Acts of violence, and explicit threats of violence directed at a particular individual that compromise that individual's safety or ability to function within the University setting are direct affronts to the University's values and warrant intervention by University officials."
The staffers told me that their decision was not up for debate, and they were not bound by university policy.
They claimed that the protesters had not made proper arrangements with ORCSA beforehand. Once before, Cohan had protested Marine recruiters and been ordered to leave by ORCSA because he had not given ORCSA advanced notice. ORCSA staff at that time promised to inform Cohan of the next time the recruiters would be on campus so that he could properly schedule a protest. ORCSA did not follow through with this promise, ensuring that any protest that took place would be against their policy. Thus, Cohan was unable to plan for today's events. When he heard that the recruiters were on campus, he devised his protest on the spot. ORCSA staffers today denied having made such a promise.
Two members of the Spartacus Youth Club, Tom Discepola and Brian Stapleton, joined the protest. They began chanting "Administrators hands off, recruiters off campus." The ORCSA staffers insisted that the two Spartacus members not shout.
For a while, the staffers and students continued arguing. The staffers ordered the students to leave, threatening police action. The students refused. UCPD officers arrived shortly. After some deliberation, the officers spoke to the protesters and placed them under arrest at about 1 o'clock. All four (Fink, Cohan, Discepola, and Stapleton) were led out of the building in handcuffs and driven to the UCPD station.
UCPD transfers custody of all arrestees to the Chicago Police Department. Accordingly, CPD officers transported the four students to the 2nd Precinct at 51st and Wentworth. The students were released this evening with court dates scheduled. They have been charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.
I have absolutely nothing against Marine Recruiters on my campus, and believe that students should be free to sign up for the Marines if they so please. I also think that the imagery, metaphors, and symbols that the students used in their protest was vile, stupid, tasteless, and unnecessarily hateful. That being said, I believe strongly in the right of free speech, and I am frankly sickened that these students have been arrested for peaceably expressing their views. If there's anywhere that free speech should be sacred, it's on a college campus, and I think that the actions of the school administrators here clearly went too far. Granted, the account I posted is from a friend of the students, so it may be somewhat biased, but the fact of the matter is that free speech is free speech, and we need to stand up for it wherever and whenever it is attacked.