Today, the national media has picked up the story of two students heckling President Clinton. This is a press release from the two students with their side of the story.
Lauren Giaccone and Brian Kelly are students at the Pace University Downtown campus and participated in the action against President Bill Clinton on March 5th, 2006.
Lauren Giaccone and Brian Kelly are part of a larger group, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) as well as Campus Anti-War Network (CAN). Both are leftist groups. SDS is a relatively new group. It was a radical group in the 60’s but has recently reformed. CAN has been active in protesting the war for several years now. Both students originally had formed a picket outside of the event on Sunday but were met with resistance by Pace University officials.
The students were then allowed to go inside to the event after their banners were confiscated. Inside the event, Lauren Giaccone and Brian Kelly stood up and called President Clinton a war criminal and cited the atrocities he committed during his time in office (i.e. Rwanda, Sudan, Iraq, Bosnia) It was at this time that the two students were forcibly removed by Westchester police and brought to a room within the campus where Secret Service was waiting.
The students were harassed by police and Secret Service agents who called them “clowns” and threatened to send them to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation that one officer promised “would take atleast 72 hours.” The students were searched and had their photos taken several times by both police and Secret Service. The students were detained for about 40 minutes and questioned about their ties to SDS. When the students refused to give information like their Social Security numbers, the officers would threaten them with statements such as “We can keep you here for 3 days.”
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# posted by madthumbs @ 1:03 PM
