Five Arrested During Northside Protest
Five Arrested During Northside Protest
By WILHELMINA BEST
Five protesters, including Academy Senior Fellow Estelle Sedgewick, were arrested for inciting public unrest during a massive protest of the Northside Preserve development plan. All five were released once the crowd was dispersed, and police say they have no plans to file charges.
The protesters are demanding that the City Council reverse its decision to open the nature preserve to development. "We must tread lightly upon our world," Sedgewick urged the crowd before her arrest. "If we must grow as a city, we should grow in our hearts, and not in our borders."
The protest began peaceably in Polygon Park, with around two thousand demonstrators carrying signs and shouting slogans such as "Keep Northside Pure." The police intervened based on a growing negative mood in the crowd. Said PCPD Lieutenant Gordon Sharp: "We were keeping a close eye on the situation, and when things started to turn a little ugly, we felt it best to get a handle on things before any serious violence could erupt."
Protester Hillary Gilbert said that the police did the right thing. "They stepped in and removed our leaders before anything got out of hand," she said. "The worst we saw was a bit of a scuffle where some guys who'd been drinking started shouting at us and calling us names. I'm so glad nobody was hurt."
The police intervened and arrested the five major speakers and organisers at the protest, including Professor Sedgewick; Maya Shorer and Juno Smythe, two of her graduate students; Keenan Thoreau of the hit band Roll for Damage; and Damien Gold of the Northside Protection League.
Professor Sedgewick is Senior Fellow of the Department of Languages at the Academy. She has a long and colourful history of civil disobedience, including a notorious incident in 248 in which her students organised a public foreign-language debate over the environmental policies of the Council on the steps of City Hall as their final project.
Do you think the Northside Preserve development should proceed? What should be built there, and how should wildlife conservation be considered in the process? Send your thoughts to news@perplexcitysentinel.com.
By WILHELMINA BEST
Five protesters, including Academy Senior Fellow Estelle Sedgewick, were arrested for inciting public unrest during a massive protest of the Northside Preserve development plan. All five were released once the crowd was dispersed, and police say they have no plans to file charges.
The protesters are demanding that the City Council reverse its decision to open the nature preserve to development. "We must tread lightly upon our world," Sedgewick urged the crowd before her arrest. "If we must grow as a city, we should grow in our hearts, and not in our borders."
The protest began peaceably in Polygon Park, with around two thousand demonstrators carrying signs and shouting slogans such as "Keep Northside Pure." The police intervened based on a growing negative mood in the crowd. Said PCPD Lieutenant Gordon Sharp: "We were keeping a close eye on the situation, and when things started to turn a little ugly, we felt it best to get a handle on things before any serious violence could erupt."
Protester Hillary Gilbert said that the police did the right thing. "They stepped in and removed our leaders before anything got out of hand," she said. "The worst we saw was a bit of a scuffle where some guys who'd been drinking started shouting at us and calling us names. I'm so glad nobody was hurt."
The police intervened and arrested the five major speakers and organisers at the protest, including Professor Sedgewick; Maya Shorer and Juno Smythe, two of her graduate students; Keenan Thoreau of the hit band Roll for Damage; and Damien Gold of the Northside Protection League.
Professor Sedgewick is Senior Fellow of the Department of Languages at the Academy. She has a long and colourful history of civil disobedience, including a notorious incident in 248 in which her students organised a public foreign-language debate over the environmental policies of the Council on the steps of City Hall as their final project.
Do you think the Northside Preserve development should proceed? What should be built there, and how should wildlife conservation be considered in the process? Send your thoughts to news@perplexcitysentinel.com.
posted by Chris Titan at 9:34 PM
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