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COLUMN
NINETY, MAY
1, 2003
(Copyright © 2003 The Blacklisted Journalist)
MORE AMERICAN FASCISM AT WORK
Subject: Fwd: [BRC-DISC] Brother Menilik Tony Van Der Meer Arrested for Righteous Anti...
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2003 17:51:12 EST
From: Amirib@aol.com
To: info@blacklistedjournalist.com
Brother Menelik is a long time struggler for a Peoples Democracy in this one-step-from-outright-Fascism- Country!!
We should focus all the forces we can, letters, calls, e-mail, faxes to put
pressure on these midget Eichman's who are springing up out of the Far Right Commodes of Bush'it around this country!. EITHER WE FIGHT BACK NOW, OR
THE FOURTH REICH WILL BE ON US IN A MINUTE!!
AMINA & AMIRI BARAKA
KIMAKO'S BLUES PEOPLE
BOX 3015 SPRINGFIELD AVE STATION, NEWARK, NJ 07108
STOP THE WARS!
IMPEACH BUSH!!
Subject: Brother Menilik Tony Van Der Meer Arrested for Righteous AntiWar Act
Date: 4 Apr 2003 09:29:10 -0800
From: "S. E. Anderson" ebontek@earthlink.net
Professor, recruiter face off at UMass
Witnesses describe heated words, threats
By Douglas Belkin, [Boston] Globe Staff, 4/4/2003
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/094/metro/Professor_recruiter_face_off_at_UMass+.shtml
In another sign of increasing tensions on college campuses over the war in Iraq, a professor at the University of
Massachusetts at Boston was arrested yesterday and charged with assaulting a police officer after he
exchanged heated words with a National Guard recruiter.
Eyewitnesses said the recruiter told adjunct professor Tony Van Der Meer and a student that they should be shot in the
head for their antiwar views.
A Massachusetts National Guard spokesman, Captain Winfield Danielson, said the Guard is going to look into what happened
yesterday at UMass and will take appropriate action.
The skirmish is the latest in a growing list of incidents in which simmering tensions about the war have boiled over on
high school and college campuses.
On Wednesday at Wheaton College in Norton, students replaced an upside-down American flag with a sign citing the First
Amendment after they received a death threat for their antiwar activism.
The day before, in California, administrators at Mater Dei High in Santa Ana canceled classes, citing concerns for student
safety and warning of the potential for violence at an antiwar rally planned near the school.
At UMass-Boston, spokesman Ed Hayward said the university will review yesterday's incident and its policy toward
recruiters on campus. He said he knew of no other clashes on campus between antiwar organizations and war supporters.
The confrontation, which began with activists handing out information on various causes, disintegrated into a shouting match,
with students screaming at the guardsmen and campus police, eyewitnesses said.
UMass student Tony Naro said the recruiter sparked the dispute by heckling him as he passed out leaflets to commemorate
the 35th anniversary of the fatal shooting of Martin Luther King Jr.
''He called me a [expletive] communist,'' said Naro, a senior, who was wearing a black T-shirt with the words ''Education
Not Enlistment'' on the front and ''Military Recruiters off My Campus'' on the back.
The two argued, and campus police were called because someone was ''blocking the guardsmen from handing out
informational pamphlets,'' according to the police report.
As the guardsmen packed up their literature and began to leave, Van Der Meer walked into the lobby. It's unclear what
happened next, but a half-dozen students and Van Der Meer later said that one of the four guardsmen turned to Naro and the professor
and said: ''You should be shot in the head.''
''No. You should be shot in the head,'' replied Van Der Meer, according to Shauntell Foster, a senior and a student of
Van Der Meer's. Students Theresa Myrthil and Bethanie Petitfrere said they also watched the confrontation.
According to the police report, which did not record their words, the men were screaming at each other,
nose-to-nose. An officer stepped between them.
The students said Van Der Meer never raised his hands or threatened the officer, and that the officer attacked Van Der
Meer. In his report, the officer said Van Der Meer shoved him in the chest and told him to ''get out of my [expletive] face,'' and
then elbowed him in the chest.
Three UMass-Boston police officers tackled Van Der Meer and wrestled him to the ground, several students said. Meanwhile,
students started filing into the lobby and shouting ''Stop police brutality'' and ''Recruiters off our campus.''
After his arraignment and not-guilty plea yesterday Van Der Meer, still wearing the green corduroy jacket that was torn
during his arrest, said he did resist arrest after police accosted him. ''I resisted,'' he said to the applause of about 30
students who had come to Dorchester District Court to support him. ''I don't see why I should be assaulted.''
''It's shameful,'' Van Der Meer said. ''It says something about academic freedom.''
Michael Rosenwald of the Globe Staff contributed to this report. Material from the Associated Press was also used.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company. ##* * *
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