Four Ohio State students arrested during the World Economic Forum protests in New York City are back in Manhattan today to face charges.
The court appearance will be the beginning of multiple trips back to New York for the students as they fight the charges against them. They also plan to sign on with civil suits filed against the city of New York by arrested demonstrators.
Paige Phinney, Ora Wise, Dan Heck and Sara Evers were charged with various violations including parading without a permit, disorderly conduct and first degree misdemeanors such as unlawful assembly.
Jared Schultz of Columbus was also arrested during that weekend and similarly charged.
“It’s frustrating because we are going to go out there to plead guilty and then go home, and then we have to go back,” said Heck, a senior in natural resources. “We may be having to go out there once a month for a year.”
The defendants said they were standing on a sidewalk in Manhattan, observing a protest when police began arresting them.
“We were doing nothing to implicate ourselves. We weren’t even participating in the street. We were just standing on the sidewalk,” said Wise, a junior in women’s studies.
The students were held in jail for lengths of time varying from 32 to more than 48 hours.
“The police were ordered to and did arrest people before they had a chance to do anything – before they would have a chance of doing something embarrassing,” said John Upton, an attorney for Wise and Phinney and a member of the National Lawyers Guild.
Approximately 190 people were arrested in relation to the protests, said the People’s Law Collective.
“Eventually the city is probably going to have to pay damages in civil suits because they arrested people for not doing anything,” Upton said.
The specific terms to be used in the civil suits against the city of New York are false arrest, malicious prosecution and being held in jail while possessing valid identification, Wise said.
“There is going to be a lot of inconvenience to defendants and that is why I think there may very well be successful lawsuits,” Upton said. “The people from out of state have greater damages because of all the court dates.”
There have been recent successful civil suits settled similar to the suits soon to be filed, Upton said.
Schultz already made the 12-hour trip to New York earlier this week for his first court date. He said he stood in front of the judge for about one minute as he was asked to plead to the charges against him.
“For myself and a lot of the other defendants we pleaded not guilty on the premise of taking this as far as we have to,” Schultz said. “The whole point of them doing all this is to intimidate us and make this as much a hassle as possible. All we were doing is exercising our First Amendment rights.”
Schultz’s next court date is in May.
Although they were not demonstrating when arrested, the defendants were in New York to protest the WEF and its policies.
“I am very opposed to having groups of the global elite getting together and making decisions that affect the rest of the world’s lives,” Wise said. “The WEF is basically the wealthiest of the world and government officials getting together to discuss their desires for profit, development and, in my opinion, exploitation of the world resources and communities.”
The WEF is a highly influential event that plays a large role in what becomes law in countries all over the world, Heck said. Such laws result in the prevention of organized labor, as well as economic and individual autonomy among the world’s poor and marginalized, he said.
“People say, ‘oh, you’re a conspiracy theorist because you think corporations and politicians are gathering around a table and planning’ – but they are. And we want to draw attention to the fact that they are really meeting,” Heck said.
Wise said it is crucial for people to take to the streets outside these events and represent themselves and anyone else shut out of the decision-making, such as migrant and sweat shop workers.
“If we don’t get out there and actually interact with people, we can’t be visible, and then the media can just present the images they want,” Wise said.
Heck said even during the city sanctioned marches in New York, demonstrators were surrounded by police lines that prevented dialogue between people marching in the street with people watching on the sidewalks.
“You are totally isolated when you let the police be in control and that is part of why people want to take the streets – because you can walk with the cars and people,” Heck said. “And they realize that we are not scary evil demons, that we are people.”
Phinney, a senior in natural resources, said while in jail numerous Polaroids were taken of the protesters in addition to their mugshots.
Heck said he was interrogated about what political organizations he was affiliated with.
“It’s important to understand that there are people who go through this everyday, people who are marginalized, people of color and poor people who don’t have the resources to endure the legal system,” Wise said.
Upton said the defendants may be given an option known as an Adjournment in Contemplating of Dismissal, which allows the charges to be dropped if the defendants do not violate the law for six months. He said he expects very little to happen during this court appearance and doubts that anyone will serve jail time.
“One of the most amazing things about these massive mobilizations against corporate globalization and capitalism is to see the potential power of common people,” Wise said.
