On Oct. 27 the three were arrested among a group of about 75 energetically chanting marchers on their way to Union Park, 1501 W. Randolph St., to join more than 10,000 anti-war protesters rallying for “October 27 Mobilization,” a multi-city national protest.
Chicago police officers charged Columbia students Marck Hilgendorf-Sanzhez and Sergey Turzhanskiy with misdemeanors, citing “failure to obey an officer” and “criminal damage to property,” respectively. Jones College Prep senior Nicholas Andrews was charged with a felony for “assault of an officer.”
The hour-long press conference in front of the U.S. Army Recruitment Center, 10 E. Harrison St., began with Turzhanskiy, a junior film and video major, reading a prepared statement. He described the alleged “unjust arrests” and “unnecessary violent force” through a megaphone over the ambiance of the rattling el trains, gusting wind and random emergency vehicle sirens.
No police officers were present or nearby, but a crowd of about 25 listened during the multi-speaker presentation. Most of the crowd was wearing some type of orange paraphernalia to show support of World Can’t Wait, the radical protest group that declares its anti-war, anti-regime stance by wearing the color of detainees” jumpsuits.
Andrews spoke briefly at the event. “Despite the repression the anti-war movement is facing, I would like to tell people to stay strong, stay united,” he said.
Hilgendorf-Sanzhez, a junior music major who took this semester off, said the whole point of the press conference was to present a united front among student protesters.
Students from several high schools attended the event, including members of the group from West Morton High School in Berwyn that the principal threatened to expel after they held an anti-war protest on school ground during school hours.
“[We want to show] we don’t get attacked individually,” he said. “We will respond together.”
He said the arrest has taken a toll on him. “[I feel] scared, demoralized, stressed ” I don’t know what will happen with the case,” he said. Andrews also said he is more anxious at protests since the arrest. “If I get arrested again it’s likely I would be put in juvenile detention,” Andrews said. Both Andrews and Hilgendorf-Sanzhez said they have a strong case, citing several witnesses, video footage and an excellent lawyer as assets.
The plantiffs tell the same story of the events leading up to the arrests. According to separate interviews with all three, bicycle police officers first stopped Andrews, who was leading the march, by lining up their bicycles to barricade him.
“I went up to this cop and started yelling to leave us alone. He started laughing and I called him a fascist pig,” Andrews said. The police allege Andrews spit on him, warranting the “assault of an officer” charge, which Andrews denies. Quickly after, officers began asking around for the other leaders of the march and soon made the other arrests.
Hilgendorf-Sanzhez said he does not know what order he disobeyed to be charged with “failure to obey an officer.”
“[An officer] just threw me to the ground and beat me up a little,” Hilgendorf-Sanzhez said. Turzhanskiy said his “criminal damage to property” charge is referring to any contact he may have had with an officer’s bicycle. The students said they were neither charged nor read their rights until after being handcuffed and brought to the 1st District Police Station, 1718 S. State St.
A spokesperson from the Chicago Police Department said the director of News Affairs could not comment, since the case is going to a jury trial. The first hearing is scheduled for Dec. 7 at the Cook County Circuit Court Branch 43, 3150 W. Flournoy St.
Their lawyer, Chicago criminal attorney David Carl Thomas, did not return several messages.
Thomas Greif, adjunct faculty member in the Liberal Education Department, said he wears orange all day every day as resistance. “I think its an unjust and immoral world,” Greif said. “Here in this climate of passivity you have three young people who are breaking out of this.” He spoke into the megaphone in support of the arrested.
“I think they should be applauded, encouraged, defended and joined,” he said.
Amelia Kent, a junior fine arts major, worked nearby in the Manifest 2008 construction workshop, next door to the Recruiting Center, during the press conference.
“I’m anti-war but I don’t think they”re getting anything done,” Kent said about the press conference and the weekly “dance for peace” demonstrations at the same spot outside of her work. Kent said she did not agree with the arrests, and was glad the students were doing something, but felt their methods of protest were “silly” at times.
“The Army is just doing their job. It’s a business. They are just trying to get college students like Panera Bread and 7-Eleven,” she said.