On Wednesday, August 15 about 25 protestors gathered outside the Eberhard Center at Grand Valley State University’s downtown Grand Rapids campus to send a message to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that he should resign from his position. People came with numerous signs, which read “Fire Gonzales,” “End Government Spying,” and “Alberto, your cell in Nuremberg is ready.”
Police presence was visible, with officers on foot and in cars. A police dog was used to check vehicles that were near the entrance before Gonzales arrived in a motorcade. When protestors attempted to stand near the entrance to the building, campus security told them that they needed to be near the road as this was “private property.” When asked how that could be, since this is a public university, the security people simply said, “I don’t want to argue with you. This is a public university, but it’s private property.”
Gonzales was in town to speak at a conference luncheon. The conference was put on by the US Attorney’s office and the School of Criminal Justice at GVSU. As conference attendees were walking into the building they were encouraged by protestors to turn their backs to Gonzales during his talk or to tell him to resign.
Afterwards, protest organizers encouraged people to sign the online petition to impeach Gonzales. Other actions that were suggested were to contact the School of Criminal Justice (crawleyw@gvsu.edu) at GVSU who agreed to host Gonzales, the Mayor of Grand Rapids (gheartwe@grcity.us), and the Grand Rapids’ Police Chief (harry.dolan@grcity.us) to find out how someone who agrees with spying on US citizens and disregarding the Geneva Convention’s position on torture could be allowed to come to this community.
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