CAMEJO FOR GOVERNOR: Help UCB students facing suspension
CAMEJO FOR GOVERNOR: Help UCB students facing suspension
[Please support free speech, the anti-war movement, and youthful
activisim by forwarding this on, and sending what you can. -Thomas]
A Message from Peter Miguel Camejo
On the Berkeley Three
Three students are about to be suspended from UC Berkeley for their
leadership role in the anti-war movement. In 1967 I was suspended from
Berkeley for the crime of organizing against the Vietnam War and winning the
student senate elections with the highest vote total ever. The formal charge
was that I had spoken at a rally and the microphone had not been
pre-approved. I spoke on Sproul Steps along with 135 other people, 35 of
whom were professors. I spoke at midnight in a rally of about 5,000 people
that went from 9PM to 5AM. This was in September. In December, I was
expelled the day after the student elections.
To me, the recent events at Berkeley are of exactly the same nature as in
1967. Without any real due process, the U.C. Regents, through the campus
administrations, victimize students who are fighting in defense of the rule
of law. These same administrators have never had the courage to speak out in
defense of our Constitution (specifically Article 1 Section 8), or our
obligations as signatories to a series of international agreements which
outlaw unprovoked attacks on other nations.
One thousand people have signed on to an ad defending these students which
will be printed in the Daily Californian. I want to help them pay for it and
the other expenditures they will have in their defense. I would like to ask
for your support. If you can, please send a donation to:
Berkeley Stop The War Coalition
Write “Berkeley 3″ on the memo line
c/o Snehal Shingavi
322 Wheeler Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
I have sent them a check for 200 dollars. I hope through our efforts we can
raise at least a few thousand dollars for their efforts.
Below is a statement explaining the key issues in this case. Thank all of
you for your continuing support for peace in the world.
Peace,
Peter Miguel Camejo
Oct. 24th, 2003
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Berkeley Student Anti-War Protesters Deserve Due Process
On Tuesday, October 14, three University of California, Berkeley students,
Rachel Odes, Michael Smith and Snehal Shingavi, were convicted in absentia
of
“disturbing the peace” by a university disciplinary panel for their role in
a
March 20, 2003 anti-war sit-in. On that day, 4,000 Berkeley students
responded
to the beginning of President Bush’s invasion of Iraq by rallying on the
historic Mario Savio steps of Sproul Hall administration building. Over 400
students then entered Sproul Hall and began a peaceful sit-in to demand that
the
University of California take a stand against the war by declaring Baghdad
University a sister school, refusing to comply with FBI requests for
information
on foreign students and pledging to refrain from raising tuition and laying
off
faculty and staff because of budget cuts caused by military spending. UC
administrators refused to even discuss these demands and ordered police to
begin
making arrests for “trespassing.”
Since Sproul Hall is a public building, operated and paid for by student
tuition, and it was during business hours, UC police declared that the
sit-in,
which was confined to the front lobby, an “unlawful assembly” and that
“failure
to disperse” would constitute a crime. Eventually, 119 protesters were
arrested.
In the Alameda County District Attorney’s judgment, the students’ actions
did
not warrant prosecution and all legal charges were quickly dropped. The UC
Berkeley administration, however, decided to press ahead with its own
disciplinary charges, which could include penalties ranging from community
service to a ban on participating in future protests to suspension from
school.
If the conviction against these three prominent activists in the Berkeley
Stop
the War coalition stands, it will chill free speech at UC Berkeley.
Compounding matters, the UC Berkeley administration has made a mockery of
due
process rights in pursuing this case. It has stacked the deck against the
students by assigning full-time administrators to prosecute them, while
assigning only two unpaid and inexperienced student advocates to the
defense.
The administration has repeatedly violated its own written procedures. For
instance, two of the defendants received certified letters notifying them of
the
hearing on October 3, just seven business days prior to the hearing. The
third
student, Rachel Odes, never even received a letter. University policy
clearly
states that defendants must be notified at least 10 days in advance of the
hearing. When this fact was brought to his attention, disciplinary hearing
committee chair physics professor Robert Jacobsen told Odes that “since her
friends told her about it, she only lost a day or two.”
This disregard for university rules adversely affects the students’ ability
to
prepare a defense because the administration also asserts that any witnesses
or
evidence to be used in the hearing must be submitted at least 5 days in
advance.
Thus, the students had, at most, 48 hours to contact witnesses, gather
statements, retain legal counsel and generally prepare themselves for the
hearing. The defendants brought these procedural violations to the
attention of
the five man hearing board and requested a one-month delay. Jacobsen
dismissed
these important issues out of hand and admonished the students not to pursue
a
“scorched earth” defense. When supporters in the audience at the hearing
gasped, the hearing board chair declared that he would “move the hearing to
the
men’s room” if there was any interference from the public. After realizing
that
one of the defendants was a woman, he embarrassingly added, “or the women’s
room.”
As the defendants attempted to plead their case, the Jacobsen interrupted
them,
held up his finger like an umpire and said, “that’s one!” When the
defendants
continued, he continued, “that two!” Before they could be called out on
three
strikes, Michael Smith spoke up saying, “Our academic careers on are the
line.
We are not going to sit here and be part of this joke of a hearing.” The
three
defendants then led their supporters out of the hearing room.
We believe that Berkeley is violating these students’ right to due process.
We do not understand why a reasonable delay in the hearing could not be
granted.
We protest the decision to convict them in absentia.
We call on UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl and Dean of Students Karen
Kenney to step into this process and cancel the October 28 sentencing
hearing.
We demand that a new hearing date be set, on a date mutually agreeable to
both
parties that respects the students’ right to organize an adequate defense.
The Bush Administration has carried out an unprecedented attack on civil
liberties in this country over the last two years. The UC Berkeley
administration has a special duty to ensure that its academic community
stands
as a beacon of light for hard-won legal protections for which so many
generations have fought. Instead, it is cutting corners and steamrolling
students’ rights in its rush to punish opposition to war. It is time for
the UC
Berkeley administration to come to its senses and grant a new hearing for
Odes,
Smith and Shingavi.
Tyler Snortum-Phelps
Peter Camejo for Governor
tyler@votecamejo.org
