Defend the Rutgers 3: Faculty & Staff Petition

On March 27, 2008, hundreds of Rutgers University students and supporters participated in the Rutgers Walk Out against the U.S. occupation of Iraq. The protest yielded no injuries, no arrests, and no incidents of vandalism or property damage.

Police are quoted in The Daily Targum article "Police Pleased By Rally's Nature": http://media.www.dailytargum.com/media/storage/paper168/news/2008/03/28/PageOne/Police.Pleased.By.Rallys.Nature-3289175.shtml

On April 10, Arwa Ibrahim, Suzan Sanal (Rutgers Against the War), and Erik Straub (Tent State/SDS) received a summons for "recklessly creating a hazardous or physically dangerous condition by an act which serves no legitimate purpose." They were the only students to receive a summons, despite the fact that the Walk Out was organized by a coalition of twelve student groups and gathered hundreds of participants. Arwa was not even a member of the Walk Out coalition and never attended an organizer's meeting.

In an effort to be cooperative with police to ensure participants' safety, at the request of a Rutgers student organization advisor, Walk Out organizers had met with the Rutgers University Police Department and the New Brunswick Police Department, before and during the event.

We, the undersigned Rutgers Faculty and Staff members, call for the Rutgers Administration to defend and support the three students against these unjust charges. We also call for the Middlesex County Prosecutor's office to immediately drop all charges against the Rutgers 3.