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UNO Occupation Participant Speaks Out
by New Orleans Indymedia
Wednesday, Sep. 01, 2010 at 9:15 PM
neworleansstudents@gmail.com
An anonymous statement sent to the press by a University of New Orleans student who occupied Milneburg Hall on the lakefront campus.
This small organized action of occupation by several individuals came before the larger student walkout at University of New Orleans, which, at the earliest of reports, constituted around 100 participating students.
Today, several students decided to take back control of their university from big business and little bureaucrats, reclaiming a single building of University of New Orleans’ campus for they, the tuition-payers, themselves.
Despite what benevolent administrators, politicians (student or otherwise), or the police may say, we know that this financial crisis is not ours, and that we will not pay for it. We know that this “depression” affects us disproportionately and we refuse to allow those who are already hurt to be injured any further. If there will be cuts, they will be from the very top!
We would like to state how overwhelmingly impressed we were with the organized Walk Out that also took place today. Y’all are amazing. Despite the fact that no one “led” the march or “organized” the rally, the students had no trouble whatsoever in finding common ground surrounding the slow and systematic demolition of the only public university available to them in the city of New Orleans.
Unfortunately, after being forcefully removed from a university building by violent, angry campus cops wielding batons and pepper spray, and after the beatings and arrests of two of our fellow students, and after Chief Harrington put a student in a headlock and wrongfully accused him of assault, the faculty, staff, and students alike were able to finally witness the police undeniably affirm all of our accusations--the university and its administration empower their goons, not their students, in order to better serve private interests at the cost of public education.
Please keep our two imprisoned friends in your thoughts. Please contact the UNO Campus Police and let them know how nasty you think Chief Harrington is for siccing his officers on students.
Again, UNO made us proud today. We can’t wait to see how students will organize themselves this semester, this year, forever.
This was only the first.
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