16 demonstrators were detained Thursday during a tuition rally, 15 of which were arrested, according to UWM police.
The rally began at noon in the UWM Union and moved towards Chapman Hall, home to the offices of many top UWM administrators, where the students were arrested. UWM Police Chief Michael Marzion said the various charges against students include obstructing justice and disorderly conduct.
During a press conference, Marzion said that the protest became violent and students were attempting to force their way into Chapman Hall. He said that police made a decision to not allow students into Chapman Hall because a large crowd of protestors would be disruptive to the work environment inside. Pepper spray was used against some of the students.
Among the detained was UWM Student Association President Jay Burseth. Marzion said Burseth was released and will not be charged. Burseth said that he wanted to speak to police as head of the student government.
“I wanted to go there and find out what was going on. I figured maybe if somebody could calm them down it could be me,” he said.
Burseth also told the Post he was detained for no reason and that others may have been as well.
“It was questionable why a number of people were detained,” he said.
UWM spokesman Tom Luljak said that the university welcomes protest and a wide range of views on campus. But he said, in this case, some students were determined to harm police officers and damage property.
The rally was part of the National Day of Action for Education Rights, which saw many similar protests across the country. The students’ demands, according to a flyer for the event, include a tuition freeze, pay cuts for high-level administrators including UWM Chancellor Carlso Santiago, and increased money for need-based scholarships.
The Post will have in-depth coverage in Monday’s issue.
Great job of peaceful protesting. What’s with the left and violence when they do not get their way. Mad about tuition hikes? Well, look to the liberals you voted for and ask them why…
A peaceful protest consists of a group of individuals making their views heard through chants, speeches, etc…not throwing snowballs at the Chancellor’s window. What does that do for your cause? If I were the Chancellor, would I be more obliged to speak with you? Deal with you? Give you the time of the day? Show you respect, after you disrespected me? No. How immature…though I’m not surprised with the quality of students the Eastside keeps pumping out each year.
whenever someone throws a snowball my way…i start macing everyone i can find — right in the face!
then i tackle some people and punch some others!
then i start arresting people with cameras (and anyone who asks questions)!
then i talk about how threatened i felt (with only a gun, club, and mace to protect me!), substitute words like “ice chunks” for “snowballs,” and change the order of events.
justice served. that’ll teach you to think that you have rights.
whats with conservatives and bombing the shit out of everyone when they dont get their way. Not that the damn liberals are any better. and anyway violence is a part of this world, get over it.
There are some us out here that dont play the left vs. right game.
OCCUPY EVERYTHING!
It’s nice to see things getting a little rowdy on campus. 20 cops still shouldn’t have been able to arrest 20 people out of a crowd of 250. People need to work on that…
Once we can get beyond being afraid of being arrested we can do almost anything.
And who cares about student rights…
Let’s take this shit over. We paid for it anyway.
This whole world is ours.
Up the social war.
I was arrested at the rally. there were about 5 or 6 snowballs thrown within a 7 second timespan. those people who threw the snowballs did NOT represent our cause or our group. however, using pepper spray and arresting 15 students is kind of drastic for a few snowballs, especially when the people who got pepper sprayed were NOT part of the snowball fight.
I couldn’t help but to laugh when I walked through the protest yesterday. So many demands and absolutely no plans to finance them — Administrative salary is not going to be enough money.
“those people who threw the snowballs did NOT represent our cause or our group”
Yeah, cuz there’s a singular ideology and organization which represents all who hate the racket that the university is. Get over yourself.
NO ONE REPRESENTS ANYONE, BUT THEMSELVES.
FUCK ALL THOSE WHO CLAIM OTHERWISE.
@SEO San Diego, I’d be offended by your comments, but it’s probably not your fault you lack any semblance of intelligence, being a conservative and all. I am also fed up with our current government, Liberal or not, but this does not mean that the Liberals on the streets are the same “Liberals” as those on the streets. These people have the guts to stand up and participate in their Democracy, something I seldom see Republicans do, except for those racist bigots known as the “Tea Party,” which, conveniently enough, is named after an liberal anarchist event defying a conservative government.
“concerned about democracy,” you are AT LEAST as much of an idiot as San Diego in saying that all conservatives lack sembelance of intelligance. democracy includes people talking and relating to each other to comprimise and get things done. comments like that put u in the same place as the idiots on Capitol hill.
Incidently, having studied government, I might point out that the “Liberal anarchist” u speak of was liberal for his day, but represents many of the same points as the Tea party including fiscal conservatism. and they represent things that are important to them, not neccisarily u and i. thats called pluralism, and there r groups like that representing u too. take notes.
and some might call protesting everything under the sun whining.
I’d like to see unedited footage, from beginning to end of this event. No doubt a different story would be told. My guess is you would see about 15 or 16 people do things that justified them being arrested. Just a hunch.
I watched this entire thing unfold from the bus stop. There is no question that the protesters were throwing snowballs and trying to provoke the police. This protest clearly got out of hand and alot of members were looking to cause trouble, they got what they wanted.
On a related note how stupid was this protest. Ok lets say college is free….then as soon as you graduate what are you gonna do, protest that your taxes are so high?
Sam C, that’s what I suspected…
I am a 5th year UWM student. I’m all for the end result that these protesters seek, but too many of these types of protests get out of hand and then end up villifying the police for simply doing their job. They have a ton of discretion in their line of work (as does most of the criminal justice system). If you’re disrespectful to them, and you have done something which gives them legal justification to arrest you, do ya THINK you might get arrested? HELL yes. If someone takes a swing at a cop, is the pepper spray going to come out? I’d hope so. Would you do the same if you were a cop? PROBABLY. The way you choose to interact with the police weighs heavily on how they’re going to treat you. I doubt the cops came to work that day looking for ways to mace and arrest students… So, protesters: thanks and all, I appreciate what you’re trying to do. I’d rather not get involved with things like this; I’ll stick to paying the cheapest tuition of the UW system and being happy to do it.
shame on the cops and the admin. there’s tons of footage of them arresting people who were not being violent. nor were they throwing snowballs (“ice chunks”). this all smells.
What’s most disconcerting about this is that the message these protesters delivered is a good one, but it will not be taken as seriously as it could have because the protest did not remain non-violent. The message also probably should have been delivered to state legislators (rather than to a man who took the same cut in pay as every other faculty member), but maybe it is more effective to try to persuade Santiago to persuade the state legislature, rather than appealing to the legislature directly.
Seriously. The students at “real” universities do not ask for discounted education. This is the WalMart approach to college.
I wonder if they figured out the cost of each ticket equaled one hour of the Chancellor’s pay? They should get jobs and work, instead of asking for a handout.
Too bad they are so caught in grabbing a small amount of publicity, they lose sight of the real reason we are here, to learn.
Attention whores. Let’s see how quick they are to do it again.
Sorry, I waste more time on this wasted cause. I have homework to do. later
Evidence that Luljak and Marzion are liars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzq2g9tY0II&feature=player_embedded
I support their cause, but only children think you can try to physically force your way past a police line (which even the protesters admit that they did!) and force won’t be used in response. Welcome to Grown-Up Land, kids. Good luck organizing a peaceful protest next time.