STATEMENT OF SUPPORT OF STUDENTS ATTACKED BY COPS

Statement of Support to CUNY Students Attacked and Arrested in Peaceful Protests Against Ex-Gen. David Petraeus

On September 18, 2013, a press release issued by the Ad Hoc Committee Against the Militarization of CUNY stated: "Six students were arrested in a brutal, unprovoked police attack during a peaceful protest by the City University of New York's students and faculty against CUNY's appointment of former CIA chief ex-General David Petraeus.  Students were punched, slammed against vehicles and against the pavement by police captains and officers, after the NYPD forced them off the pavement and onto the street."

As graduate students and educators of CUNY, we express our outrage at the violent and unprovoked actions by the NYPD against CUNY students peacefully protesting the appointment of war criminal David Petraeus as a lecturer at the Macaulay Honors College.  We deplore the use of violence and brutal tactics against CUNY students and faculty who were protesting outside the college.  It is unacceptable for the university to allow the police to violently arrest students.

We emphatically support the efforts of these CUNY students to resist the attempts by the U.S. government and the CUNY administration to turn the university into an infamous "war college" with the appointment of Petraeus.  Petraeus is responsible for countless deaths and innumerable destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan as a war commander and chief of the CIA.  Although resigning from his position as CIA director in November, Petraeus has continued his involvement in U.S. foreign policy.  Most recently Petraeus has called on Congress to back a military strike on Syria, stating "failure of Congress to approve the president's request would have serious ramifications not just in the Mideast but around the world."  His current roles as "adjunct" lecturer at CUNY and professor at USC speak to the increasing U.S. military and state security involvement within higher education.

We call on CUNY to terminate Petraeus' appointment and to ask for the charges against these students to be dropped immediately.

Signed,

1. Helen Panagiotopoulos (PhD student, Cultural Anthropology, Graduate Center)
2. Alexandra Schindler (PhD student, Cultural Anthropology, Graduate Center)
3. Cihan Tekay (PhD student, Cultural Anthropology, Graduate Center)
4. Danya Al-Saleh (PhD student, Anthropology, Graduate Center)
5. Zeynep Oguz (PhD student, Cultural Anthropology, Graduate Center)
6. Matthew Chrisler (PhD student, Cultural Anthropology, Graduate Center)
7. Jonathan Shannon (Associate Professor, Anthropology, Hunter College and Graduate Center)
8. Susan Buck-Morss (Distinguished Professor, Political Science, Graduate Center)
9. Ammiel Alcalay (Professor, Queens College and Graduate Center)
10. Peter Ranis (Professor Emeritus, Graduate Center)
11. Jacqueline Brown (Associate Professor, Anthropology, Hunter College)
12. Hester Eisenstein (Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies, Queens College, Graduate Center)
13. Sujatha Fernandes (Acting Associate Director, Center for Place, Culture, and Politics, Associate Professor, Sociology, Queens College, Graduate Center)
14. Julie Skurski (Distinguished Lecturer, Anthropology, Graduate Center)
15. Rosalind Petchesky (Distinguished Professor of Political Science Hunter College, Graduate Center)
16. Jason Schulman (PhD, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Political Science, Lehman College)
17. Gary Wilder (Assoc. Professor, Anthropology Ph.D. Program, CUNY Graduate Center)
18. Michael Taussig (Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University)
19. Anthony C. Alessandrini (Associate Professor of English, Kingsborough Community College)
20. Ozlem Ozkan (Associate Professor, Kocaeli University)
21. Saadia Toor (Associate Professor, Dept of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work, College of Staten Island)
22. Renate Bridenthal (Professor, History, Brooklyn College)
23. Mairead Maguire (Nobel Peace Laureate, 1976)
24. Sevda Alankus (Professor, Kocaeli University, Turkey)
25. Onur Hamzaoglu (Professor, Kocaeli University, Turkey)
26. James Schamus (Professor, School of the Arts, Columbia University)
27. Naomi Braine (Associate Professor, Sociology Dept, Brooklyn College)
28. Alyson M. Cole (Associate Professor, Political Science Department & Women’s Studies Certificate Program, Queens College & The Graduate Center)
29. Katherine Wilson (Adjunct Professor, Hunter College)
30. Mollie Steward (Associate Professor Mathematics, retired, Cumberland Co. College, Vineland, NJ)
31. Hanan Sabea (Associate Professor, Anthropology, American University in Cairo)
32. Dr. Eileen Moran (Queens College retiree, Hunter and Graduate Center alumna)
33. Dr. Lara Margaret Beaty (Associate Professor, Psychology, LaGuardia Community College)
34. Ayfer Bartu Candan (Associate Professor, Anthropology, Bogazici University, Istanbul)
35. Jaime Taylor (Assistant Adjunct Professor of Anthropology Hunter College, CUNY)
36. Rupal Oza (Director, The Women and Gender Studies Program Hunter College, CUNY)
37. Kerry Ojakian (Assistant Professor, Bronx Community College Dept. of Math)
38. Christine Ward Gailey (Professor, Anthropology and Women Studies, UC Riverside)
39. Katherine Verdery, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center
40. Setha Low, Professor, Graduate Center, CUNY  ETC. ETC. ETC.