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The Sally Hemings
Extra

Tom Doran, REVISITED OR:
How I got convicted in the
Charlottesville Courts without
really trying

It-can't-happen-here time is upon us again. This is the time when all those, who in their better daydreams would comfort the afflicted, find that there are people who also insist on afflicting the comforted. They insist on telling everybody that we are still waging the genocidal Indochina war.

And this is the time when those who believe in their daydreams find that people who speak out--who disturb minds in order to educate them--are being arrested for exercising their first amendment rights.

Oh, no. Not at U.Va., where we are not afraid to follow truth, etc., so long as we are free to replace it with bullshit.

Steve Squire was arrested Saturday, April 29, at Scott Stadium on the eventual charge of "disorderly conduct." In this particular case, "disorderly conduct" means that Steve an anti-war poster obstructing the view of a war-show which had not begun and that he also attempted to remove D. Alan Williams' hand from his neck.

What was Williams' hand doing on Steve's neck, twisting the skin between thumb and fingers? You might well ask. Williams had made a very short speech about not blocking people's view, about lowering posters. To demonstrate the approved method of lowering posters, Williams grabbed them out of the protestors' hands almost immediately after he stopped talking. Steve said, "Give me back my signs!" and grabbed for them. Williams retaliated with the Student Affairs Neck Skintwist, a new hold which our researchers have not been able to find in any rulebook.

Williams was eventually persuaded to release his grip, but he did not give back those traitorous anti-war posters. Steve sat down, demanding their return. A member of the "Gorilla Theatre" returned the signs. All Steve got was a policeman (University Security), who arrested him. Like a true, snivelling com-symp, Steve asked what he was being arrested for. His answer was a hammerlock and a trip to city jail. The University Security office refused to tell where Steve had been taken or what he had been charged with (Rea Houchens' orders).

Steve's day in court was no different from those accorded Blacks, poor whites, or U.Va. students. The judge was 30 minutes late due to a private appointment. (What if Steve had dared to be late?) But things went badly for the forces of goodness and light. It seems that none of the prosecution witnesses saw Steve initiate any violence. The witnesses for the defense, on the other hand, all testified that D. Alan Williams had been violent. They all saw him jerk the poster out of Steve's hand and seize Steve's neck without physical provocation. In fact, things were going so badly that during the lunch break, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney John Dezio was sent to the showers, and the Big Gun, himself, Smilin' Jack Camblos, took over. Camblos' remark to Williams after the noon recess was, "I hear this thing has gotten completely fouled up." Williams nodded.

True to his Torquemadian style, Camblos zealously threw himself into paroxysms of holy wrath. An exorcist at work, folks. Some examples: His insistence that the anti-war movement was some centrally-directed monolith. His stated feeling that Steve was receiving outside money "to disrupt the University." His search for some sort of conspiracy.

Undaunted by the lack of substance in his case, Camblos pressed bravely on through the chicken fat. Intimidation of witnesses was no object. Nor was he above testifying himself when he felt the witnesses were not responding according to scripture. In fact, he went so far as to make the law over: D. Alan Williams, said Camblos, has the authority to act "as if he owned the University and it was private property."

Needless to say, the court was undaunted, too. It found Steve Squire guilty. The reasoning went like this. The sign Steve had been holding read, "In order to prevent a bloodbath, we have (killed) (or murdered) 400,000 people." No one was sure whether the word was "killed" or "murdered." BUT: On the ground that the sign might have used the word "murdered," Steve was found guilty of "disorderly conduct." In passing sentence, Judge Wingfield said the word "murder" is a strong word, especially when used in reference to the U.S. military. Hence, it was "calculated" to incite people. Therefore,

(OVER)

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