More than a dozen Capitol protesters arrested when rally sparks sit-in

By Peter Luke

LANSING — More than a dozen protesters were arrested Wednesday evening, including five who were staging a sit-in, for trespassing for refusing to leave the Capitol after the building’s scheduled 5:30 p.m. closing.

Another five were arrested for attempting to break through a police barrier set up around the Capitol’s first-floor rotunda. Another was charged with a felony for obstructing a police officer.

Two others were loaded into an Ingham County Sheriff’s Department patrol car, part of a group of about four dozen protesters who were flanking a sheriff’s van as it departed the north side of the building to ferry some of the protesters to jail.

The arrests followed what was an otherwise uneventful gathering of some 3,000 union members protesting a range of policies launched by Gov. Rick Snyder and legislative Republicans.

After five protesters were arrested for leaving the rotunda area at about 6 p.m., presumably to let more protesters into the closed building, another five staged a formal sit-in that lasted for more than an hour. Michigan State Police Capt. Gary Nix gave the five the option to leave by 7:40 p.m. After discussing their options among themselves, they declined the offer and were taken into custody 10 minutes later.
You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do and I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do, but I’m not staying here all night,” Nix told the five shortly before they were led downstairs to the Capitol’s ground floor by officers without incident.

The five weren’t union members, but college students who said they were exercising their right to “peacefully assemble.”

Sitting on the glass floor in the rotunda, Jonathan Jones, a 20-year-old student at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, said “We have the right to peacefully assemble. If we don’t stand up for those rights, we’ll eventually lose them all. I’m here standing up for what I believe in.”

Michael Shallal, a 23-year-old student at Wayne State University, said he was protesting the “corporate takeover of Michigan.”

Max Koopsen, a 19-year-old Western Michigan University student, said he was “going to stay and fight even if it means going to jail.”

As they were being taken to jail in the police van, about four dozen young people chanted “Let them go” and flanked the vehicle as it was leaving the Capitol parking lot. Two of them got into a scuffle with police and were taken to jail as well.

Nix said those arrested had a “different agenda” than the thousands who attended the rally on the Capitol lawn that began at noon.

“It was completely a peaceful day and remained that way until we had people try to break through our police line,” Nix said.

Jones said his father had urged him to leave before being arrested and apparently wasn’t pleased his son disregarded the advice.

“My dad is going to be so mad at me,” he said. “It won’t be the first time and it won’t be the last. He asked me if I could afford (bail). I’m spending the night in jail. If I don’t have moral integrity, what do I have?”



More than a dozen Capitol protesters arrested when rally sparks sit-in | MLive.com