Monday, April 13, 2009

New York police attack protesting New School students

In a display of brutality, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) arrested 22 students who had occupied the premises of the New School in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village last Friday. Students were struck by police without provocation and thrown to the ground, and others were pepper-sprayed.

Approximately 60 students occupied a New School building on Friday morning. The students were demanding the resignation of New School president John Kerrey, the former Nebraska governor and senator, and a Vietnam war criminal, as well as the school’s autocratic executive vice president, James Murtha.

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Donna Lieberman, executive director for the New York Civil Liberties Union, noted after viewing the video:

“What appears on the video is someone yelling at the cops and getting punched in the face for it and thrown to the ground and arrested. The Police Department has no authority to use physical force on somebody in this situation and they have no authority to arrest people for yelling at them; that is a violation of civil rights plain and simple.”

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