But that’s about all anyone agrees on.
According to the university, the 100 to 150 protesters were violent, and some punched and kicked and threw snowballs and ice chunks at UWM police officers. The protesters say that police used excessive force while trying to break up a peaceful demonstration made up of 250 students, organized by the UWM Education Rights Campaign, an alliance of 20 organizations demanding a more fair budget for workers and students.
The ACLU of Wisconsin is asking for a public investigation of events.
“It is unclear at this time whether or not the demonstrators or the police violated the law,” stated ACLU of Wisconsin Executive Director Chris Ahmuty after the protest. “It is clear that a confrontation following an unsuccessful attempt by some demonstrators to forcibly enter the chancellor’s office included the police using pepper spray, apparently confiscating cell phones with cameras, and detaining and arresting demonstrators who may have been simply exercising their right to free speech and freedom of assembly.”
UWM: Protesters Assaulted Police
UWM spokesman Tom Luljak explained the events this way:
“We had a peaceful protest over at the union and it was peaceful for a period of time at Chapman Hall,” Luljak told the Shepherd immediately after the protest. “The problems began when some members of the group became violent and began assaulting our police officers. At one point four of our officers were forced against a door and pushed down to or toward the ground as a result of the refusal by some of the individuals to obey the command not to enter the building.”
Luljak admitted that the police used pepper spray to hold back the crowd.
“At one point the officers were forced against the building and were in their mind in serious danger of being injured,” Luljak said. “Some pepper spray was administered over the heads of the crowd. It wasn’t sprayed directly into anyone’s face. It was sprayed above the crowd in an attempt to get the group to back off so the officers could resume their stance and regain control of the entranceway.”
Officials declared the protest an “unlawful assembly” at some point.
Luljak said one member of the protest was allowed in to Chapman Hall to deliver petitions, but that Chancellor Carlos Santiago was “away on business.”
As a result of the confrontation, 16 individuals were taken into custody, but one person—the president of the student government—was released.
Students: We Weren’t Out of Control
But video footage and testimony from the protesters offers a different version of events.
Kas Schwerdtfeger, a member of Milwaukee Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), which helped to organize the protest, said not to believe the hype about the snowballs. Very few were thrown.
“I know that the administration is coming out with this message that the students were out of control, but we weren’t,” Schwerdtfeger said.
Mike Gold, a UWM student, said he spotted Chancellor Santiago entering Chapman Hall, contrary to Luljak’s version.
%u2028“We were going to the chancellor to ask that he take a pay cut before cutting the salaries of all of the workers underneath him,” Gold said. “We showed up unarmed, with our signs, and they used brutal police repression instead of having him come out to talk to us.” %u2028%u2028
Video footage posted on YouTube and on SDS’s Web site (sds-mke.blogspot.com) shows protesters chanting, holding signs, and walking toward Chapman Hall, where a handful of officers were standing in front of the door.
At some point, the scene grew more chaotic as pepper spray was released over the heads of the protesters. It appears that a few snowballs were thrown. As of this writing, no video clearly shows officers being pushed to the ground, as Luljak said in his account, or of punches being thrown or officers being kicked.
Later, protesters were taken into custody (either in plastic restraints or metal handcuffs) as they milled around the site of the protest. Two are seen lying facedown in snow, officers straddling them, as they are cuffed. A member of the student press was arrested on camera as well, as was another man who was simply standing in the area.
SDS has condemned the repression of the peaceful protest, and is demanding that the police drop all charges against the Milwaukee 16, as the detained individuals have been dubbed (15 were arrested and charged). It is requesting that Chancellor Santiago meet with the coalition to discuss the economic crisis facing the university, that all charges be dropped against the 15 students, and that UWM Police Chief Michael Marzion apologize for using excessive force in breaking up the protest.
*/?>
