SHELBY TWP. - Pepper spray filled the Shelby Township city council chambers last night as police arrested four people protesting a hearing on the University's affirmative action policies.
About 20 protestors stormed the hearing, which was organized by state Reps. David Jaye (R-Macomb) and Greg Kaza (R- Rochester Hills), two of the four legislators who are attempting to organize a class action lawsuit challenging the University's affirmative action policies in admissions and financial aid.
"We're not here just to hear David Jaye," said Renee Brunk, a member of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary, the group that led the protest. "We're here to bury his attempt to resegregate the schools."
When Jaye announced his attempts last night to pass a bill similar to Proposition 209, the California law that eliminates racial preferences, the protestors told Jaye to change his name tag to George Wallace and shouted other insults. They chanted l
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| MARGARET MYERS/Daily A Shelby Township police officer tries to remove Renee Brunk, a member of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By any Means Necessary, from the township's city council chambers last night. Two state representatives held the hearing on the University's affirmative action policies.
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The legislators fired back with insults.
"Do you behave like this in the classroom?" Jaye asked. "Do your parents know how you're behaving?"
The police contend that they asked the protesters to leave. When BAMN members didn't comply, the officers began to forcibly break up the protest. The scene ended with the arrest of LSA senior Jessica Curtin and three other BAMN members who are not University students. All four were charged with disorderly conduct.
The protestors allege that Lt. Larry Huyghe, who was not in uniform, did not identify himself as an officer.
Huyghe, however, said he identified himself before restraining the protestors.
To evacuate the room, police officers sprayed pepper spray, which caused some of the more than 50 people attending the hearing to cough persistantly and even to vomit.
"I tried to talk to them, but they wouldn't listen," Huyghe said.
Jaye said he gave the protesters an opportunity to voice their opinions.
"I went through extraordinary lengths to be fair," Jaye said. "Also, I don't believe these students are representative of most University students."
Because of the lingering pepper spray, the hearing was moved to the hall outside of the chambers, and people were given a chance to speak about affirmative action at the University.
The protestors who were not arrested moved outside the municipal hall and continued to protest, chanting, "We demand an education, we won't take resegregation."
Each of the four arrested protestors posted $100 bond and were released after the hearing ended.
Miranda Massie, one of BAMN's three attorneys, said she and her colleagues will look into filing a lawsuit against the Shelby Township police department for excessive force and violation of First Amendment rights.
BAMN member Alex Johnson said he was sprayed in the face with pepper spray and received bruises to his forehead from the force exerted by an officer.
"This did not have to happen this way at all," Johnson said. "Disruption of a meeting to me is not the same thing as disorderly conduct."
Kaza said that because of the protest, he plans to introduce legislation in the state House today that will uphold a speaker's free speech rights when individuals, such as protesters, attempt to prevent the speech.
"They're punks," Kaza said. "It's important to stand up to them and tell them they don't intimidate me. Their actions caused these innocent people to be in a room filled with tear gas."
Under Kaza's proposal, individuals who prevent others from speaking would be able to be sued in a civil court.
Law first-year student Jodi Masley, a BAMN member, said the legislators' attempt to gain support through the hearing was not effective.
"David Jaye's turnout was nothing, and I don't think it's what he wanted," Masley said. "It proves he has a fight on his hands."
Kaza and Jaye, along with Reps. Michelle McManus (R-Lake Leelanau) and Deborah Whyman (R-Canton), have contacted the Center for Individual Rights, the Washington, D.C.-based law firm that won the groundbreaking Hopwood affirmative action case last year at the University of Texas.
CIR and the legislators are working together to interview potential plaintiffs for a class action lawsuit against the University. People arguing on both sides of the issue regarding the University's admissions policies and the potential lawsuit were present at the hearing.
LSA senior Lesley McIntyre said that while she believes affirmative action must remain intact at the University, she does not agree with BAMN's method of protesting.
"Look at the Constitution. Who wrote it? A bunch of white slaveowners," McIntyre said. "I can't believe anyone can say racial tensions are not rampant.
"(BAMN) marginalizes and demeans the cause. That's the only thing I agree with David Jaye on."
Steven Smith, a Shelby Township resident, said he attended the meeting to support Jaye's anti-racial preference crusade because he believes his son may have been rejected from the University because he is not a minority.
"I feel that under other circumstances he might have been accepted," Smith said. "I think that a person should be judged on his merit and nothing more. This is just reverse discrimination."
Philosophy Prof. Carl Cohen, who has done extensive research to argue the University uses race as a factor in admissions, said the University is currently undergoing tremendous racial tensions.
"Race relations on the campus of the U of M are worse now than they ever have been," Cohen said.
Jaye said he plans to hold another hearing in Macomb County within the next three weeks, and he added the meeting last night was a success.
"Even these protestors didn't succeed in stopping us," Jaye said.
Vice President for University Relations Walter Harrison said the University is taking the representatives' threats seriously and therefore has looked to outside council.
"I generally take people at face value and David Jaye said they are going to sue us," Harrison said. "What else are we supposed to think? It's a little unusual. Usually we don't retain counsel unless we're sued, but since these people have been so public we thought it would be better to retain the firm now."
- Daily Staff Reporter Heather Kamins contributed to this report.
MARGARET MYERS/Daily
Philisophy Prof. Carl Cohen speaks at last night's meeting against racial preference policies at the University.
MARGARET MYERS/Daily
BAMN protesters (right to left) University first-year student Monique Gifford and Detroit resident Tanya Troy chant in defense of the University's affirmative action policies in the Shelby Township city council chambers last night.
09-30-97
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