{news} Marine recruiter assaults demonstrators with baseball bat in New Haven

[Justine McCabe]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Goselin" <pdgoselin at lapm.org>
To: "Peter Goselin" <pdgoselin at lapm.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2006 8:40 AM
Subject: [al-awda-CT] Marine recruiter assaults demonstrators with baseball 
bat in New Haven


>
> The following is a statement that is being circulated regarding an
> incident at the military recruiting station on Orange Street in New
> Haven on Wednesday, June 28.  A baseball bat-wielding Marine recruiter
> engaged in an unprovoked assault on two demonstrators outside the
> recruiting center and then seized the cellphone belonging to another
> demonstrator who had witnessed and photographed the assault.  There are
> plans for a rally and press conference outside the recruiting center for
> July 5 at 5PM.
>
> The National Lawyers Guild was contacted immediately after the incident
> by organizers who were looking for legal assistance because, among other
> things, the New Haven police were trying to discourage the victims from
> making a complaint against the recruiter -- apparently at least one
> officer expressed the opinion that having an anti-war demonstration
> outside a military recruiting center was a "provocation."
>
> The question that this incident must raise is this: if a US Marine
> recruiter, while safely ensconced behind a desk in an air-conditioned
> office in New Haven, working in a position that plainly keeps him in the
> public eye, feels free to use a baseball bat to beat a protester . . .
> then how much restraint do we imagine that his compatriots use against
> Iraqis?
>
> I would strongly urge people to participate in the rally on July 5.  The
> movement needs to respond in a strong and clear voice to violence
> against demonstrators, and all the more so when it comes from government
> personnel and is calculated to discourage political opposition.
>
> Peter Goselin
> NLG-CT
>
> ***********************************
>
> A Marine recruiter assaulted two unarmed anti-war protesters
> with a baseball bat in New Haven at a non-violent anti-war protest
> at 5:40 pm. He also seized an anti-war protester's cellphone. This civil
> rights violation occurred on 6/28/06 in front of the Orange Street
> recruiting station.
> About twenty anti-war protesters were holding a non-violent
> demonstration in front of the military recruitment center in New Haven
> in support of Suzanne Swift, a soldier who refused to deploy after being
> sexually
> assaulted, and First Lieutenant Ehren Watada, the first commissioned
> officer to
> publicly refuse orders to deploy to the Iraq war.
> We believe that this assault violates the civil rights of the non-violent
> protesters, as well as their right to free speech. The protesters plan
> to return next
> week to the recruitment center on July 5 to exercise their right to free
> speech. We
> will also hold a press conference at 5:00 pm 7/5/06.
>
> Police Officers Ratti (Badge #463), Hartnett (#4), and Knickerbocker (#80)
> arrived and obtained the seized cellphone from the Marine. But he had
> erased a picture of the assault. We did not confront the recruiters, since
> we do not blame the soldiers for the war. The blame lies solely on a
> government whose interests are contradictory to those of the soldiers.