NREC Protest
So, I had a meeting on campus so I wasn't able to personally witness the protest of NREC last Friday. Our plan of action was basically to lock the building down really early, and just ride it out, and there was no way I was getting there before 6am
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If the purpose of the protest was just to shut down NREC, well, they didn't even need to show up at all. Everyone at NREC had arranged to work from home or attend training on campus, so it's not like they were turning people away from the gates (except for maybe the poor saps at the 43rd St. Cement Company).
If their message was to protest the militarization of university research, the Iraq war, etc. They would have been better served by 1) Staying throughout the afternoon so they'd have a chance of making the evening news (who watches the local news at noon?) and 2) Staying on CMU property so they wouldn't be arrested.
Since the newspapers covered the story as "14 Protesters arrested" and not "Local Group Takes Stand Against Military Robots", did the right message get out? Granted, maybe the story would be buried without the arrests, but from the literature the group was putting out, it seemed they wanted to be arrested and were hoping for police brutality as a bonus.
Well, that sort of thing might hold cache with other "radical" organizations, but the average joe is going to dismiss the action as "liberal wacko hippies".
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