3 Washington University students arrested in Occupy St. Louis Protest
Courtesy of Blair SackettWashington University students Kait Mauro and Adam Hasz, far left, were arrested at the Occupy St. Louis protest on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011.
The three students, seniors Adam Hasz and Molly Gott and sophomore Kait Mauro, were arrested near the Martin Luther King Bridge. They were held in the St. Louis City Justice Center for about 10 hours and released on bail Friday morning.
The students participated in the march from Kiener Plaza to the bridge as part of a national day of action recognized by the entire Occupy movement. The Post-Dispatch reported that 800 people marched and 14 were arrested.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) planned the local rally. Their main demand is the rebuilding of the crumbling public and social infrastructures. One of SEIU’s short-term solutions is to create new infrastructure jobs to repair the ill-maintained bridges.
Upon arriving at the bridge, Hasz said that police gave protesters the option to either step back or be arrested.
Hasz, Gott and Mauro chose to stay put and were put under arrest.
“The people who were willing to take the rap stood forward and the others stood back,” Hasz said. “It means that I am fully committed to the ideas of the Occupy movement and making it my own. The arrest symbolized my personal commitment.”
Hasz said he is part of the Occupy St. Louis movement because of the light that it sheds on social issues.
“We need to invest in our physical and social [infrastructure] in order to create jobs and revive the national economy,” he said. “For me the Occupy movement represents this unique [opportunity] to talk about all of society’s problems and how they’re connected, how economic injustice is related to economic issues, or how racism is related to sexism.”
Mauro views the movement as a way she can contribute to the country’s future.
“For me, a student about to graduate and engage with the world, with the economic crisis, with all of these social ills, I see this movement as a way for students to fully get involved in what the future of our country looks like,” Mauro said.
Hasz said that this particular march was important to him because of the recent, nationwide crackdowns on the Occupy movement.
“I had to take a stand when evictions were happening this past week. I thought that marching was the best way that I could take a stand and say I want to be a part of it and I want to contribute in any way I can,” he said.
The arrested students say, in comparison to schools like University of California at Berkeley, few students at Washington University are getting involved in the Occupy movement.
“For me it’s really about the fact that everyone here has privilege… it’s not, in my experience, a place that fosters action,” Mauro said. “We spend so much time talking about really good questions but at a certain point it becomes an excuse to not take action, but I think there has to be a balance of both in the culture.”
In case anybody still thinks is it safe to participate in the Occupy movement, or if anybody still thinks Occupy is a trivial fringe movement, this article will disillusion you:
“…when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence. It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organised suppression against the people they are supposed to represent. Occupy has touched the third rail: personal congressional profits streams. Even though they are, as yet, unaware of what the implications of their movement are, those threatened by the stirrings of their dreams of reform are not.”
“The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy” http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038
According to our activist students, tenured and tenure track faculty are almost uniformly dismissive and contemptuous of Occupy, sometimes even banning discussion of it in class (though many adjuncts and former adjuncts are involved in Occupy, working with the teacher’s unions to organize). I wonder why? Check out this article (quoting adbusters #9, Jan/Feb 2012):
“US academic superstars played leading roles in the 2008 financial collapse. . . . Backing every policy decision leading to Lehman Brother’s bankruptcy in 2008 and the $700 billion public bailout was a team of prestigious Harvard and Columbia economists all on the payroll of corrupt financial institutions. None of these academic offenders ever disclosed to their universities, their students, their publishers or the press the financial gains they were making promoting deregulation. These wolves in sheep’s clothing subverted the ethical base of their discipline – and their own consciences – without moral pause because economic departments don’t require professors to come clean with conflicts of interest.”
“The cohort of professors who broke the back of the American Dream” http://rwer.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/the-cohort-of-professors-who-broke-the-back-of-the-american-dream/
What? Corrupt professors? I am shocked, shocked…
“The Cohort of Professors who Broke the Back of the American Dream”
Well that is a rather sensationalized title of an article.
That’s adbusters #99, not #9. Surely none of the Wash U professors are corrupt?
Here is another quote from the Naomi Wolf article cited above, all about police suppression of free speech, free assembly, and free press:
“I noticed that rightwing pundits and politicians on the TV shows on which I was appearing were all on-message against OWS. Journalist Chris Hayes reported on a leaked memo that revealed lobbyists vying for an $850,000 contract to smear Occupy. Message coordination of this kind is impossible without a full-court press at the top. This was clearly not simply a case of a freaked-out mayors’, city-by-city municipal overreaction against mess in the parks and cranky campers. As the puzzle pieces fit together, they began to show coordination against OWS at the highest national levels.”
I wonder, who got that $850,000 contract to smear us?
Lecturer Dr. Jerome Bauer
–Initiative for Lecturer’s Policy Reform and Fairer Deals for Adjuncts
–Who never has, and never will, post anonymously or pseudonymously to Student Life, though all my of my op-eds and letters published in Student Life thru 2008 have been republished to my Associated Content blogsite, under the transparent pseudonym “shevek nagarjuna kundakunda,” with the formal permission and blessing of the Student Life editorial Board, Spring 2008.
To add, I am a washu grad that was also arrested, so I guess washu was well represented in city jail that night. I am really proud that a university with students who often come from the upper class is willing to show such courage fighting for a better future for all.
To respond to the concern about donating to oxfam, there is a difference between charity and fighting for larger change. Charity is a great and wonderful thing, but it does not address structural inequality. It is critical that we do both in order to provide for immediate needs as well as fight for a future where such charity is less necessary.
Props to the students with the courage to take consequences of civil disobedience. Being willing to engage in civil disobedience is brave. Sitting around and criticizing requires no personal sacrifice. Courage is a trait that will result in a satisfied life. Complainers will whine until their last breath.
I would like to know how much Hasz, Gott and Mauro paid to be released on bail. What could that money have been used for instead?
According to the OXFAM website, right now in East Africa…
$50 can provide 200 people a day’s supply of clean water
$100 can feed a family of six for two+ weeks
$175 can help dig a well that can provide drinking water and an irrigation source for years to come
In “The Singer Solution to World Poverty,” NYU professor Peter Unger states that $200 to UNICEF could help “a sickly 2-year-old transform into a healthy 6-year-old.”
Or imagine if that money was given to a poorly funded elementary school in OUR VERY OWN CITY of St. Louis, to buy markers for art classes, or new playground equipment.
Yes, there are problems within the american political system. Yes, there are problems with the economy. Yes, there is a huge gap between the upper and lower classes in the United States. But just remember Miss Mauro, Miss Gott, and Mr. Hasz that there exists and even BIGGER gap; the gap that separates the people who come home every night to food on the table, and the children who go days without seeing a single meal.
Are they being charged with anything?
“Street demonstration” and “failure to obey.”
I have no idea what Occupy movements want to get out of. Yes, I do understand we need to address the issue of economic injustice, but by occupying public facilities and infrastructures? I don’t get it. Occupy Wall Street people occupy subways and block roads, and it’s absolutely nonsense. Instead of addressing social issues in more feasible ways, Occupy Movement just turns into a chaos. Hey, you guys choose politicians we have now, if you really want to change, choose different people next time!
Are you from the generation that got us $15 Trillion in debt? Please share more of your political wisdom!
Newt Gingrich said occupiiers should take a bath and get a job. If your home has been foreclosed because you lost your job, you don’t have a place to take a bath. He is part of the 1% who don’t understand what being poor means.
We can be thankful that here in St Louis we, demonstrators and police alike, have so far managed to keep our actions nonviolent, civil, and even rather polite. Let’s keep it that way.
Here is what can happen when things go wrong. The UC Davis police pepper spray students in the face. They respond with a mic check: ”We are giving you a moment of peace. Take your weapons and go! You can go! You can go! Join our strike! Join our strike!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjnR7xET7Uo
Candlelit vigils will be held on campuses all over the nation this evening.
We’re on the same side of things, Professor Bauer. I am disgusted with the UC Police. I am beyond disgusted. I truly cannot put into words the level of barbarism shown by those sworn to “protect and serve.” I think it’s a sad, sad commentary on the state of the nation when we can look to the tea party for an example. Nobody gets hurt at their protests, nobody gets attacked by the police. Why? Because they’re all armed. UC Davis happened because they were not armed.
Think back in time. The Kent State shootings didn’t happen because the National Guard faced some huge danger. They happened because Miller, Krause, Shroeder, and Scheuer were not going to shoot back.
Happy Thanksgiving. What am I thankful for in this world? Sometimes I truly do not know.
JPM
I am thankful for my white male privilege and elite connections, which I can leverage to good effect even when I am broke and the end seems near. I am thankful that I still have a home, and a lending library in my living room, and a chance to teach pro bono. I am thankful that I am still alive, in relatively good health, and not yet blind. I am thankful for Missouri Medicaid and food stamps.
I am thankful for past charity and future solidarity. I am especially thankful for my capacity to give charity and express solidarity. I am thankful always to have an Occupation, even when I don’t have a job.
You are all invited to Occupy Thanksgiving, at St Louis’ Occupied Kiener Plaza (renamed Freedom Square), 10am to 1pm. Here is the description:
“Occupy St. Louis, in solidarity with our homeless and jobless brothers and sisters, cordially invites you to join us for an Occupy Thanksgiving. In times of financial crises, the homeless and jobless face insurmountable obstacles. The homeless and jobless have been a tremendous help to the movement. They have cooked and served our food, greeted and welcomed our guests, kept us safe in camp and in the streets, and have stood in solidarity with us. This Thanksgiving, we invite you and yours to join the Occupy Family in celebrating our homeless and jobless sisters and brothers. United we stand, divided by none.”
Happy Thanksgiving!
H
I forgot to mention that I am thankful for asymmetrical guerilla street theater and the freedom to engage in it. Also our collective ability to endure pain and privation for the common good and a much better future. Also for the imitation of Christ, if anybody could ever do that right, without a lot of grace…
“I think it’s a sad, sad commentary on the state of the nation when we can look to the tea party for an example. Nobody gets hurt at their protests, nobody gets attacked by the police. Why? Because they’re all armed. UC Davis happened because they were not armed.”
We in Occupy St Louis spent an entire afternoon discussing the Second Amendment, before we came to consensus on the issue of guns. We agreed to keep our encampment free of alcohol, illegal drugs, and ILLEGAL firearms. Many of St Louis’ founding tea partiers are core members, as are many on the left and center, and we have had to learn to avoid the derogatory term “teabagger” and stop lumping all right libertarians together as if they are a monolith, all on the payroll of billionaires. Most are on our side, the side of the 99%, as are most of the police. Their support is ours to lose.
Please see this video, made by a tea parity friend who is on our side:
“Occupy St Louis: Starting to Look a Lot Like Christmas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2_GOuKjY8Y
“Right vs. Left” “Spy vs. Spy” Until they’re seen together…