University of Virginia Library

ACLU Executive Director Calls
May 11 Police Action 'Unjustified'

Lauren Selden, executive director of
the American Civil Liberties Union of
Virginia, has condemned the Saturday
morning actions of police at the University.

In a statement issued May 11, Mr.
Selden stated: "Our own survey of the
situation, coupled with the testimony of
on-the-scene ACLU observers, forces us
to conclude that the arrest of 68 people
in the early hours of Saturday morning,
May 9th, was totally unjustified and
resents a gross abuse of the police
power.

"We are fully aware that the events of
Saturday morning were preceded by
several days of unrest and tension," he
conceded, but "the events of Saturday
morning were, by the testimony of President
Shannon, considerably less inflammatory and
provocative.

"No violence preceded the arrests; little, if
any, police warning was given to disperse," the
statement continued. "Many of those arrested
were dragged from their rooms as the police
combed the area in an apparent effort to arrest
for the sheer exercise of power. The police bust
was nothing less than an assault against the system of law itself.

"The subsequent dropping of charges against
most of those arrested attests to the excessive
zeal with which the police went about their
task."

Mr. Selden also challenged the use of the
state Riot Act, questioning its constitutionality,
and pointing out that the usual conditions of a
riot did not exist at the time it was invoked.

He stated that the ACLU would offer
counsel to any students in need of it, and
added, "In coming days we will explore the
possibility of affirmative litigation on behalf of
members of the University community whose
rights were so dramatically violated by the
deplorable and unrestrained exercise of police
power."

"Student calls for repression by national
leaders, unrestrained use of power, news media
reference to student protest dissidents,
and the labeling of peaceful groups as mobs,"
he concluded, "contribute only to a climate of
fear."