Six ACT OUT students arrested in Times Square

Nadine Reitman Staff Writer

Six Vassar students were arrested for criminal trespassing on government property after refusing to leave the Armed Forces Recruiting Station in Times Square on Friday, Nov. 3.
Clare Ciervo ’09, Julia Golomb ’08, Leslie Hamilton ’10, Curt Peterson ’07, David Rodriguez ’08, and Peter Whinn ’08 were engaging in civil disobedience to protest the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy and to show support for Peterson, who tried to enlist in the army, but was turned away because he is openly gay.

The Vassar student activist group ACT OUT organized the demonstration along with the non-profit organization Soulforce. Soulforce coordinates nation-wide campaigns demanding that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people be allowed to serve in the armed forces.

The students were arrested at 3:10 p.m. and taken to the Midtown South Holding Center. They were moved to “The Tombs,” the main New York City prison facility, after being fingerprinted at 10 p.m. Though rally participants had raised money for bail, a judge had to clear the arrested students before they could post bail and leave prison. The six students spent Friday night in jail and were released on Saturday evening despite police warnings that their cases might not be processed until Monday.

The students’ lawyer, Vassar alumnus Gideon Orion Oliver ’97, negotiated their release without criminal charges on their records, provided that they are not arrested in New York City within the next six months.

Several supporters stayed in New York City overnight to coordinate legal and publicity efforts, and said that they had difficulty getting information from authorities. “They might be
trying to stall in order to dissuade activism,” said ACT OUT Co-President Judy Jarvis ’07 on Friday after the arrests. “We’ve heard everything. We can’t get straight answers from anyone.”

Fourteen Vassar students, including Peterson, said before the protest that they would practice civil disobedience by remaining in the recruiting station until they were arrested.
“We’re going to give the national DADT policy as much bad press as possible,” said Peterson. Before the protest, he told the students planning to participate in civil disobedience, “Don’t move until you’re arrested.”

Forty-nine Vassar students accompanied those engaging in civil disobedience to show solidarity and to protest the DADT policy. The accompanying students held a sit-in blocking the entrance of the recruitment center until police asked them to move, at which point they stood around the perimeter of the building. The students participating in the vigil held hand-painted signs that read, “End Government Sanctioned Discrimination” and “Right to Serve” in rainbow lettering.

“I want people to get arrested,” said Jarvis on Friday. “It may sound twisted, but it’s powerful that we have people willing to show physically for this cause.”

ACT OUT first protested at the Times Square Recruiting Station on the morning of Sept. 20. The office remained closed that day and no students were arrested, although a number had committed themselves to acts of civil disobedience. Unlike the first attempt, however, the Nov. 3 rally began in the afternoon and therefore did not allow recruiters an opportunity to similarly avoid protestors by not opening the center.

At the beginning of the second protest, the mood inside the station was light. “It was like a party without a keg,” said fellow protestor and former Navy Public Relations Officer Rhonda Davis, who was discharged from the Navy because of her sexuality after 12 years of service.
Like Peterson, Davis attempted to enlist and was denied because of her sexuality, but she managed to speak with the recruitment officers for approximately an hour and a half on Friday before the police arrived. She said that the recruitment officers “were nice and treated us with respect. I think they really understood our cause.”

Activist Loghann Rimel ’10 said that the police presence created a business-like atmosphere. “[The recruitment officers] did not want to call the police on us,” said Rimel. When the police entered the station, they gave the students chances to leave before the arrests. They informed the students that being arrested might mean being in jail until Monday, at which point about half of those who had wanted to be arrested changed their minds.

Still, Ciervo, who was arrested, described a sympathetic response from certain people in law enforcement. “One of the arrest officers called our action ‘noble,’” said Ciervo. “I think that really says something about our cause. If the law enforcement understands our position, why can’t the lawmakers get it through their heads?”

After the police and members of the media arrived at the scene, pedestrians stopped to see what was going on. Some even joined in the protest themselves. Reverend Parker, a veteran of the Navy with 13 years of service, stood in solidarity with black tape over his mouth with the Vassar students. Additionally, a two-man camera crew from Reuters covered the action, as did the documentary crew that is currently following Soulforce’s “Right to Serve” campaign.

ACT OUT’s rallies have been a part of a larger “Right to Serve” campaign led by Haven Herrin, Jake Reitan, Alexay Bulokhov, and Davis, who are all members of Soulforce. The campaign has led protests in 30 cities across the country.

According to Peterson’s ACT OUT blog (actoutvassar.blogspot.com), the Nov. 3 arrests were “an action for the record books,” since Vassar students spent more time incarcerated than any previous Right to Serve campaigners.

“All in all, we were in police possession for somewhere between 29 and 30 hours,” wrote Peterson. “The number of people we were able to reach with our message assures me that deciding to go back to Times Square was the best decision we ever made.”

Herrin, Soulforce’s Young Adult Activist Co-Director, said, “Vassar is an agent of change. Vassar students understand it’s important to get the issues off campus.”