Campus Antiwar Network - Repression

Repression

A number of people involved with the Campus Antiwar Network have faced legal or disciplinary consequences of various kinds for their antiwar activism. These people have been the centers of nationwide defense campaigns on the part of CAN, which argues that their cases prove the threat counter-recruitment poses to the powers that be.

• In March 2004, at City College of New York, four people were arrested at a counter-recruitment protest (after twice, at earlier protests, forcing recruiters off campus) for allegedly assaulting campus security, though they claim that the reverse was the case. One, Hadas Thier, was banned from campus and suspended. Charges have since been dropped.

• In March 2005, three student activists, Katrina Yeaw, Michael Hoffman and Pardis Esmaeili, from San Francisco State University received letters stating that the administration had received a complaint from the Chief of Public Safety for their involvement in a counter-recruitment protest on campus and that each student must meet individually with Judicial Affairs. The following week the six student organizations that endorsed the demonstration received letters stating that disciplinary proceedings were going forward against them. The charges against four of the groups and three student activists were eventually dropped but the university went forward with hearing against the International Socialist Organization and Students Against War, convicting both groups of all charges against them in absentia.

• Charles Peterson at Holyoke Community College was pepper sprayed, banned from campus, and threatened with expulsion after allegedly assaulting a campus security officer while protesting military recruiters; he claims that he merely grabbed back a sign the officer took from a fellow protester. Charges have since been dropped.

• Tariq Khan, a student at George Mason University and Air Force veteran, was arrested for standing near recruiters with a sign saying "Recruiters Tell Lies" taped to his shirt on the charge of trespassing and disorderly conduct. Khan is a Pakistani-American; he reported that one arresting officer told him, "You people are the most violent people in the world." Charges have since been dropped.
• Dave Airhart, a student at Kent State and a Marine veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, was fined by city police and threatened with expulsion after hanging a banner with an antiwar message on a climbing wall set up on campus by military recruiters. Charges have since been dropped.

• Seven students at Hampton University were punished for participating in an unauthorized protest and "proselytizing" during a walkout on November 2, 2005. The students were initially summoned for an administrative hearing on November 21 to present a case against their expulsion, with three days notice, but it was then postponed to December 2, and finally the school decided only to impose community service.