For Recruiters, Antiwar Protests Raise Perils on the Home Front
Published: February 21, 2005
New York Times
EAST ORANGE, N.J. - The five United States Army recruiters who work from a storefront office here arrived on the morning of Feb. 5 to discover that a plate-glass window above the main entrance had been shattered, along with a window in the Navy office next door.
By noon, about 35 protesters were marching out front with antiwar placards, condemning the American invasion of Iraq and the recruiters' efforts to enlist new soldiers.
The group's leader, Lawrence Hamm, a New Jersey civil rights activist, said the protesters had nothing to do with the broken windows, and he condemned any violence against the recruiters. The police have not found any evidence of a political motive.
But for the men on the other side of the broken glass, and recruiters throughout the New York area, the vandalism here underscored what they say are the risks of signing up young people for the military during a war that has polarized the American public.
The shattering of windows here followed two similar incidents in New York City and a third in the Midwest that week. On Jan. 31, authorities said, recruiters at a station near the Flatiron section of Manhattan reported that a door had been cracked, and that anarchist symbols had been scrawled in red paint on the building.
That same day, before dawn, the police arrested a 19-year-old Manhattan College junior who they said threw a burning rag into an Army recruiting station that was closed for the night in the Parkchester section of the Bronx, and jammed the door locks with powerful glue. He was caught carrying a handwritten note declaring that a "wave of violence" would occur throughout the Northeast on Jan. 31, aimed at the "military industrial complex" in response to American military actions, the police said.
A day later in Toledo, Ohio, a bucket of manure was thrown at the window of a recruiting station that housed all four branches of the military, the police said, and antiwar obscenities were scrawled on a nearby wall.
Since the beginning of 2003, there have also been more than a dozen other often violent incidents aimed at military recruiters or property throughout the country, according to the police, recruiters and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In a few cases, vehicles have been set on fire; in others, blood has been thrown through windows. Spokespeople for the armed services have downplayed the incidents even as some recruiters have increased security at their stations.
Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, Ky., said that no recruiters had been hurt and that most of the nation's nearly 1,700 Army recruiting stations had not been harmed or attacked.
"We're aware that there are some instances of damage to stations, and we're keeping an eye on this," he said. "But it is not something that has us overly concerned."
Several recruiters in the field, however, said that they remained on edge. On Jan. 20, the day of President Bush's inaugural, several hundred students at Seattle Central Community College surrounded two Army recruiters on campus, shouting insults and hurling water bottles until the recruiters were escorted away by campus security. The protest was covered by The Army Times, and several recruiters said that they feared such situations might become more common.
Sgt. First Class William C. Howard, a recruiter here in East Orange, said that the antiwar sentiment seemed to have grown more aggressive. Though recruiters are still frequently thanked for their service, he said, the insults, dirty looks and other signs of discontent seem to be increasing.
"Within last year, the whole security issue has become more of a concern with me," he said. "I've had people throwing objects at me when I was driving by. I've had people who as soon as they see me on the street, they cross to the other side. Those situations never occurred before, and it makes me wonder how far is this all going to go."
The vandalism so far has ranged from broken windows and antiwar graffiti or Nazi symbols to attempted arson with Molotov cocktails, like one tossed into an Army station in Vestal, N.Y., near Binghamton, on April 9, 2003.
Some of the most costly vandalism has been aimed at vehicles: three cars used by recruiters in Silver Spring, Md., were set on fire during the first week of December, according to military officials; and on March 28, 2003, in Montgomery, Ala., vandals painted antiwar graffiti on five Navy vehicles, and set a large Navy truck ablaze.
The police in Montgomery, East Orange and several other communities affected by the defacement and destruction said that the vandalism did not seem to be part of a coordinated national plan. In a few cases, there have been arrests. Brendan Walsh, 20, described by the police as an antiwar activist, pleaded guilty to the Vestal vandalism in 2003 and was sentenced on Feb. 11 to five years in federal prison.
David Segal, who grew up in Litchfield, Conn., and was listed as a government major by Manhattan College in the Bronx before his arrest, was found by the police near the damaged Parkchester station immediately after the incident. He was wearing rubber gloves, according to the complaint filed in the case, and carrying a backpack with glue and maps locating the recruiting station. He was charged with destroying government property and released on Feb. 1 after posting $15,000 in cash bail. Manhattan College says he is no longer enrolled.
Attempts to reach Mr. Segal in Litchfield were unsuccessful, and his lawyer did not return several calls.
A spokesman for the F.B.I. in New York, James Margolin, said the agency was trying to determine whether Mr. Segal had accomplices. He said that the agency was not aware of any related incidents that occurred outside the New York area on Jan. 31, as the handwritten note suggested, and that there was no evidence of an ongoing effort aimed at recruiters or recruiting stations.
Nonetheless, in response to the vandalism and other incidents, several Army station commanders in the New York area said that they had increased security, mainly by requiring that all recruiters travel in pairs. In a two-year-old effort to make stations safer, the Air Force Recruiting Service has also begun nationwide security upgrades, adding measures like caller ID and darker blinds on station windows. Senior Master Sgt. Ellen Schirmer, a spokeswoman for the Air Force Recruiting Service's headquarters in San Antonio, Tex., said that 76 of New York State's 79 Air Force recruiting locations had completed the upgrade.
Some recruiters said the extra precautions were necessary to ensure safety in and out of the office.
Staff Sgt. Amedeo Trotta, commander of the Army recruiting station in Vestal, said that in addition to the Molotov cocktail attack, he was threatened last year by a man with a two-by-four while talking to recruiters near Ithaca College. A recruiter in his office, he said, was also sucker-punched while pumping gas about eight months ago.
"Our own people are trying to fight us," he said. "And there's nothing we can do about what they're complaining about."
Many recruiters said that they were accustomed to dissent, and that the vandalism did not surprise them. "You will always have a certain percentage of people who will want to show their displeasure with policies in a way that is outside the political system," said Maj. Dave Griesmer, a spokesman for the Marine Corps Recruiting Command in Quantico, Va. "It's no different than it might be if people were unhappy with a business or other organization."
But for some of the men and women working to refill the military ranks, the broken glass, the epithets and fires remain difficult to fathom.
"We feel like we're doing something for the people, like we're doing something good," said Staff Sgt. Stephen E. Williams, the station commander in East Orange. "It's hard to understand why they would target us."
.
No comments:
Post a Comment