Who Is Infesting the Sea?

Another week has passed, and Paris is still embroiled in protests. And now the protest bug has spread to Brooklyn.

New York Police made a routine stop of a man talking on a cell phone while driving in a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn Tuesday evening. Arthur Schick, a 75-year-old Hassidic Jew and caterer of weddings and bar mitzvahs, resisted the officer's authority. Some accounts describe Schick as denying the officers' request for documents. Others say Schick approached the officers for their names, and the officers became agitated.

In the ensuing minutes, the police picked up Schick and threw him into a police van. Witnesses described the police twisting the arms of the elderly gentleman in spite of his loud protests. Among other reported offenses, the police concluded the botched arrest by slamming the van door on Schick's leg twice.

A sizable crowd had gathered by this point, and many were incensed at the police's actions against Schick. Two men jumped on the officers to stop the arrest and were subsequently arrested themselves. Riot police gathered as hundreds of black-attired Hassidic Jews poured into streets. The protesters gathered around the police station shouting "No justice, no peace!"

Within three hours the police had cleared the streets of protesters, but that was not after at least seven fires were set ranging from piles of cardboard to one police cruiser. Schick later criticized both the police and the protesters for losing their cool in the conflict.

These Brooklyn residents were not the only unanticipated protesters against injustice this week. Several hours after the Brooklyn protest, Amnesty International condemned the United States in a report Wednesday on the government's secret program of extraordinary renditions. Using testimony from three recently released prisoners, Amnesty provided further evidence that the United States operates secret prisons in eastern European countries. The report wittily contrasts evidence of CIA's use of torture with concurrent statements of the Bush administration denying any use of torture in interrogations.

The Bush administration had not issued any response to Amnesty's report at press time, and it is unlikely that they will offer anything other than the same platitudes Amnesty mockingly used in its report. Enough people believe what the administration says that they do not need to change their tune.

Before both the Amnesty report and the arrest of Arthur Schick, Cassi Hunt, a student at MIT, published an account of her latest conversation with the RIAA over her $3750 settlement for downloading music. Hunt called the RIAA to discuss how she could possibly delay or structure her settlement payment to make it compatible with college bills that already have her thousands of dollars in debt. The RIAA's negotiator told Hunt that she was not eligible for any assistance. The negotiator then informed Hunt that the RIAA has advised students like her to drop out of their universities and go to a community college. Hunt (and many supporters on the Internet) find the suggestion that downloading music may compromise education to be outrageous.

All three of these conflicts show heavy-handed actions by the authorities over dubious charges of illegal action. Indeed, the people accused by authorities are no saints. Arthur Schick somehow challenged the authority of the police officers. The people the United States has scattered around the world in extraordinary renditions may have committed some wrongs, though these people have never been formally charged with a crime. Cassi Hunt readily admits that she downloaded music from the Internet. Yet all three of these charges and their accompanying punishments possess a sneaking sense of injustice that the accusing organizations hide behind their authority.

Saint Augustine tells a story of Alexander the Great reprimanding a captured pirate. Alexander asks the pirate, "What is your idea, infesting the sea?" The pirate insolently replies "The same as yours, in infesting the earth! But because I do it with a small craft, I'm called a pirate; because you have a mighty navy, you're called an emperor."

Readers of my columns this semester will know that I often call for a protesting spirit against the authorities regardless of whether it is our increasingly unpopular national government or our EMU administration. Like Arthur Schick, I wish no ill on any of these authorities. The importance of protest comes not in challenging authority but challenging the "truth" these authorities create.

Whether it is the tale that our university must keep certain undesirables from being part of our community or our government's story that some people must be placed under an occupying power for their own good, these truths exist only as long as people will accept them. Undoubtedly some of the truths given by our authorities are credible, but merely the voice of authority is not enough proof. We must always question the truths of our world, even when we questioners are called titles reserved for despised, like "queer" or "pirate."

Contact Galen at galen.wenger@emu.edu