Students Protest Attorney General

As Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his classmates posed for a photo at their Harvard Law School reunion Saturday, an odd figure stood behind the photographer. A group of law students, one of whom wore an orange jumpsuit and a black hood, stood at the bottom of the steps of Langdell Hall and shouted to the other alumni to say “torture” or “resign” instead of “cheese.”

Gonzales, a 1982 graduate of the Law School, has come under fire from Democrats and Republicans alike for his role in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys late last year. Several U.S. senators have called for Gonzales’ resignation after he was unable to answer many of their questions in a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee two weeks ago.

Thomas B. Becker, the student who donned the black hood, said that his costume was designed to draw attention to the protest and referred to controversial U.S. detention practices at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

“A visual makes it much more impacting,” Becker said. “We can stand out there and chant, but [the security guards] can’t make us take off an orange jumpsuit and hood.” Gonzales’ security detail kept the protesters about 30 feet from the attorney general throughout their demonstration.

After the picture was taken at Langdell, the protesters followed Gonzales into the library, where he was walking around the top floor, according to Nathan P. Ela, an outgoing board member of the Law School’s Advocates for Human Rights.

When they caught up with him, about 20 students began a chant of “shame” and called on Gonzales to resign.

“He can’t just come on campus and be celebrated as a model alum, because it is clear that what he has done with his HLS law degree is improper and criminal,” Ela said.

Gonzales’ appearance at the Law School was not announced to the public, according to the protesters, who said they only learned of his presence once he had already arrived on campus. They said their demonstration would have been larger had they that he was coming earlier.

“The attorney general is not a popular figure in general,” said Deborah A. Popowski, co-president of the Advocates. “It is pretty mainstream politics on the campus to oppose Alberto Gonzales.”

Michael A. Armini, the Law School’s spokesman, said the school was notified that Gonzales, who did not speak at either the luncheon he attended or the photo shoot, would attend the reunion only on Saturday morning.

Armini also told the Associated Press that the demonstration was so small that some attending the shoot did not even notice the protesters.

—Staff writer Kevin Zhou can be reached at kzhou@fas.harvard.edu.