By snoadmin
On Wednesday, November 16th a student protest took place outside the Chancellor’s office against the Board of Trustee’s decision to increase tuition by 9 percent. After the trustees removed the students from the meeting and continued their discussion behind closed doors, the protest turned violent. In the end, multiple students were pepper-sprayed, arrested and charged with various misdemeanors. One police officer was injured when a glass door was shattered.
Now, Seth Newmeyer, one of the students involved in the protest is being charged over $30,000 in misdemeanor vandalism charges for breaking the door. This is after he was first charged with assault on an officer with a deadly weapon for the same incident, but the charges were dropped.
Seth has released a two-page document describing the situation in detail and explaining that he did not break the door and is instead being used as a scapegoat by the police. He says that there is video evidence that he was at least 5-10 feet from the door at the time that it shattered, and therefore cannot be accused of such crimes.
This is a difficult situation, because it was handled poorly on both ends. The protest only became violent when they were forced out of the meeting prematurely and not given the chance to speak their mind. However, the protest eventually turned into an angry, shouting mob, pushing and shoving at the police who eventually started using excessive force.
As far as Seth’s situation goes, he is being used as a scapegoat, but there is a reason he was chosen. It was not completely random chance that he was arrested out of everyone else in the crowd.
While there is video evidence that he was not in direct contact with the door at the exact second it shattered, there is video evidence of him violently and furiously shaking the glass door back and forth seconds before it breaks.
Only a few other students are standing in the area of the door and Seth is clearly the one who is trying the hardest to rip the door open. A few seconds before the door breaks to pieces, Seth steps away.
This does not necessarily exonerate him from these accusations, because it seems that the glass had been separated due to the violent forcing of the door, and it merely took a second to fall and break.
Not only was he the last person to have direct contact with the door before it shattered, he was also wearing a panda hat during the protest, which made him immediately recognizable when the police started making arrests. Many of the students were able to fade into the crowd, but it is easy for police to track down the one guy in the crowd wearing a panda on his head.
These charges are extreme, and are clearly meant to set an example to keep students from trying something like this in the future.
Unfortunately, people like Seth made it easy for the police to find a scapegoat, and ignore the purpose of the protest. This will always be remembered as the time “crazy students” broke the glass door, instead of the time that school officials stopped students from speaking their minds.
In future protests, it is important that we remember that we are trying to make a difference and change things.
Becoming an angry mob when things do not go our way makes it easy for them to ignore us because it changes the headline.
Don’t wear panda hats and push and shove against the police. Act like the smart adults that you are and maybe someday they will have to listen.
The shattering of the door and Seth’s involvement are visible at 1:06 seconds in the following YouTube video. He is wearing a red sweater and a panda hat.
Seth, you’re the worst