[1314] in peace2
ashcroft at MIT?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (brendan cooney)
Thu Dec 13 17:10:43 2001
Message-ID: <20011213220921.65289.qmail@web14806.mail.yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 14:09:21 -0800 (PST)
From: brendan cooney <itmighthavehappened@yahoo.com>
To: peace-list@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.3.95q.1011213161231.29950A-100000@ocean>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Was anyone else around the MIT Humanities Library
Tuesday night, around 10 p.m.? If you were upstairs
studying (2nd floor), you would have looked up and
seen a Middle Eastern-looking man hauled out of there
by three cops. If you were curious, like me, you would
have gone out of the room, into the stairwell, and
eavesdropped while the cops interrogated this guy,
accusing him of stealing the backpack he was carrying
and of holding someone else's credit card.
"I don't understand what I've done," he said in a
gentle voice as they handcuffed him.
"Are you a student here?"
"No, not right now, but..."
"Then you can't be on the property."
"But plenty of people who aren't students use this
library, I don't understand what makes me special."
"You can't be here. Talk to Dean xx (I forget the
name) about getting you back home. Does that make
sense to you?"
"I don't see what I've done wrong."
If you were a good activist, you would have said
something to the cops, such as, "What has he done
wrong? He's right, non-students are allowed to use the
library, they just have to sign in." If you were a
wuss, like me, you would have stood silently and
watched them drag this guy away, humliated, into a cop
car. "Your ride's here," one of the cops joked.
Needless to say, this was shocking for me to see. I
have traveled in a lot of countries where this would
not have been shocking, but I have never had this
feeling here. Pathetic to say, but I think the reason
I said nothing was simple fear.
I've called the MIT police several times to get the
full story, but my calls have gone unreturned.
Just thought you should know.
Brendan
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