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Rally ends in melt down
February 12, 2009 11:30 PM
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Two people were arrested Wednesday afternoon during a confrontation between the College Republicans and Palestinian students in front of the Cesar Chavez Student Center. Jeremy Stern, 19, of San Francisco and Muhammad Abdullah, 25, of Mira Loma were charged with battery to a police officer, resisting arrest and petty theft, according to university spokeswoman Ellen Griffin. The demonstration started around noon when members of the College Republicans were having an anti-Hamas event and trying to get students to sign a petition in opposition to Hamas. Soon, around 50 people surrounded the tent that the student organization had set up. "I feel it's a terrible thing to take it out on a religion. Sad on the College Republican to do something like this and sad the university is allowing this as a freedom of speech and not a hate speech," said Tayler Mehit, a member of the Student Against War, who was present at the demonstration. At one point, James Kincaid, president of the College Republicans, stepped on a Hamas flag. An unidentified person grabbed the table that was in front of the tent and flipped it over and another student stepped over and grabbed Leigh Wolf, the former president of the student organization. The campus police, who were informed of the demonstration before hand, were nearby and immediately separated both parties. Suddenly shouts of "Free Free Palestine" broke among the crowd. "I don't care about being respectful. It's free speech...," said Trent Downes, a member of the organization, during the event. Many Palestinian students who were involved in this event wanted to be remain anonymous because it is frowned upon to lash out against the government if they ever wanted to return to Palestine.
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PHOTO
 A man who referred to himself as K. Real was taken into custody by SF State Police after an altercation during a protest in Malcom X Plaza on Wednesday afternoon.
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COMMENTS
Bill said February 12, 2009 3:45 PM
wow. anonymous said February 13, 2009 5:08 PM
College Republicans did NOT use the Hamas flag. This would have not turned into a spectacle of "free speech" (Leigh Wolf's favorite phrase when caught being the racist he is) if the College Republicans used the official Hamas flag. Hamas has a completely different flag. The College Republicans used a green board that had the Shahada on it. It reads "There is no God but God, Muhammad is the Messenger of God." The Shahada is the first declaration you must accept in order to become a Muslim. I constantly heard James Kincaid screaming "Hamas is terrorist organization." The College Republicans need to look into their history books and find out that Hamas was initially supported by the U.S. and Israel as a way to counter Fatah's supporters. They should rename themselves The College Oreilly's because like their idle, they give a bad name to real Republicans who know their history and the implications of such racists acts.
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I was there. What I heard was the College Republicans had a flag of Hamas, and they threw a shoe at it. The flag of Hamas says something about Allah. Throwing a shoe at it was considered very disrespectful to Islam. A lot of students wanted the flag taken down.