Recordpub.com - May 4 commemoration ends with arrests War protesters refuse to leave bridge in Kent

By Matt Fredmonsky
and Dave O'Brien
Record-Courier staff writers
An anti-war march and protest in downtown Kent following Sunday's commemoration of the 38th anniversary of the May 4, 1970 shootings at Kent State University resulted in four arrests.
Four protesters who sat down in the middle of Kent's West Main Street bridge and refused to comply with the order of Kent police officers to clear the road were arrested and charged with failure to comply with the order or signal of a police officer, a first-degree misdemeanor, according to a Kent Police Department press release.
The four arrested included Yvette Coil, a KSU conflict management major, organizer with the Cleveland chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War and wife of a veteran of the Gulf War; Aaron Brooks, a local musician; Bill Arthrell, a former KSU student and Cleveland resident; and an unidentified woman.
The march, organized by the Kent State Anti-War Committee and the Portage Peace Coalition, began on campus and proceeded west along East Main Street, stopping at the KSU U.S. Air Force ROTC building in the Terrace Annex to post paper peace signs on the doors. It continued on city sidewalks until it reached the corner of West Main Street and Franklin Avenue.
Police clad in riot helmets and armed with pepper-ball guns attempted to re-open the bridge to vehicle traffic shortly after 4:30 p.m., approximately an hour into the downtown gathering. While early on officers stood by and allowed the protesters to chant, dance, play music and hang signs from the bridge, an officer in a police cruiser eventually used a public address system to order the protesters to vacate the road.
Only minutes before his arrest, Arthrell told a Record-Courier reporter that he had been arrested six times during the "Tent City" protests of the late 1970s, when KSU built the Memorial Gym Annex at the site of the shootings, and 12 times overall during protest actions.
"I'm pleasantly astounded by these kids today," said Arthrell, a teacher in the Cleveland City Schools. "They're really making a stand for a better world ... This is democracy's finest moment, when people take the initiative to change something on their own."
After the arrests, traffic slowly began to cross the bridge while remaining protesters continued to linger at the edge of the sidewalk and verbally harassed several drivers. Noah, a member of the Kent State Anti-War Committee who declined to give his last name, used a bullhorn to start a chant of "Let them go!" at the downtown gazebo while officers processed the four people across Main Street near Home Savings Plaza.
Noah led the remaining group of protesters to Kent police headquarters at the corner of Haymaker Parkway and South Water Street where they continued with a chant of "No justice, no peace, f*** the police."

43.	Posted by insurancegal May 8, 2008
	There are better ways to protest than to sit in the street and getting arrested. Next time try a more legal and safe way to protest. I've protest before but I would never sit in the middle of the street....obviously it wasn't that good of an idea since only four of you did it and not everyone who was in on that anti-war march. I'm against the war, but support the troops. My one friend who is like my brother is a Marine. He doesn't like Bush what so ever, and can't wait until he gets out of office. Right now he is in Afghanistan, and a couple weekends back he was home and he visited me. The stories he told me where horrific. He said people don't realize that there is more fighting and deaths in Afghanistan than there are Iraq, but the media only shows whats happening in Iraq. I asked him if we are even do any good over there and he said we were when it comes to saving innocent civilians and building schools but other than that we aren't. He said word for word "It doesn't matter if the U.S is there or not, we can not change these countries. Its like someone coming into the U.S and taking all the fast food away...people are going to be mad." Also a friend of mine who served in Iraq for two years, said that Al-quida (sp) didn't set all the oil on fire but the U.S did. I don't know how true that is but he wasn't the only person who served over there to tell me.

42.	Posted by Truthtalk May 8, 2008
	Montym... Take your medication please...it will help repress the anger and make us more tolerable for you. Again, we are all stupid and to blame for all of your discontent. Point made. Memorial day is near. I'll bring the media, you show up and talk about the unjust war. You can insult the President, burn a flag and hug a tree. Then, you go home and have milk (soy, of course) and cookies. In the meantime, make a difference somewhere other than the middle of the street. I stand prepared and waiting for your streaming tirade of insults...since you obviously can't wage an intelligent and respectful argument.

36.	Posted by Truthtalk May 8, 2008
	KentBiz...That may have been the funniest post I have ever read...and very truthful. MONTYM...did you miss your counseling appointment this week? Jeez...easy man. Protesting in the streets and burning things--- very popular in third world countries. Do you read anything other than Mother Earth News? We are educated people. Protest at the State House, White House or YOUR house. Stay out of the streets. Now, once again, we know that WE are to blame for your daily Prozac. Now that you have firmly placed blame on "the man", what do you do next, other than sitting in the middle of the road in front of the cameras?

35.	Posted by KentBiz May 7, 2008
	This just in from CNN...President Bush has pulled all troops out of Iraq as a result of four people refusing to get out of the street in the midwest. Bush claimed to be unaware of the negative impact the war in Iraq was having on the country until these four brave souls stopped minivans attempting to transport their kids to Little League. This ground-breaking event happened in the sleepy college town of Kent, Ohio where in May, 1970 four student protestors were shot dead while protesting President Nixon's invasion of Cambodia which prompted an early halt to the skirmish in Vietnam. Stay tuned after the break as we report gas prices plummet due to two kids in Nebraska refuse to eat their vegetables, and the Browns win the Superbowl because a Cleveland youth crosses his fingers...