Police Arrest UNC Protesters

Posted by HectorOTR 05/02/2008 11:39 AM

For three weeks, five UNC students have camped out inside South Building, the school's main administration building, protesting the the university's refusal to join the Designated Suppliers Program. The students claim that this program would help "improve wages and conditions for workers who make clothing with the university logo," but the university - for whatever reason - has continually rejected their request.

Today, they decided they had had enough and weren't going to be ignored any longer. So, they marched up the stairs and occupied the chancellor's personal office. I guess they figured he would have to listen if they were barking rhythmic chants two feet from his face.

The problem, however, is that they were warned explicitly not to do this. As a result, they were all arrested for disorderly conduct. I'm sure they knew this would happen but wanted to go down as martyrs for their cause.

Truth be told, they succeeded, because here I am writing about their arrest. Kudos, angry protesters!

Comments

Pokey T says,

I imagine three weeks of sitting in South building gets pretty boring, and they wanted excitement! Posted 05/02/2008 12:13 PMReply

Anonymous says,

As a close observer of the events surrounding these arrests, I wanted to debunk some of your erroneous statements. There were actually dozens of students involved in the sitin during the course of the 16 day occupation and over a dozen who went into the office. The group of five was just the amount that were arrested and dragged out. This action was the culmination of three years of being ignored by the chancellor and the school's refusal to discuss the merits of the policy honestly. This was not a case of martyrdom but of increasing awareness for the current sweatshop realities under which all UNC apparel is made. Just thought I would set the record straight and present some of the facts of this issue as you seem to have no real desire to do so. Posted 05/02/2008 9:04 PMReply

Anonymous says,

honestly who gives a shit about these people who have nothing better to do for three weeks then break the law Posted 05/04/2008 3:40 PMReply

Pokey T says,

@ Anonymous: "I'm a unc student who completely supports the Anonymous post above me"

Well, that's reassuring, considering the one above is also your post. You didn't know we can see IP addresses?

Anyway, anonymous, I neither agree with the protest nor admire them for being arrested. I admired their dedication to the cause up to the point where they purposely had themselves arrested. They essentially gave up and made asses out of themselves in the process. Posted 05/12/2008 10:48 AMReply