SASC to File Complaint

The student activists that blockaded South African Vice Consul Duke Kent-Brown said yesterday they will file a complaint with the University requesting a full investigation of the Harvard police response to their action.

The undergraduates, who are all members of the Southern Africa Solidarity Committee (SASC), are asking the

University's Commission on Inquiry (COI) to

examine what they call Harvard's use of excessive

force in removing protesters from the speech.

Harvard officials denied the allegations,

saying they used proper restraint in ending the

blockade. The officials also said they could use

photographic evidence to identify those students

that participated in the action if disciplinary

action is taken.

Police Chief Paul E. Johnson yesterday

dismissed the charges by SASC as "ridiculous," and

said that police action was justified in order to

assure the diplomat's safe passage out of the

Science Center D auditorium, where the

Conservative Club-sponsored event was held.

Johnson said that police on the scene were

uncertain of the protesters' intentions when they

began to sit in front the doors of the auditorium.

As a result they decided that the best recourse

was immediately to escort the diplomat from the

room.

"We had a man in prison before," said Dean of

Student Archie C. Epps III immediately following

the Tuesday night speech. Epps, who was involved

in developing security measures for the event, was

referring to an incident two years ago in which

protesters prevented another South African

official, Consul General Abe S. Hoppenstein, from

leaving the Lowell House junior common room where

was speaking to the Conservative Club.

The COI, which handles student complaints

against faculty or staff members, last convened to

investigate that Lowell House incident. After a

several month inquiry, the COI dismissed student

charges that police had acted with unnecessary

force to disperse the blockade.

The request for an investigation by the COI,

which SASC members say they expect to submit

tomorrow, alleges that the University did not

follow through on assurances that it would warn

students before any police action. The proresters

said that they were never told to move from the

doors before police pushed them aside and spirited

Kent-Brown away.

"Instead of acting calmly along either of these

lines, the University forcibly broke through the

protesters without any warning and whisked Mr.

Kent-Brown from the room," SASC said in a

statement released yesterday.

One student, Noah M. Berger '89, said his head

was "pinned down" as he sat in front of one of the

exits.

The complaint to the COI also will ask the

University to look into the handling of the speech

by Epps, said SASC member Dorothee E. Benz '87.

SASC also said that by not arresting the

protesters the police failed to follow "standard

procedure."

"The [University's] response shows they had no

intention of reacting in proportion to what was

happening," said Benz. "Their idea was to plow

over people and use force." She added that the

blockading SASC members were prepared to be

arrested.

Johnson said that while the police were

prepared to make arrests at the speech, he never

closely considered arresting students Tuesday

night. "I figured it would be a college

disciplinary problem, "Johnson said.

The police chief said most Harvard officials

believed that Tuesday's speech would be given

without incident. When students began to take

seats in the first two rows of the auditorium

which had been cordoned off, he was "put on guard"

that an incident might occur.

"There was some conversation about [an action

by students], but they don't give us their game

plan," Johnson said. "We had no idea what their

intentions were." Johnson said he made the

decision to stop Brown 35 minutes into his address

after students began moving in on the stage.

Meanwhile administrators said that photographs

taken of students involved in Tuesday's

confrontation will be used by Harvard's

disciplinary bodies to investigate the protest.

Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 said

Harvard would use police videotapes and

Conservative Club photographs taken at the

incident to identify student participants.

Past disciplinary action against protesters has

occasionally involved the use of police pictures

to identify students. Photographs were used in the

investigation of the Lowell House incident two

years ago which put 10 students on disciplinary

probation for their involvement in that incident.

The University had stationed two video cameras

on the stage to record any punishable activities

by students. Johnson would not say when the

cameras, which normally do not operate during

speeches, were switched on.

Harvard News Office Director Peter Costa said

he does not know whether the University will seek

to use still photos taken by a News office

photographer during the incident. Costa said he

would comply with Harvard policies on the use of

pictures.

Photographs by the Conservative Club, which

sponsored the Brown speech, may also be used by

the CRR. "If it is necessary to confirm [the

protesters'] identities and my pictures clearly

indicate individuals at the protest, then I would

consider submitting the pictures," said

Conservative Club member Bradley H. Boyer '87 who

took photographs of the attempted blockade.

Another set of photographs taken by the Club's

graduate adviser, first year Law School student M.

Saied Kashani '86, will be used as an "independent

source of evidence" to ensure full disciplinary

action by the University against the students.

"The University has never severely punished

anyone for protesting a Conservative Club speaker

because of a lack of evidence, but if I have it,

they can't ignore it," said Kashani.