It’s February 8, 1990. The U of I Board of Trustees are meeting. The Coalition Against State Sponsored Terrorism (CASST) is protesting against CIA recruitment on campus. We have members inside the meeting planning to disrupt, but not get arrested. We have members outside, in the halls of the first floor of the Illini Union. The inside protestors leave. We are marching in a circle. A cop comes up to me (“group leader” and suspect, according to the police report). He is trying to tell me no signs are allowed in the Union. I say there is no such rule. We go back and forth and I can tell I have irritated him. I signal for the rest of us to leave and we head out the door to go outside while chanting. They f***ing grab the last three people in line and arrest them. Later, they try and justify their actions by citing the “no picketing” rule, which we later argue is about impeding access to the building, which the dozen or so of us were not doing.
Professor Belden Fields is outraged. The next day he takes a hand-made sign that says “NO CIA recruiting on campus. They try and pull the same bulls*** on Belden, but they refuse to arrest him. This makes Belden furious. I think he went back one or two more times before they finally arrested him.
I don’t recall if the charges on the students and community members were dropped or not. I think they dropped the charges on Belden.
This is just one small action sample of what kind of person Belden was. He was not going to let the U of I bully us for protesting.
Gonna miss ya Belden. R.I.P.
76 total views, 4 views today