Additional links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGPKDY-RIHY&feature=youtu.be – the cops strike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czi4Htwti44 – @ 3:53

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSeNS77XJd0&feature=share

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news%2Flocal%2Fnew_york&id=8440696 – ABC 7 News, probably best

http://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelGouldWartofsk#p/u/5/nkBGMULZKxY – Series of videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41hyFRrIQ-U – overhead shot of arrest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coYR0Og6bbo&feature=player_embedded#! – aftermath

The Board of Trustee’s excuse:

“While a public hearing was being conducted by the CUNY Board of Trustees at Baruch College, at which more than 95 speakers had signed up to present their views, a group of protesters entered the first-floor lobby. Because the hearing room was filled to capacity, some of the protesters were directed to an overflow room equipped with the live video of the ongoing hearing. Some of the protesters refused to proceed to the overflow room and instead surged forward toward the college’s identification turnstiles, where they were met by CUNY Public Safety officers and Baruch College officials. The protesters were asked twice to exit the lobby or return to the overflow room. They refused, creating a public safety hazard. In order to ensure that public safety and access to the building was maintained for students who were attending classes this evening, the CUNY Public Safety officers secured the space and removed the protesters. One Public Safety officer was transported to a hospital for chest pains and two others received minor injuries. Fifteen protesters were arrested and processed by CUNY Public Safety officers. Throughout this time, the public hearing as well as the college’s classes and other business functions continued.” Retrieved from: http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2011/11/21/statement-from-the-city-university-of-new-york-2/

PRESS RELEASE: Board of Trustees Public and Budget Hearing, Baruch College, CUNY

#occupyCUNY[1], November 21, 2011

WE CONDEMN the use of police violence against CUNY community members who were protesting peacefully at the public Board of Trustees Public and Budget Hearing at Baruch College on November 21, 2011. We also reject the official statement[2] released by the administration of the City University of New York regarding those events.

STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND STAFF peacefully entered the Baruch lobby to attend the public meeting of the Board of Trustees and were immediately met by a line of police carrying large wooden truncheons and blocking access to the building. Students who were on the official roster of speakers were also denied access. At no time did the students, faculty, and staff attempt to push past the massed police officers, nor to confront them physically in any way. The police directed us to the first-floor overflow room where the meeting would be televised live. Knowing that our voices would not be heard in the broadcast room, we decided that we would hold an assembly in the lobby and allow people to tell their stories and testimonies of experiences as students at CUNY. Most of us sat down on the ground so that speakers could stand and be heard.

THE POLICE ATTACKED US shortly after we sat down and began pushing us toward the wall, responding to our peaceful, lawful protest with physical confrontation. The suggestion provided in the CUNY administration’s statement that anyone “surged forward toward the college’s identification turnstiles, where they were met by CUNY Public Safety officers and Baruch College officials” is a categorical lie, and this is documented in video footage of the events (see below). As the officers continued to push us away from the public meeting, they blocked all exits from the lobby but a single, revolving door, through which we were forced to walk one at a time. Many of the peaceful protesters were shoved violently by the campus police, jabbed and struck in their ribs with wooden truncheons, and left badly bruised. At least one student was struck in the face. It was a miracle that no one was more seriously injured. Those who refused to leave were told that they would be arrested; when one person identified himself to officers as a CUNY faculty member and asked on what charge he would be arrested, he was not given an answer. Another officer blurted, “Because it’s a riot!”

WE DEPLORE THE USE OF VIOLENCE against peaceful protesters. We deplore the criminal charges made against peaceful protesters exercising their Constitutional rights of free speech and peaceful assembly. We also deplore the CUNY administration’s misrepresentation of the events at Baruch, devised to obscure its complicity in violent action against its own students, faculty, staff, and community.

###

Video footage of the event can be viewed at the following links:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czi4Htwti44

http://vimeo.com/32494471

http://youtu.be/YAX4tzcPM9E

http://youtu.be/JpX48XIStEw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czi4Htwti44

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkBGMULZKxY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGMS5G3gxq8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGvO8TQSLQk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSeNS77XJd0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Klsh3YlhEg8

https://www.facebook.com/video/?id=168721598130

http://www.theticker.org/about/2.8215/students-united-for-a-free-cuny-escalates-at-baruch-nvc-1.2675035#.TstLcvEWUTk

Retrieved from: http://studentweekofaction.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/press-release-bot-public-hearing/?mid=5355038