On April 3 U.S. National Guard representatives set up a recruitment table at a spot set aside for the distribution of literature. In the afternoon student Tony Naro, wearing a T-shirt reading, "Education, Not Enlistment," began passing out a flyer in the same area promoting a commemoration the next day of the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. The leaflet opposed the U.S. assault on Iraq.

Objecting to the content of the flyer, the recruiters summoned the campus police. Shortly after the cops arrived, Van Der Meer, a leader of the Black Solidarity Committee For World Peace and one of the organizers of the commemoration, stopped by.

After Naro complied with a police request to move to the side and distribute the flyer near a Black Student Center table, one of the National Guard recruiters told him, "You should be shot in the head."

When Van Der Meer objected to the threat he too was told he "should be shot in the head." The cops then tackled the teacher and handcuffed him, ripping his coat and knocking a lens out of his glasses. Meanwhile, the recruiter who had made the threats walked away.

Seeing the incident, students in the lobby began shouting, "Stop police brutality" and "Recruiters off our campus." The cops took Van Der Meer to their office, chaining him to the wall, and then to Dorchester District Court where he was formally charged.

Students insisted that the campus cops take their names as witnesses. Later about 30 students attended the professor's arraignment in District Court.

"If anybody should have been arrested it should have been the guardsman," said Tony Naro at a press conference that evening.

The April 7 meeting featured a panel of students and representatives of the school's faculty and administration, along with Philip O'Donnell, a spokesman for the Campus Police, who said he was proud of his officers.

Vice Chancellor David MacKenzie said that the offending recruiter "will not be back on campus." One speaker explained that the USA Patriot Act, enacted in 2001, requires that military recruiters be allowed on U.S. college campuses. Furthermore, he said, "High schools have to turn over the names of all students over 16 years old to recruiters."

"I don't think the problem is procedure," said Africana Studies professor Jemadari Kamara, commenting on a question about how the arrest was carried out. What was involved was racism on the campus and in society, he said. Many students expressed a similar view.

Van Der Meer will appear at the Dorchester District Courthouse on May 28. He described the fight as "winnable" when he spoke at an April 16 program opposing the Iraq war. "There is more involved than just myself," he said. "You cannot just have the military come on campus and shut us down."

Ted Leonard is a meat packing worker in the Boston area.  
 
 
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