The Department of Public Safety on Monday released the names of five protesters cited with disorderly conduct at Friday’s Pacifica Forum meeting.
The protesters who stomped open stink bombs during the meeting and were subsequently cited by DPS are Gabrielle Shepard, Johannes Peterson, Adam Pekrul and Ian Royer. None of the protesters is a University student. The Anarchist Black Tea Society is taking responsibility for the acts, and a spokesperson confirmed Sunday that all those cited are members.
DPS also issued letters of trespassing to those cited, which forbids them from the University campus for 18 months.
“I think we were fair because we could’ve cited them with criminal mischief,” DPS Sgt. Adam Lillengreen said. “All were cited in lieu of custody.”
Lillengreen noted that though DPS cited five protesters, there were six protesters in total, but one male protester ran away.
“It’s an ongoing investigation,” Lillengreen said.
The incident at Friday’s Pacifica Forum meeting happened while the meeting took place. The Forum showed a movie on Jewish intellectual movements before a discussion, and as the film started, protesters began to yell and pound on desks.
“(The protesters) then stood up, and we saw them pull something out of their pockets and threw them onto the ground, stomping, and broke the non-lethal ammonium sulfide vials,” Lillengreen said, who attended the meeting to provide security. “We didn’t know what it was (at first). We could smell it, and it raised concerns because we wanted to make sure they were non-lethal.”
DPS declined to comment about allegations by the Black Tea Society, and some witnesses, of use of excessive force or about what safety precautions will be used at future Pacifica Forum meetings.
“We wanted to use a prank to draw attention to what has become a serious threat to the community,” Black Tea Society spokesperson Damage said on Sunday. He declined to use his real name out of safety concerns. “We also wanted to demonstrate that when Nazis come to campus, we’re going to fight them.”
The Pacifica Forum made headlines last term when University students protested the forum’s weekly meetings, calling the group, which has hosted Holocaust deniers, anti-Semitic and fascist. In March, University officials moved the meetings to the off-campus Baker Center, but scheduling conflicts in two of the past three weeks resulted in the forum returning to campus, most recently meeting in Esslinger Hall.
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