Aug. 9–BELLEFONTE — The All American Rathskeller is suing its insurance agency and insurance agent over a $2.5 million wrongful death settlement reached with the mother of Peter Serrano, a Penn State student who died during an altercation with night club bouncers in October 2003. (more…)
In a mix of education and activism, hundreds of students gathered on the Old Main lawn yesterday afternoon to wave signs and hear political speeches.
The event, called the “March for Democracy,” featured six speakers and a group of actors. The audience followed the speakers as they walked from Old Main lawn to the HUB lawn and back.
Sam Richards, a senior lecturer in sociology who helped organize the march, called the gathering a “classroom without walls,” and many of the students were there as part of an assignment in one of his classes.
But among messages about how big businesses control the government, cheering students gave the event the feel of a political rally.
“This march is about coming together and talking about ways in which we can empower ourselves,” Richards told the crowd through a bullhorn. “The system can change . . . It has changed in the past and it will change in the future.”
Speakers encouraged students to participate more in government, wrestling control away from the rich and spreading it among everyone equally.
“You may feel like the minority,” said Ken Clarke, director for the Penn State Center for Ethics and Religious Affairs. “But it has always been the creative minorities, as Martin Luther King, Jr., reminds us, who are at the vanguard of significant social and spiritual change.”
Speakers focused on progressive political ideas, including some of the same issues that led to anti-corporation protests recently in Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.
At least one local Green Party candidate was at the march, passing out fliers.
Meanwhile, students held up cardboard signs with messages such as “Human need not corporate greed,” “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention,” and “Democracy kicks ass.”
Richards said it was the first time he’s led a march like this for a class, but said there are already plans for another one.
Students’ reactions to the event ranged from wild enthusiasm to begrudging attendance to get the grade.
“I thought it was a good idea,” said Michelle Boyd (sophomore-elementary education). “They gave a lot of information. But I wouldn’t have come if it wasn’t for my class.”
Many spoke highly of Richards and his sociology classes about racism and social injustices. Several students ran to him after the rally to give him a hug.
“Even if I didn’t have him as a teacher, I would go listen to him speak as much as possible,” said Mark Stern (junior-human development and family studies).
Although some of the speakers emphasized international issues, such as U.S. relations with China, they found plenty to get upset about at Penn State and in State College.
Andy Shubin, a local American Civil Liberties Union attorney, addressed the students about free speech. He mentioned a person who police cited last week for wearing a shirt with an expletive on it. The shirt apparently had a message critical of oil companies.
“Let’s engage in a little first amendment exercise,” Shubin suggested. “I’d like you all to repeat after me: Fuck petrol!”
The crowd did.
“Congratulations,” Shubin said. “You’ve all engaged in an act of civil disobedience.”
The rally’s final speaker was Barbara Anderson, director of the Penn State Center for Sustainability. She said people can improve society if they care strongly about a cause.
“I truly believe love is one of the most powerful motivators for change,” she said, just before leading students in a chorus of “America the Beautiful.”
PLEASANT GAP, Pa. – After four lawyers and $14,000 in legal bills, a 63-year-old Pleasant Gap man who doesn’t like it hot has been cleared on an indecent exposure conviction.
A state appeals court last week overturned the indecent exposure conviction of Charles Stitzer, who was wearing only shoes and a watch while gardening in his back yard nearly two years ago when he was arrested after a neighbor complained to police.
Is he happy?
“You’re damn right, you better believe it the strain I’ve been under,” Stitzer said Monday. “It’s been a hell of a load on my mind. It’s been a big financial drain.”
The decision was filed last week by a three-judge Superior Court panel, which directed Centre County Court to acquit Stitzer, who lives at 217 E. College Ave. in Pleasant Gap.
Stitzer was observed nude in his back yard by a neighbor, Pam Watkins, from a distance of 60 to 65 yards at sunset on June 22, 2000. Watkins could not be reached for comment Monday.
Stitzer’s case at first was dismissed at a preliminary hearing by District Justice Brad P. Lunsford, but he was rearrested and convicted at a December 2000 jury trial presided over by Centre County President Judge Charles C. Brown Jr.
After Stitzer was convicted, Brown sentenced him in January 2001 to two years probation.
The appeals court said backyard nudity observed from such a distance at sunset did not satisfy an element of the law that requires others to be present for indecent exposure to occur.
“We vacate the conviction and remand for the trial court to enter a judgment of acquittal,” the appeals court ruled last week.
State College lawyer Andrew Shubin, who represented Stitzer in the appeal, said the appellate court decision upheld a broad civil liberty, especially significant since the issue of civil liberties has come under new scrutiny since Sept. 11.
“The principle that’s important here is that a person has a right to do on his property things that he may not have a right to do in public,” Shubin said. “If you don’t like what you see, you avert your eyes.
“If he had done that at a baseball game, it would have been different,” Shubin said.
Assistant District Attorney Lance Marshall, who prosecuted Stitzer, said Monday that he does not plan to appeal the appellate court judgment.
Stitzer, a retired mechanical draftsman, said he likes to keep cool on hot summer evenings, sometimes wears a thong and often sat out nude on his side porch in the dark, though neighbors’ floodlights have lately lit up the night.
“Why sit out there with those hot shorts on?” Stitzer said. “Why shouldn’t I sit out there without anything on?”
In nine days, a trio of strangers, chosen in secrecy, will arrive at the large, white prison that sits on a hillside here. Shortly before 10 p.m., they will insert catheters into both of Keith Zettlemoyer’s arms, pump poison into his veins and kill him. (more…)
Leon Cassady remembers the day his turn came. (more…)
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As Penn State University President Graham Spanier prepared to offer his annual State of the University address to an audience in the school’s Eisenhower Auditorium eight days ago, a line of nine students stood and turned their backs on him. (more…)
When did the U.S. attorney’s office know about the statewide grand jury investigation that led to the arrest last month of two Williamsport police officers on corruption charges? (more…)
Battle over the right to bare more than arms
America’s a nation where a person is free to say what he wants, vote as he chooses and now, maybe drop his trousers in the back yard on a hot summer night. (more…)
BELLEFONTE, PA – (July 19, 2000) Misdemeanor and summary charges filed against 15 anti-death penalty protestors arrested on July 9 at the National Governors Association meeting were dismissed at a preliminary hearing in the District Court of Centre County this afternoon. Centre County District Attorney, Ray Gricar, who personally prosecuted the case, was unable to convince District Justice Daniel Hoffman that the state had enough evidence to proceed with a trial against the 15 activists. State Troopers arrested the members of Pennsylvania Abolitionists on a public roadway leading to the conference center where the governors were meeting. The charges of disorderly conduct and obstructing a highway carried a maximum penalty of 15 months in prison.
Officer Kenneth Epfield of the Pennsylvania State Police, who supervised the arrests, was the sole witness for the prosecution. He stated that the individuals in the group marched in a single file line along the shoulder of the road leading to the conference center bound together with a chain and locks. Epfield testified that State Troopers formed a line on the roadway, blocking the berm and an entire traffic lane. As the individuals neared the police officers, Epfield ordered one of the protestors at the front of the line to not block the roadway. As the demonstrators stepped onto the road, Epfield stated that within seconds he informed them that they were under arrest and that troopers encircled the protesters and moved them onto the berm by “pushing, pulling, and dragging.”
Andy Shubin, a Centre County criminal defense and civil rights attorney representing the abolitionists, asserted that it was not the protesters who blocked the roadway but the police standing in the way of the Penn Stater Hotel Conference Center. Under cross-examination, Epfield acknowledged that several cars drove by the scene during the arrest and were not impeded by the disturbance.
Justice Hoffman agreed with the defense and commuted the misdemeanor obstruction charges to a summary offense. The judge then informed the defendants that if they entered a guilty plea to the summary charge, he would give them a minimal fine of $25 plus court costs; if they refused the offer, they would immediately move from the preliminary proceedings into a trial on the summary charge. None of the defendants was willing to accept the deal, and Shubin informed the judge that he was not prepared to move to trial and would not represent the abolitionists in such a trial. Facing the prospect of 15 pro se activist-defendants, Justice Hoffman decided to dismiss all the charges against the abolitionists.
“These people were here to express their opinion about the death penalty and expressing it in the best tradition of our democracy,” Shubin said following the preliminary hearing.
District Attorney Ray Gricar said that he felt the case was solid and did not understand the reasoning behind the judge’s decision. Gricar is urging the State Police to refile the charges and so that he may begin new proceedings against the abolitionists. Gricar is a staunch supporter of executions in Pennsylvania.
Shubin scored another NGA-related protest victory in the same courtroom earlier in the day when charges were dismissed against five Penn State students who were arrested on July 10th for refusing to take down a banner when the governors visited the university. The students were members of Redirection 2000, a group protesting the domination of the NGA by private corporations “hosting” the meetings and the total banning of citizen groups from the event.
UNIVERSITY PARK — Three Penn State students will learn within five days whether they will be held responsible and punished for charges stemming from a protest on the Osmond Laboratory balcony in July. (more…)
