Sit-in ends with six students being arrested

[claypool4prez]

www.wataugawatch.net

And a riot of 50 students and faculty chased the police and the six, who were handcuffed and thrown in a university van, for two miles all the way to the magistrate.


The school has threatened to not allow the seniors, who were involved, to graduate and if any of the USAS members, or other students take any action on any other part of campus, they will be arrested on-spot.

This situation looks like it will only get worse.

I was there the last two days of the sit-in, and during the final hours when the Vice Chancellor and every university police officer came in and surrounded us. They presented no olive branch, no concession - could have simply had us handcuffed and thrown out, without pressing charges - but had us arrested because their was an open house on campus yesterday, with 4,000 high school students in attendance.

I must say though that this demomstration was the purest and most remarkable thing I've ever been involved in, and I hope you keep us in your thoughts now that we will have to fight legally in court, because the university will not drop the charges - which they ought to, to at least quit fanning the flames of what is now a campus firestorm.


http://www.wxii12.com/video/index.html



http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/news.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2008-04-12-0017.html

http://www.wataugawatch.net/


The arrest Friday night of five Appalachian State University students and one non-student member of the local community caps a year-and-a-half struggle by a local chapter of United Students Against Sweatshops to get the university administration to take action to insure that none of the souvenir apparel items bearing the university’s insignia is sweatshop-produced.

The students want the university to sign on to the "Designated Suppliers Program" (DSP), which is affiliated with the Workers Rights Consortium and is dedicated to ensuring that apparel made with university logos is produced under humane conditions. As of the first of March, some 181 American colleges and universities have affiliated, including Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill.




http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880412016

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173355264190&path=!localnews&s=1037645509099

http://www.wxii12.com/news/15863696/detail.html


It should be noted that Democratic Congressional candidate Roy Carter (NC-5) showed up the third day, (second morning) when the doors were unlocked, and as the students were waking up to deliver doughnuts and spend time with the students and lend support and let us know we were not alone.

www.roycarterforcongress.com

[claypool4prez]

1. run-down

from www.wataugawatch.net :

"Wednesday of this week, April 9, noon: while a large group of students rally for DPS outside the administration building (the photo above, taken by Clair Baxter for The Appalachian), a small delegation enters the chancellor's office for a non-violent protest sit-in. Within minutes University cops arrive with hand-cuffs, Tasers, and other implements of enforcement and tell the students they will be arrested if they don't leave.

The students leave but go downstairs to the interior lobby, a public space they say they intend to occupy until Chancellor Peacock meets with them. University cops say they will be arrested when the building closes at 5 p.m. But they are not arrested, and the building is locked. Some nine students spend the night in that lobby. The next day, Thursday, other students join the protest, which continues uninterrupted through Thursday night and all day Friday, with a varying number of students participating at any one time. Several university cops babysit them through the vigil.

Suddenly, Friday night about 7 p.m., the six individuals then present in the administration building are arrested, hand-cuffed, and taken to a local magistrate and booked for trespass and disorderly conduct. They were freed on bail shortly afterward.

Why would ASU wait until Friday night for the arrest? One of the sit-in organizers thought it might have something to do with Saturday's planned open house for prospective freshmen. Several thousand high school students and their parents are on campus today, and it just wouldn't do for them to see civil disobedience going on at the admin. bldg."

[Fireweed247]

2. Roy Carter sounds like an excellent peace candidate!

"This week, as we enter the 6th year of this war, the U.S. death toll rises to a startling 4,000. I think about the mortars and car bombs that are bombarding the Green Zone in Baghdad, the men and women serving our country in uniform and in the U.S. embassy answering to harrowing cries of, "duck and cover". I am reminded of the great need we have to create a responsible, reasonable way to bring our men and women home. My resolve for the need to heighten our diplomatic efforts is strengthened when I read stories of gunmen opening fire on passengers waiting for busses killing 7 people and wounding 16 others including women and children. My resolve is strengthened when I hear reports of police finding the bullet-riddled bodies of 12 people- six in Baghdad, four in Mosul and two in Kut, scenes of clashes between government troops and Shiite militiamen.

Representative Foxx, I am sure you have answers for the family and loved ones of the 160 service members who have lost their lives since November 14th 2007. I would certainly like to know what you would say to the families of 2nd Lieutenant Burks, Specialist Bunks, and Sergeant Booker, who were being killed by hostile enemy fire while you were fighting against bringing them home."

Thanks for posting this- I am going to add him to the list
www.peacecandidates.com

[claypool4prez]

3. Thanks

He showed up to an Anti-War rally on the university's campus last month, and delivered a stirring speech.

Our current represntative, Virginia Foxx, refused to meet with the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq (who was from this district) because he had, in her words "voluntered for the war and knew what he was getting into." She also refused to help the mother - who is bad off financially - attend the memorial service for her son at Fort Bragg. Read that over. SHE WOULDN'T HELP THE MOTHER ATTEND HER SON'S MEMORIAL SERVICE, because he was a volunteer and was being paid to serve.


Help us take her out if you can:

www.roycarterforcongress.com

[BlooInBloo]

4. Just don't ask them to locate the US on a map....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

[claypool4prez]

5. Update

http://theapp.appstate.edu/content/view/3557/43/

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ls7tZGBRqMM&feature=user

[Orwellian_Ghost]

6. Need more direct action

K&R