Seven people, including a former University professor, were arrested on campus Friday at the Military Science building after blocking the building’s entrances and holding a sit-in to protest the Iraq War as part of a national day of non-violent civil disobedience.
By 9 a.m., about 50 people had circled the building, located at East 16th Avenue and Agate Street. Many people held graphic signs depicting American and Iraqi victims of the war.
Eugene residents Karla Cohen, 36, Henry Dizney, 79, Ruth Koenig, 64, Penny Palmer, 64, Fraeda Scholz, 26, Dorean Schubert, 50, and Kyle Yamada, 28, were arrested and charged with Criminal Trespass II. They were booked at the Eugene Police Department Headquarters downtown and then released.

“We are openly breaking the law in order to bring attention to the much greater injustice of the Iraq war,” Peter Chabarek, one of the organizers of the event, said during the protest. “We are calling attention to the brutality of the war, the illegality of the war and the misleading and deceitful practices of the recruiters.”
The group planned ahead of time who would be arrested and even notified the police in advance.
Four were later arrested at the Army recruitment center in west Eugene as part of the same protest. According to an Eugene Police Department press release, the two demonstrations “concluded peacefully” as “11 subjects were arrested and cited for trespass as organizers had planned.”
Karla Cohen was one of those arrested after she obstructed the back door to the Military Science building around 9 a.m. and was handcuffed by the Department of Public Safety shortly thereafter. She said the group had participated in many forms of protest over the years, including letter-writing, candlelight vigils and traditional protests, but, “It was time to take a stronger stand – this does make a statement to the public about what we’re willing to risk.”
Jack Stevens held a particularly gruesome sign showing the burned corpses of those who had been sprayed with white phosphorus.
He said he decided to participate because he strongly disagrees with the tactics used by the military, many of which he says are against international law.
“I thought I’d find time in my busy schedule to actually oppose the U.S. government’s use of chemical weapons,” he said.
Gesturing to his poster, Stevens grimaced.
“As you can see from these pictures here, the clothes are intact, but the only thing you can see on this fellow’s head is his teeth,” he said. “There’s a pretty good reason why we don’t use chemical weapons by law. … I just want to know when the United States is going to stop apologizing for atrocities after the fact.”
Stevens said he did not volunteer to be arrested because he’s a single parent but said he would be willing to in the future if the proper “support systems” were in place.
Cohen stood in handcuffs for almost two hours while waiting for the EPD to pick her up and gave interviews to the many members of the press who were present.
“We are committed to nonviolence,” said Cohen, “and there’s incredible violence that’s been going on for years.”
In an interview after her arrest and processing, Cohen said the police were “very kind” in dealing with her and her fellow protesters, and added that she was through the system by 11:30 a.m.
In a statement released by Mary Stanik, a University spokeswoman, she wrote that the University “wholeheartedly welcomes the exercise by its students, staff and faculty of the right of free speech and the right to demonstrate” so long as it “does not interfere with the rights of others.”
DPS Interim Director Tom Hicks said DPS was on-hand to “assist the Eugene Police Department in any way we can.”
He said the protesters had the right to express their opinions, but he said DPS was willing to detain people breaking the law.
“Especially with trespassers, there’s always a warning. You’re asked to leave and then if you refuse to do so, at that point it’s trespassing. … There’s an obvious intent, then, to be arrested,” he said.

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