The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 30, 1985-- Page 5
Docious Godfrey, an RC junior, studies in front of Pursell's office to pass the time during the six-hour sit-in.
Pursell
protest
arrests
leads
to
Photos by Dan Habib
Carey Garlick, an LSA senior, sits beside a Pittsfield police
officer minutes before the arrests.
(Left) Sgt. Anthony Latarski, right, and an unidentified Pittsfield
Township police officer drag Gary Rothberger, an attorney, to the
police van. (Above) Rothberger stands in the crammed police bus en
route to the Pittsfield police station.
More than 100 people last Monday stormed
the Ann Arbor office of Republican
Congressman Carl Pursell to voice their op-
position to his support of U.S. military and
economic assistance to Central America.
The group - which included students,
clergymen, attorneys, a professor - didn't
find Pursell. He was in town, his aides said,
but didn't want to meet with them.
Undaunted, they sat down, refusing to
move.
From wall to wall, throughout the
congressman's three offices, in the hall, and
outside the building, the sea of protesters
chanted, read poetry aloud, and many,
having recently returned from Central
America, shared-their experiences with the
other protesters.
In June, Pursell voted for a $27 million aid
"The only difference between the wars
we're fighting in Central America and Viet-
nam is that our boys aren't coming home in
boxes," said ' Jim Lewis, pastor of the
Episcopal church of the Incarnation. Lewis
was also arrested.
Six hours later, at 4:55 p.m., police officers
told the protesters they were trespassing and
would be arrested unless they left the
premises. In the twenty-five minutes that
followed, all but 47 of the protesters left. Then
the police returned, and handcuffed those
remaining, along with a Daily photographer,
and led the group away in paddy wagons.
Many participated in the sit-in to draw the
attention of the press, saying the general
public is unaware of the situation in Central
America
"It's my experience that the information
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