A student was arrested Monday at a rally and street theater held by the Brown chapter of Students for a Democratic Society in front of the downtown offices of Textron Inc., a corporation contracted by the U.S military for helicopters, armored vehicles and munitions.
Vale Cofer-Shabica '09, a member of SDS, was taken into custody by Providence Police officers after several protesters charged Textron Tower and placed their hands - covered in raspberry jam to simulate blood - on its facade.
Cofer-Shabica had initially been taken into custody on charges of disorderly conduct and malicious destruction of property, said Capt. David Lapatin of the PPD. He was released several hours later after charges of property damage were dropped and will face a hearing April 3, Cofer-Shabica told The Herald. He said he is speaking with a lawyer from the American Civil Liberties Union.
Cofer-Shabica said he was thrown to the ground by an officer, as was another SDS member. Cofer-Shabica was arrested after the other protesters had marched back up College Hill, while he remained downtown to speak with reporters.
"You can protest all you want. We're glad to come with you," Lapatin told the protesters outside the Van Wickle Gates, where they had marched after the protest. "We'll make sure you're safe. But you can't start doing damage to other people's buildings. That's not the way you get your point across," he said.
Lapatin added that there may be further investigation into the protest and more charges could be issued.
"It was not supposed to be an arrest action," said State Rep. David Segal, D-Dist. 2, who attended the protest. "This is an unfortunate ending, but I think it was pretty effective otherwise," he said.
During the protest - which about 20 students from Brown attended, in addition to 10 others - students pantomimed Textron executives throwing cluster bombs at civilians while other protesters pretended to die in the circle at the intersection of Westminster and Exchange streets.
Protesters staged the street theater in the intersection while others blocked the cross-streets. After police officers demanded that the intersection be cleared, the pantomime was repeated on the sidewalk.
After two SDS members were refused entry into Textron Tower, students decided to rush the building.
"We made decisions on the ground, like rushing the building and painting it red with handprints," said Alex Ortiz '09, an SDS member. "That was decided spur-of-the-moment."
About 12 PPD officers were on hand at the protest, lining the entrance to Textron Tower and clearing the streets of traffic.
The protesters, using jam as fake blood, imitated injured or dead civilians and held signs with slogans condemning Textron's military contracts, including, "Dear Textron, our democracy is not for sale" and "Are you in the business of killing?"
Textron Defense Systems, a subsidiary of Textron, manufactures various products for the military including helicopters and armored security vehicles.
Textron received Air Force contracts in 2003 for the production of sensor-fused weapons. Though the Air Force calls the munitions "cluster bomb units," Karen Gordon Quintal, spokeswoman for Textron, said the weapons are not traditional cluster bombs - sensor-fused weapons, she said, are designed to target multiple military vehicles, not civilians.
Quintal said Textron recognized SDS's right to protest. "With respect to today's protest, freedom of speech is a cornerstone of our democracy," she wrote in an e-mailed statement.
Brown SDS called on Textron to stop producing all war materials and redirect its resources to other products, Ortiz said.
"Overall our main demand is, 'Textron, stop killing people,' " he said.
Protesters said they were pleased with the action, citing positive responses from passers-by.
"I got more thumbs up and peace signs than people flipping us the bird or anything," said Bucky Rogers '07, an SDS member who called the protest "an overwhelming success."
Rogers said he thinks the demonstration reached Textron's employees, whom he said he could see watching from inside the building.
Other protesters said though it was doubtful the protest would cause any change in Textron's business dealings, it would at least force the spotlight on the defense contractor.
"Their P.R. people never love it when there are moderately upper-middle-class Brown University students covering themselves in fake blood and rolling around in front of their office," said Jared Paul, a Providence resident who attended the protest.
Ortiz said SDS's next step will be to pressure the state legislature to revoke Textron's corporate charter, Ortiz said. Segal said he plans to introduce legislation as early as next week to ban corporations chartered in Rhode Island from manufacturing cluster bombs.
Despite his arrest, Cofer-Shabica said the demonstration achieved its goals in spreading awareness of the military industrial complex.
"I think it its really important that that is something that attention is brought to, and a die-in is a really effective way to make people see. It puts it in your face and you can't get away from it," he said.
