One year later, protesters return downtown
Students bring city to a halt
Pablo Albilal / Correspondent
Issue date: 3/28/08 Section: Page One
Throughout the march, New Brunswick Police Department squad cars often led the way stopping traffic from going any further so demonstrators could pass. Officers on foot flanked the protesters on four sides to make sure things remained peaceful.
Members of Rutgers Against the War and Tent State University led the protest with a front banner that read, "End Campus Complicity! Divest!" as part of RAW's campaign to end to University spending that indirectly aids the war effort.
As the crowd reached the corner of Somerset and George streets, School of Arts and Sciences junior Tiffany Cheng took the megaphone to address the crowd.
"Let's give a shout out to Old Queens!" she said. "Rutgers is invested in a number of war profiteering companies such as Halliburton, Exxon Mobil, and Boeing. It is ridiculous that this information is being hidden from us. We should ask for an open policy on how the University invests its endowment."
The crowd continued down George Street to the Marine Corps Recruiting Station on New Street, just off their main route. A group of approximately 15 counter protesters, including members of the Rutgers College Republicans, stood in front of the building holding American flags and other signs reading, "I love Bush," and "I Support the Troops."
Kristofer Goldsmith a member of the New York City chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War, addressed the crowd amid the interruptions.
"I'm an American soldier, okay?" he said. "I'm a combat vet. I have friends that are [in Iraq] right now. I'm speaking for the guys that don't want to be there and members of Iraq Veterans Against the War." Goldsmith asked everyone in the crowd to please stop calling the conflict in Iraq a war.
"It's not a war it's an occupation," he said. "When Congress votes in support of the War, they are not supporting the troops. I never got a pay raise when I was there."
After leaving the Marine Corps Recruiting Station, the march continued down George Street to the Exxon Mobil gas station.
"Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell, take your war and go to hell!" protesters shouted as they sat in the street once again, blocking traffic at the intersection where the gas station is located.
"We are going to Exxon to protest their involvement in the war and their profiting from the war." TSU organizer and Rutgers College alumna Amanda Troeder said.
Demonstrators marched to Douglass campus at which point, TSU organizer and Rutgers College junior Erik Straub offered the crowd two options: the first, a speak-in at Voorhees Chapel, and the second, an extended march onto Route 18.
At the mention of taking over a major highway, the crowd cheered with approval.
As demonstrators approached the entranceway to the highway's southbound side, police scrambled to catch up to the front of the procession where they learned of the impromptu course decision.
"We are unstoppable, another world is possible!" the crowd chanted.
Members of Rutgers Against the War and Tent State University led the protest with a front banner that read, "End Campus Complicity! Divest!" as part of RAW's campaign to end to University spending that indirectly aids the war effort.
As the crowd reached the corner of Somerset and George streets, School of Arts and Sciences junior Tiffany Cheng took the megaphone to address the crowd.
"Let's give a shout out to Old Queens!" she said. "Rutgers is invested in a number of war profiteering companies such as Halliburton, Exxon Mobil, and Boeing. It is ridiculous that this information is being hidden from us. We should ask for an open policy on how the University invests its endowment."
The crowd continued down George Street to the Marine Corps Recruiting Station on New Street, just off their main route. A group of approximately 15 counter protesters, including members of the Rutgers College Republicans, stood in front of the building holding American flags and other signs reading, "I love Bush," and "I Support the Troops."
Kristofer Goldsmith a member of the New York City chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War, addressed the crowd amid the interruptions.
"I'm an American soldier, okay?" he said. "I'm a combat vet. I have friends that are [in Iraq] right now. I'm speaking for the guys that don't want to be there and members of Iraq Veterans Against the War." Goldsmith asked everyone in the crowd to please stop calling the conflict in Iraq a war.
"It's not a war it's an occupation," he said. "When Congress votes in support of the War, they are not supporting the troops. I never got a pay raise when I was there."
After leaving the Marine Corps Recruiting Station, the march continued down George Street to the Exxon Mobil gas station.
"Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell, take your war and go to hell!" protesters shouted as they sat in the street once again, blocking traffic at the intersection where the gas station is located.
"We are going to Exxon to protest their involvement in the war and their profiting from the war." TSU organizer and Rutgers College alumna Amanda Troeder said.
Demonstrators marched to Douglass campus at which point, TSU organizer and Rutgers College junior Erik Straub offered the crowd two options: the first, a speak-in at Voorhees Chapel, and the second, an extended march onto Route 18.
At the mention of taking over a major highway, the crowd cheered with approval.
As demonstrators approached the entranceway to the highway's southbound side, police scrambled to catch up to the front of the procession where they learned of the impromptu course decision.
"We are unstoppable, another world is possible!" the crowd chanted.