Fifteen people were arrested during a protest against tuition hikes that spilled into the lobby of a Baruch College building where CUNY trustees were meeting to discuss the increase. Students were warned to leave the area and many of them sat down instead.
At around 5:45PM, CUNY Public Safety officers began making arrests. Witnesses say several of them used their batons. According to a spokesman for Baruch, most of the students were taken into custody and issued summonses, although some were handed over to the NYPD.
CUNY released the following statement which consistently refers to students as “protesters.”
While a public hearing was being conducted by the CUNY Board of Trustees at Baruch College, at which more than 95 speakers had signed up to present their views, a group of protesters entered the first-floor lobby. Because the hearing room was filled to capacity, some of the protesters were directed to an overflow room equipped with the live video of the ongoing hearing. Some of the protesters refused to proceed to the overflow room and instead surged forward toward the college’s identification turnstiles, where they were met by CUNY Public Safety officers and Baruch College officials. The protesters were asked twice to exit the lobby or return to the overflow room. They refused, creating a public safety hazard. In order to ensure that public safety and access to the building was maintained for students who were attending classes this evening, the CUNY Public Safety officers secured the space and removed the protesters. One Public Safety officer was transported to a hospital for chest pains and two others received minor injuries. Fifteen protesters were arrested and processed by CUNY Public Safety officers. Throughout this time, the public hearing as well as the college’s classes and other business functions continued.
I wonder if these cops have ever even seen a training manual, let alone have been properly instructed how to deal with crowd control. Their effectiveness is inferior to the greeters at Walmart.
the right to freedom of assembly doesnt apply if you are creating a public safety hazard. they had the chance to move the protest somewhere where they werent creating a hazard and they refused and were thus removed. you gotta play by the rules if you want to truly exercise your first amendment rights as a us citizen and they were not playing by the rules. the uc davis kids did it right. these folks, not so much.
If the police would have backed off of the protestors, there would not have been a safety hazard and the only reason why they weren't tear gassed is because they didn't go outside as instructed by the keystone kops.
The Lamb’s (us) need to be kept in Silence. The Research Foundation (CUNY/SUNY) needs to be held accountable for the tuition hikes while allowing wasteful spending and false reports where overstating numbers is known and allowed on campus.…
Listening to the “Whistles” that do the right thing will balance the budget and save the trillions the super committee needs to continue spending”—having interviewed a dozen people and reviewed the FOIA and WEBMQS reports….To understand these Grey areas of “partnership funding” that combines the Federal Government and how they deal with the small business community—our “backbone” in partnership with Academic Campuses under the guise of the Research Foundatiostudents is why “honesty and transparency” on campuses is feared and needed to be kept in silence by the administration.
I wish it ended with Penn State and Syracuse regarding those that know when it comes to the financial future of this country, and tuition increases—
Virtually all men talk with failure due to their not enough persistence in creating new promises to replace people who fail.