Harvard Students Heckle FBI Director Robert Mueller

Before I begin, a hearty "haha" and "well done" to the students. I mean, that was wrong, just wrong. To heckle a former alum that is now internationally known for abusing the Patriot Act was so right wrong.

Seriously, it was reported that the students were arrested and in violation of their rights. It was stated that school policy grants protesters a warning before arrest, a courtesy that was not shown to them.

It seems wherever Mueller goes, established law and procedure fly out the window. Some legacy he's gonna have when his failure tenure at the FBI is over! 

Stop being a wimp Mueller. So what the kids broke you down at your own alma mater. So what they pimp slapped you at your former college and it got picked up in the international press.

Take it like a man and stop picking on the kids because they don't like you. Having them arrested is another reason for them not to like you even more and look upon you and the FBI as big brother bullies:

Four Harvard students are crying foul after being arrested for heckling FBI director Robert Mueller. The students, who began yelling at Mueller prior to his speech at the school's Institute of Politics, claim they were entitled to a warning and that according to Harvard's rules they did nothing to warrant being removed or arrested. No matter what ends up happening to them, the students took on the director of the FBI -- they should just be happy they didn't wake up in a mysterious cell with all of their possessions gone. 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/sioncampus/05/02/campus.chronicles/

Arrested Protestors Allege Misconduct

Undergraduate protesters say they were arrested without warning

Published On Monday, April 30, 2007  1:41 AM

By JAMISON A HILL

Crimson Staff Writer 

Four undergraduate protesters arrested at the Federal Bureau of Investigation director’s speech last Thursday are now saying that their removal from the event was a breach of Harvard policy. And they said their subsequent arrest may have been a violation of their first amendment rights. 

The students, who were arrested on charges of disturbing a public assembly, face a hearing before Middlesex County Court on May 10. Michael A. Gould-Wartofsky ’07, one of the students, said that they are in close contact with the American Civil Liberties Union and several other civil liberties organizations regarding pro bono legal representation, though they have not yet chosen an attorney. 

Gould-Wartofsky, Kelly L. Lee ’07, J. Claire Provost ’07, and Maura A. Roosevelt ’07 were placed under arrest by Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) officers when they staged a protest against federal law enforcement practices during FBI Director Robert S. Mueller’s talk at the Institute of Politics. 

According to Free Speech Guidelines approved by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 1990, protesters are entitled to a warning before they are removed from an event, except in the case of the threat of physical violence. Gould-Wartofsky, who is also a Crimson editor, said those guidelines were not followed when the students were taken from the forum by HUPD officers. 

“We were given no warning,” he said. “We were manhandled by plainclothes officers and basically dragged out by force by HUPD.” 

In response to the allegations, University spokesman Joseph Wrinn wrote in an e-mail, “As a matter of policy when a case is pending, we do not publicly address the specifics of an incident. HUPD operates within the law and school policies and respects the rights of individuals to express their views.” HUPD spokesman Steven G. Catalano referred The Crimson to the University’s statement last night. 

Provost said HUPD informed the four undergraduates of their arrest after removing them without warning, then loaded them into a police car and drove them to the HUPD station, where they were booked. 

Gould-Wartofsky said after being registered at the HUPD station, he was taken to a Cambridge Police Department (CPD) station and held in a cell for four to five hours before he posted a $40 bail and was released. 

“This was the greatest overreaction I have ever seen at Harvard,” he said yesterday. “I have seen a lot of protests, but I have never seen any protesters here treated the way we were treated.” 

According to Lee, the three female protestors sat in the HUPD wagon for two to three hours before they were booked and then taken to the CPD station, where they were also processed and posted bail. 

“There should be space on campus for peaceful dissent, but there isn’t,” Provost said. “The ironic decision to arrest students exercising their rights to free speech, during a talk on civil liberties, only shows that there is no space for peaceful protest at Harvard.” 

Provost said that the arrests came as a surprise, saying that she and her fellow protestors had purposely tried to avoid what they saw as any possibility of violating laws or University rules. 

“Our protest was carefully planned and part of the careful planning was not to do anything illegal,” Provost said.