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ysa kicked off campus
On the afternoon of Wednesday, April 25, while trying to hold a forum on “Police Brutality & the Role of Police in Society” at the University of Wisconsin/Superior, Youth for Socialist Action was thrown off campus by Police Officer M. Bodin and Hattie Crass, the head of SUFAC (Segregated University Fees Allocations Council).
Shortly before the meeting was to begin, the two stormed down the stairs. Officer Bodin proceeded to begin ranting about the 20 years he spent in the Navy “defending our freedom” and how he had the right to free expression. He then suggested that if we were so keen on socialism we get out of the United States and go to a socialist country. The Crass, after patting Officer Bodin on the back, ordered us off campus and demanded that remove any flyers or literature of ours that was posted on campus. She stated that since we were not a recognized student group we had no right to hold such “offensive” meetings.
We explained to Officer Bodin, who had arrived quite agitated and upset, that we weren’t denying him his right to free speech, but rather he was participating in the denial of ours. We then told the Crass that we had previously gone to the student government office and asked how do we go about holding meetings and finding people interested in our group if we aren’t recognized yet. We were told there to just throw up some fliers and meet in a lounge or someplace similar and see if anyone came. And that is exactly what we were doing. No matter, we were told by this person who said that she held “two position of responsibility and leadership, and was therefore higher than the average student,” whoever told us that was probably unaware of the “offensiveness” and “ruckus” we were planning to infect the campus with. When we tried to explain that with all of the recent stories of police brutality on the news, and the events in Cincinnati, people everywhere were talking about this, we were told that these things “didn’t happen in Superior, now get off campus!”
As we started packing up our stuff and taking down our posters, three students passing by came to our defense and asked that we not take down the flyers and make the job of the police and administration any easier. We agreed, and as we were leaving we ran into three people who were showing up for the canceled meeting. After telling them what happened, we got into a second round of discussions with the police officer and his student government cohort. This time, for the most part, they took a less overtly hostile political position, and just kept saying we weren’t a recognized student group, and would have to seek recognition next year in the fall.
After talking to the students who came to our defense, and getting their names and phone numbers, we headed over to the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth where we set up a table and proceeded to tell everyone who would listen what had just happened. Everyone we talked to was outraged, and a number of students shared stories about run ins they had had with police. Then we headed over to the University of Minnesota at Duluth to give our scheduled 7pm talk on police brutality. We had a great meeting, great discussion. One campus police officer walked by at one point, but made no attempt to intervene.
For our part, Youth for Socialist Action intends to approach the student senate at UW Superior first thing this coming fall semester to get formal recognition. We intend to aggressively challenge any attempts to deny us recognition or the right to hold peaceful meetings. If need be we will form a free speech defense committee to fight for our rights. We feel that the actions of Officer Bodin and the student official were highly inappropriate and uncalled for. We believe whole-heartedly that they were politically motivated, and were a blatant attempt at preventing us from exercising our right to free speech. UW Superior is a state university, a public institution, which sets as its goals the serving of the community, providing access to ideas and information, participating in the development of an informed and educated community. That however, is not what happened on April 25.
