New Orleans: Protest Cop Attack on Student Rally

(Young Spartacus pages)

We reprint below a September 7 letter from the New York Spartacus Youth Club to the New Orleans district attorney. The two student protesters have been suspended indefinitely and one has been banned from campus.

The Spartacus Youth Club condemns the September 1 police assault on a student protest against budget cuts at the University of New Orleans. Police outrageously arrested protesters Peter Reed and Matthew “Gideon” Smith on charges of “battering police officers” and “resisting arrest.” Video footage posted on YouTube shows UNO campus police chief Thomas Harrington choking Smith, an asthmatic who required immediate medical attention after the police pepper-sprayed him in the face.

For exercising their right to protest in defense of public higher education, Reed and Smith face up to five years in prison if convicted on these sham felony charges. The Spartacus Youth Club demands: Drop the charges against Peter Reed and Matthew Smith!