COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Counter-Recruitment: General
Anti-war demonstrators cited in Williston
Matt Sutkoski, Burlington Free Press
Dec 1, 2007
WILLISTON -- Thirteen demonstrators were arrested and cited for
trespassing Friday at a Vermont Army National Guard recruiting office
as dozens more protesters surrounded the building, opposing military
recruiting in schools.
The protests grew from a campaign by students at Mount Mansfield
Union High School in Jericho who object to military recruiters in
their school and the requirement that high schools hand over student
contact information to the recruiters.
Many of the protesters were taken to the Chittenden County Sheriff's
Office, where they were to be processed and cited for trespassing
Friday evening, Williston Police Chief James Dimmick said. Three
juveniles were cited and released, he said.
The high school students organized Friday's demonstration, and other
groups opposed to the war in Iraq joined the cause.
At mid-afternoon, groups of demonstrators showed up in front of the
Williston Military Recruitment Office in Maple Tree Place, but
personnel there were apparently aware of the upcoming protest and
closed for the day.
The demonstrators then marched across a lawn to the National Guard
offices, where about 40 people entered the building, with a few dozen
sign-waving protesters remaining outside.
Authorities asked the people to leave the building, and about 30 did
so, Dimmick said. The others remained inside.
Reached by cell phone while he was inside the Guard offices, Matt
Howard of Iraq Veterans Against the War said he would remain until
the office closed for the day or police drove him out of the
building. "Our mission is to shut down recruiting. Every minute this
office is shut down a life is saved," he said.
Howard said the military was deceiving young people to join the
military, only to serve in an unjust, deadly war. Asked whether
military recruiters had a First Amendment right to discuss the
military with students, Howard said the recruiters were deceiving
students, and that is improper.
Police, Chittenden County State's Attorney T.J. Donovan and others
were also in the Guard offices, trying to persuade the group to
leave. Outside, demonstrators waved signs and chanted slogans such
as, "Education, not occupation, military out of our schools."
The demonstrators also pressed themselves against the Guard office's
storefront windows to watch the activity inside. Shortly before 5
p.m. police began dragging the protesters out of the Guard office
into a back room and into an enclosed loading dock. They were placed
in a Chittenden County Sheriff's van.
Demonstrators ran to the back of the building, where a phalanx of
police officers urged the group to get out of the way. The
demonstrators obliged as the large garage doors slowly opened and the
van pulled out. The protesters yelled cheers and encouragement to the
arrested demonstrators, invisible in a windowless portion of the
vehicle. A few people thumped their hands on the van's side while
others took pictures and videos of the scene.
Dottye Ricks of Military Families Speak Out looked on with pride at
the mostly youthful protesters. She said the Mount Mansfield students
did almost all the legwork and spread the word for the protest. She
said high school students are increasingly engaged in the opposition
to the Iraq war, which makes her hopeful.
Ricks said she didn't blame the recruiters for the war and the
recruiting in the schools, but rather the political leaders who were behind it.
Mount Mansfield student Phoebe Pritchett, 16, said she was at the
demonstration to oppose the recruitment. "We want the military
recruiters out of our schools," said Pritchett, who was outside the
Guard offices and not cited.
Dimmick said to his knowledge no Mount Mansfield students were cited.
Some initially entered the building but eventually left when asked
to. He said those arrested belong to groups who learned of the high
school students' protest and decided to join them. Dimmick said
nobody was hurt Friday afternoon and no property was damaged.
After the van drove away, the demonstration quickly broke up.
Some said they would go to the Sheriff's South Burlington office to
continue demonstrating. One woman collected signs and put them in a
shopping cart to take away. Guard members quietly shut off the lights
to their offices and went home for the day.
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