LSU Students for a Democratic Society statement on the unjust arrest of 7 members by LSU PD

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following October 5 statement by LSU Students for a Democratic Society.

On Wednesday, October 1st, LSU Students for a Democratic Society attended the second meeting of the LSU Presidential Search Committee to protest the corrupt and undemocratic presidential search process. Several SDS members gave public comments to voice their concerns and demands to the committee. After going over her allotted time by a mere 10 seconds, Gabriela Juarez was violently dragged out of the building by LSU PD officers Thomas Schiebe and Dayton Landry without warning, resulting in extensive bruising. LSU’s Todd Woodward stated that she was given lawful orders, but this was a lie. She was then arrested and placed in a police car.

Other SDS members demanded her release and stood in front of the police car as they linked arms. Six more protestors were then arrested as well—SDS President Margo Wilson, SDS Vice President Ziad Eissa, SDS Treasurer Carson Wall, and members Scott Sonnier, Enola Guyer, and Ryan Spalt. All seven were taken to the LSU PD station.

While in custody, they overheard officers say, “We’ve got to figure out what we’re going to charge these kids with,” AFTER they had already been arrested. Some officers were overheard using ChatGPT to understand the charges they were writing on the summons. After multiple hours, all but Juarez were released. Juarez was instead transferred to the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, where she was held until nearly 2 AM the next morning, totaling a detainment of over 13 hours. Juarez was released only after pressure was placed upon the prison through constant phone calls from the students demanding her release. Additionally, Juarez faced relentless transphobia throughout the entire booking process and even after being released, Juarez has been made a target for violent transphobia through online comments and harassment.

All seven members face at least 2 misdemeanor charges, with one having received 3. These charges include simple obstruction of a highway of commerce 14:97, resisting an officer 14:108, and interference with an educational process 14:329.5. No one was charged with disturbing the peace 14:103, despite that being what the officers arresting Juarez stated she was being charged with. This inconsistency of charges is confounding, considering the member who received 3 charges was not sent to prison like Juarez. It is clear Juarez was only booked due to her ethnicity, gender identity, and prior doxxing on the LAGOP facebook.

LSU Board of Supervisors Chairman and Search Committee Chairman Scott Ballard stated he hopes the students arrested aren’t held criminally accountable, but admitted to being the one who requested LSUPD’s presence at the meeting. Trey Jones, LSU’s attorney, admitted in a meeting that search committee members had worked out an agreement with LSUPD prior to the arrests. Trey Jones explained that it was “constitutionally legal” for the search committee to request our removal from the building. LSUPD and the search committee both understood prior to the arrests that all the committee would have to do is give the police the wave, and they would remove us.

Given that there was a plan in place beforehand, these arrests highlight the lengths LSU administrators are willing to go to crush any dissent. Instead of waiting for Juarez to finish her comment, LSU chose to escalate the situation and have her arrested. The fact that this agreement was worked out beforehand tells SDS that our No MAGA President campaign is clearly threatening their agenda.

One LSU administrator even admitted that now we have a “constitutional issue to piggyback off of,” and LSU’s Police Chief said he thought Wednesday’s actions were regrettable. LSU may not understand why their actions were wrong, but it is clear they regret their actions due to the negative publicity. Additionally, it has ultimately brought more attention to the corruption taking place in the process of hiring LSU’s next president. They know the students are not intimidated by them, and SDS has every intention of seeing our ‘No MAGA President’ campaign through.

SDS demands a public apology from LSU for these unjust arrests, but more importantly, we demand ‘No MAGA President’ and that the DA doesn’t file any charges!

DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN!

#StudentMovement #SDS #InJusticeSystem #PoliticalRepression