[lbo-talk] SDS Activists Arrested In NYC Anti-War Protest

Mike Ballard swillsqueal at yahoo.com.au
Wed Mar 29 07:35:10 PST 2006


On March 19, 2006, 6 members of SDS NYC were arrested yesterday at the WRL/SDS/IWW protest march. Doug V from the Bergen County (New Jersey) chapter, Davey and Dan from Pratt SDS, Pat Korte of Stonington SDS and Tom Good and Ben Maurer, both of MDS New York, were arrested for blocking traffic at Times Square. All 17 arrestees were charged with disorderly conduct and released. There is an April 17th court date.

Reactions to the demo were very good and the crowd was very vocal demanding our release (which we heard clearly from inside the police truck).

All local television stations had excellent coverage of the 6 SDSers chanting "Stop The War, Stop The War" - and the subsequent arrest.

This shot by Fred Askew is representative of what was on television: http://www.nextleftnotes.net/photo-gallery/2006_sds_m19/images/sds_nyc_m 19.jpg (left to right, Davey Vacek, Daniel Mirisola, Pat Korte, Tom Good)

Also arrested in the protest were Frida Berrigan, Michele Barsa and Donna Gould of the War Resisters League, Felton Davis of Catholic Worker, members of Kiaros Community and Grannies for Peace and Bill Steyert of Veterans for Peace.

More media coverage -


>From Indymedia:
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/03/66656.html (great photos by Fred Askew)

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>From The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/20/nyregion/20protest.html

March 20, 2006

17 War Protesters Arrested in Times Square By ANDREW JACOBS and COLIN MOYNIHAN

A small, largely silent antiwar protest that wound its way through Midtown yesterday afternoon ended with at least 17 demonstrators arrested in Times Square on charges of disorderly conduct after they sat down and blocked traffic, the police said.

The protest, organized by left-leaning groups like the Catholic Worker, the War Resisters League, and Students for a Democratic Society, included about 200 marchers who assembled at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street before embarking on a funereal walk toward the armed forces recruiting station in Times Square.

In contrast with a larger antiwar demonstration in Midtown on Saturday, there were no speeches and the organizers did not secure permits from the police. The marchers carried cardboard platforms draped in black cloth that held white bundles meant to evoke bodies in burial shrouds.

"We planned a somber march," said Sarah Trapido, 19, a student at Connecticut College in New London, who said the makeshift funeral biers represented soldiers and civilians killed in the war in Iraq, which began three years ago yesterday. "No one had to die in this war. It was a fabrication given to the American people."

Although many who marched were graying veterans of countless political protests, Ms. Trapido was one of several young people who said they had started planning a few months ago for a resurgence of Students for a Democratic Society, a group that made a name for itself during the antiwar protests of the 1960's.

As the marchers headed south on Fifth Avenue, some held placards bearing photographs of grieving Iraqis. Hemmed in by officers on foot and on motor scooters, the march continued without incident, the only sounds a pair of large metal gongs and the dirge-like beat of drums.

But at West 44th Street, when the police ushered the crowd behind metal barricades, a number of marchers swarmed into the street and sat down. Within minutes they were handcuffed and hustled into the back of Police Department vans. One of the first to sit down in the street was Alice Hendrickson, 56, of Manhattan, who was among those arrested. "The war has been going on for three years now," she said. "And it's still wrong."

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>From The New York Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/03-20-2006/news/wn_report/story/401215p-33988 6c.html

Bust 19 at anti-war rally

Nineteen anti-war protesters were arrested yesterday at the end of a march marking the third anniversary of the war in Iraq, police said.

After about 200 people marched from Grand Army Plaza at 59th St. and Fifth Ave. to Times Square carrying shrouded coffins and photographs of mourning Iraqis, a small group of demonstrators sat down in the middle of Broadway, stopping traffic.

The 19 protesters, who were arrested without incident and were not immediately identified, included Vietnam War vets, grandmothers and members of Students for a Democratic Society.

SDS member and Pace University student John Cronan, 22, was not arrested at yesterday's protest, but is no stranger to being taken away from demonstrations by cops.

"I've been arrested five times in this city," he said, "but never with a conviction."

Bill Egbert

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The New York Post also mentioned the demo but not SDS: http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print.php?url=http://www.nypost.com/ news/regionalnews/61279.htm

--

Thomas Good, Organizer SDS New York City NYC War Resisters League IWW x358303 / IU 560

www.studentsforademocraticsociety.org

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