Lame. They were allowed to camp in the building for a couple days and told not to break into the balcony. They were provided with food (vegan even), allowed to camp in the building for 3 days, and generally do as they pleased. When they broke the door and went out to the balcony they were told to stop it. They refused, and were then asked to leave. End of story.
So let me get this straight... they "occupied" a campus building (student cafeteria) to the exclusion of students who go to school there (camera guy and talker guy are not NYU students) and refused to let administrators or students in to the building - "barricading" themselves in with tables and other furniture. The administration response was to recognize it as a protest and give them the keys to the bathrooms, allow them to camp for 2 nights, and provide food for the protesters - but said they would not open up the balcony which has been closed off since 2003. The protesters then broke into the balcony (at least in part because it is a no smoking building, really).
They then ask to negotiate: which to them means dictating what disciplinary procedures they should receive. So the campus police calmly walk in past the barricade and proceed out to tell students they have to get off of the balcony - totally ignoring the camera guy who is shouting "police brutality, you are on camera! Brutality! You may not detain us, you are on camera." Literally, the guys just ignored him - not sure what brutality they were whining about. Clearly they have never seen any of the good police brutality videos.
Some administrator/prof (whomever) even calmly explains to the guy that the officers are not armed. They have no firearms or tasers. They will discuss disciplinary procedures when they identify themselves by student ID (the camera guy was not a student, hence...). Seriously, a 3 minute calm conversation with the brutal authorities.
They then calmly walk out and tell the people on the balcony to leave. One girl starts freaking out, dropping F bombs and shouting about something or other. 5 officers walk her towards the door as she thrashes around, to one officer she says "Don't Fin' touch me you blah blah. He grabbed me by the shoulders and made me move. Don't Fing touch me!" and he calmly responds "Easy. Easy. Just leave the balcony." The nerve!
The entire time camera idiot tells the cops they need 10 minutes to figure out how to democratically proceed. The authorities clearly ignore this demand and proceed to have everyone leave the balcony (they don't leave the balcony. The camera dudes decides they should "negotiate" in private. Not sure what chips they are negotiating with. . . but the police leave them alone to document what they have in their backpacks and discuss how they want to proceed. They then left the building under escort.
FWIW, the groups first demand was full amnesty from discipline for all parties involved, then compensation for employees who had to take days off of work because they occupied their building, student control of university finances (endowment to operations) as well as more disclosures, , unionize graduate assistants, scholarships and supplies to Gaza, public access to University Library . . . NYU being a private University doesn't reveal detailed financial information, who manages their endowment, etc. Private...
Seems like a very reasonable response by authorities to me. Kudos to the students for standing up for something in a decently respectable manner, but I don't really see how the police reaction was excessive. Seems all went well to me.
quote:
NYU students who stuck around Kimmel till Friday morning were suspended and stripped of campus housing, while the University said anyone who did not identify themselves as an NYU student will be prosecuted for trespassing. No arrests, and no TBNYU! demands met.
No charges have been filed, so essentially, nothing was done.
http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/20/how-a-fringe-group-at-nyu-went-from-being-disliked-to-loathed-the-story-of-the-tbnyu-kimmel-occupation/This is the best write up:
http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/23/of-secret-meetings-and-meager-eating-my-final-thoughts-on-the-kimmel-occupation/Makes me chuckle. A non-believer was in the building taking notes the entire time. He sums the entire thing up perfectly in one sentence:
quote:
It’s like a caricature of a protest.
And finally, the 7 things they did wrong (a more serious discussion):
http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/23/the-7-errors-take-back-nyu-made-in-their-occupation/Thanks for the chuckle.
