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| Fifth Column |
| UMass Prof arrested for assaulting cop |
| 2003-04-04 |
| 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. 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. It says something about academic freedom.'' Another Lefty who doesn't get it |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #9 Flood UMass with e-mail(someone post it please,my ISP is funky this morn.),like what happen to Genova.Heard a report that contributors and alumni have threatened to pull thier funding if Genova is not firied. |
| Posted by: raptor 2003-04-05 07:46:14 |
| #8 As long at the looney left can get away with their name-calling, 'moral indignity', and all the other false facades they display to the world, while still trying to destroy the very fundamentals this nation was built upon, with absolutely no cost to themselves for their action, it will continue. Once you put a price on such stupidity, those who find it "fun" will stop. Those who continue will prove to the world their hatred is not just a way to make points with the chicks, but a deep, abiding hate for the freedom, individual responsibility, and loyalty, not to a "cause" or a "party",but to an IDEAL. Being "left" these days is chic, and easy. It requires no real moral thougth or principles. It exhausts the rest of us, however, by constantly bombarding us with blather that has no value and no meaning. Swatting a spoiled brat across the bottom with a bare hand does wonders for establishing self-discipline. Doing the same thing on our college campuses will be more difficult, and will require more force. This is NOT Tienamen, and the attempt to portray it as such is horseshit. This is correcting a major failure on the part of society for not correcting this irresponsible behavior in the first place. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-04-04 15:07:37 |
| #7 Sorry, Old Pat. But I can't agree with you on this one. What you're advocating is Tiananmen Square on the Campus quad. Are you sure that's what you really want? We don't need it. Let the bozo's run their mouth's and spew their insanity and the only thing they'll succeed at is running their movement headlong into oblivion. The best part? They'll do it to themselves. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-04-04 13:50:23 |
| #6 Spare the billy-club, spoil the teacher. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2003-04-04 11:57:04 |
| #5 There needs to be a showdown with these campus "intellectuals", something that really, really HURTS - like rifle butts in the face. These people have been brainwashed into believing they can do anything they want, without any consequences. One good riot firmly smashed by the US Marines would put an end to that. Arrest several hundred teachers, throw the students into a POW cage, and let them learn firsthand what it's like to be on the LOSING side. Also let them know their stupidity will not be ignored. It would put an end to a lot of this stuff in a hurry. As someone said to me on another blog, "if we arrested every leftwing extremist on college campuses in the United States, there wouldn't be enough professors left to hold two classes". There is going to HAVE to be an accounting. The sooner the better. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-04-04 11:53:05 |
| #4 The National Guard guy's lucky. If it was UMASS- Amherst, they would have captured him and held him as a POW. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-04-04 10:28:25 |
| #3 He should be shot in the head... Send him to Baghdad, where they will shoot him in the head. |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-04-04 10:15:17 |
| #2 oops - premature post w/o comment and editing for brevity...damn |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-04-04 10:01:08 |
| #1 One of the things that makes our country great are the freedoms that our citizens are allowed. But, like many Americans, I am sick of hearing the views of left-wing actors, musicians and college professors. They are intellectually dishonest and morally bankrupt, yet they masquerade in a cloak of moral superiority. The left used to actually stand for a few decent things, like getting rid of brutal dictators and not supporting totalitarian regimes. Today they stand squarely in support of brutal dictators, in support of torture and mutilation, in support of mass murder because they actively hinder those that would oppose it. They are for "Peace at any cost" even if the result is massive human suffering. As long as its not their suffering, as long as it's not their starving children, as long as it's "Peace for them" . I loathe these people. Their narcissim, their willingness to look the other way, their hindrance of Americas moral action to depose evil is true evil. What's encouraging is that ALOT of other Americans appear to loathe them as well. People are bashing the left-wing fringe like I have never seen before and they feel pretty threatened. I believe we should deport them all to France where they will feel right at home. |
| Posted by: Jonesy 2003-04-04 13:34:35 |