The War Stops Here

Admin’s note: For those of you who like to say that students aren’t as acitve as they used to be, just keep in mind that this is the kind of BS we have to put up with on our campuses.

Student Activists, Iraq Vet Arrested in “Mock Raid”

Four protesters were arrested and charged with “disorderly conduct” after members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) staged a mock-raid with Jason Hurd, member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW).

Hurd, along with members of Tuscaloosa- SDS and Asheville-SDS, were detained for over four hours on Friday, Feb. 29th, before being taken away in handcuffs to Tuscaloosa City Jail. During interrogation, UA-PD insinuated the protesters were terrorists and threatened to hand the case over the F.B.I. The bail was set for a total of $2,500. The non-students were also charged with trespassing and are now banned from university property.

The University has already released a statement condemning the action, claiming it “may have been alarming to those in the area” and that they “will not tolerate behavior that mimics a true emergency on our campus.” Several news sources have reported that the University plans on launching an investigation against the Tuscaloosa chapter of SDS, an officially registered student organization.

“If you are one of those people who was frightened, you had a glimpse of what it feels like to be an Iraqi man, woman or child who experiences things like this and worse everyday,” said J VanBolt, a UA student who witnessed the mock raid. “That is life for people in Iraq.”

We, Tuscaloosa-SDS, condemn the actions of the University, which we feel was not only exaggerated, but politically motivated. We demand that all charges be dropped. We want an apology from the University for their attempts to equate protesting with terrorism and violence. We refuse to be intimidated and harassed on our own campus.

We are urging supporters to contact the University, to let them know their will not be tolerated! We have a right to protest the unjust and illegal occupation of Iraq. We have a right to make students aware of the immense suffering the U.S. occupation is causing the Iraqi people. Please help us put pressure on the University to DROP ALL CHARGES NOW!

PROTEST IS NOT A CRIME! U.S. OUT OF IRAQ!!!!

In solidarity,

SDS-Tuscaloosa

For more information, contact
Jenae Stainer, 661.477.4333, jnstainer@bama.ua.edu
Chapin Gray, 251.605.7780, chapinrose@gmail.com

To show support for the four arrested, you can call the University President, Dr. Robert Witt, at (205) 348-5320 and demand that all charges be dropped. You can also contact Tim Hebson, Dean of Students and Director of Judicial Affairs thebson@sa.ua.edu or Todd Borst, Assistant Director of Judicial Affairs tborst@sa.ua.edu. You can also sign our online petition- http://www.petitiononline.com/tusc2612/petition.html.

If you would like to donate money directly to the SDS-Tuscaloosa account to help cover court costs, click here: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=7gYwSgAZBkT08gyfNH8kaAv95Eu2nWt2jxou2uzhk_55r92El8RTGlR_Qpe&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f35bed810ca29224194ca8b1b097b67190a72a7a4da266138

Also, Jason Hurd from IVAW will be speaking in Tuscaloosa on March 26th, his scheduled court date. Time/locaton: TBA.

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Four arrested for protest inside Ferg

All four charged with disorderly conduct

Wayne Grayson
Assistant Student Life Editor

Four participants in an anti-war demonstration were arrested Friday by University police.

The group, whose names have not been released by the University, reportedly stormed through the second-floor doors of the plaza entrance to the Ferguson Center around midday Friday and began yelling and cursing. They ran towards the circular couches near the information desk, where three people whose heads were covered with red and white checkered scarves were sitting.

The four people dressed up like soldiers began directing their shouts toward those three individuals. They pushed them around, restrained them and eventually took them out the door.

After the three “detainees” were taken away, one of the four “soldiers” announced that events like what had just been simulated were a common occurrence many miles away from the United States. He said people who were considering joining the army should consider that they will be doing things similar to what had just been simulated. He also said the military is oppressing people thousands of miles away.

He then invited any more students interested in learning about the issue to a meeting that night in Morgan Hall.

Throughout all this, people began to gather around the area to see what was going on. Most people looked perplexed, and a few people took out their cameras.

A short while later, UAPD cars appeared outside. Officers appeared to be questioning the individual who had delivered the short speech at the end of the protest.

According to UA spokeswoman Schandra Clark, two of those taken into custody were UA students involved with Students for a Democratic Society. The other two were non-students involved with the group Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Clark said all four involved were arrested Friday and have been charged with disorderly conduct, and the two students have been referred to Judicial Affairs.

In a statement released by SDS, the group invited Jason Hurd of the Asheville, N.C. chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War to the University to speak on his experiences in Iraq, while a reenactment of a U.S. raid of Iraqi civilians was intended to demonstrate to students the human cost of the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

According to the statement, Hurd led a similar action at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, which received much attention from the UNCA campus and community when it happened Feb. 5.

In the statement, members of SDS called for the charges to be dropped.

“We, along with members of the Tuscaloosa community, have condemned the University’s actions, seeing the response of campus police as not only excessive and unwarranted, but also as an act of intimidation that essentially attempts to deny students the right to protest,” the statement said. “We, as students, feel that our rights to free speech and expression have been violated, and we shudder to think of what kind of society we live in where students, holding harmless protests are met with indefinite detention and arrest.”

According to the statement, SDS will not apologize for the disruptiveness of the protest.

“The U.S. invasion of Iraq was disruptive,” the statement said. “…We have a right to protest peacefully what we feel is unjust.”

However, an e-mail about the incident sent out Friday to all students by Dean of Students Tim Hebson, called the protest “disruptive,” “alarming” and “mimicking a true emergency.”

The e-mail referred to the protest as a “street drama” with those involved dressed in military-style clothing and behaving in a disruptive way that may have caused concern for those in the area.

Hebson noted that while those involved behaved irresponsibly, no one was in danger during the protest.

“The University of Alabama strongly supports the right to free speech and welcomes expressions of opinion; however, we cannot condone and will not tolerate behavior that mimics a true emergency on our campus,” Hebson said.

Contributing writer Aisha Mahmood was standing inside near the plaza entrance to the 2nd floor of the Ferguson Center when the mock raid took place and contributed to this report.

From The Crimson White Online