More than 80 protesters tried to stage a citizen's arrest of White House adviser Karl Rove after he spoke at a College Republicans event Tuesday night. About 16 of the protesters laid down in front of Rove's car as he tried to leave campus, causing Public Safety and Rove's Secret Service detail to break up the protest. Although Secret Service spokesmen denied that agents had touched students, photos show otherwise. Additionally, protesters allege that one plainclothes officer flashed a gun and said, "I'm a fucking cop, I'm going to arrest you." Luckily, no one was arrested or seriously harmed in the protest.
The College Republicans event was limited to 150 audience members, and was advertised only over the College Republicans' listserv, not via flyers or Today@AU. Anyone wishing to attend the event had to request tickets, but some who had requested tickets were later denied admittance. Per Rove's request, no media coverage of the event was permitted in order to make the event completely candid and off the record.
Protesters claimed to be making a citizen's arrest because of Rove's alleged illegal political involvement and the corruption of the judiciary, as well as what they said were his violations of the 1978 Presidential Records Act. The entire situation garnered widespread national media attention yesterday, covered on CNN, FOX News and MSNBC, to name a few.
Hindsight is 20/20, and the entire situation was mishandled by almost all parties involved. An attempted citizen's arrest of a heavily guarded public figure wasn't the best way to convey protesters' disagreement with administration policies. According to D.C. Law 23-582 (b), "A private person may arrest another (1) who he has probable cause to believe is committing in his presence- (A) a felony..." It's unlikely the protesters could prove that Rove actually committed a felony - AND that they saw him do it.
Whether one agrees their intentions were noble or not, instead of having a coherent message, the protesters mostly succeeded in just causing a grisly scene, which has now been tied repeatedly to AU in the media universe.
The protesters weren't entirely to blame, though. The College Republicans should have done everything in their power to provide a more open event. A more structured dialogue, open to the entire university community, may have quelled some protests. Although it was Rove's office that prohibited a completely open event held in a bigger venue, the CRs has worked with the Kennedy Political Union in the past to bring less controversial speakers and should have anticipated the backlash that would come with a speaker like Rove.
But more so, even simply keeping the arrangements less hush-hush would have given Public Safety time to plan a more organized and effective response, minimizing harm to protesters. Public Safety clearly wasn't completely prepared, and without advanced notice, it couldn't meet with protesters beforehand. By throwing themselves in front of the car, protesters gave officers no choice but to pull them out of the way. Public Safety was left with few choices in dealing with the situation, and in the end, ended up looking like idiots.
In the end, the College Republicans got some pictures with Rove, the protesters got a story and the university got a ton of bad press. Was it worth it? We'll let you decide.
