Late Wednesday evening, three Rutgers University students in New Brunswick, NJ were detained by university police for chalking the words “Ron Paul” along with a peace sign on a brick wall on College Avenue. Four university police officers including two sergeants held and searched the students for approximately thirty minutes, while hundreds of students witnessed the debacle. Initially, one officer questioned the students, while backup quickly arrived.
Emily Focarino, a Rutgers junior who was waiting for her bus across the street described the absurdity of the incident, “They were just chalking a peace sign and four police cars came out of nowhere for something that’ll be gone the next time it rains.”
Using white Crayola chalk, the libertarians wanted to garner attention for their Presidential candidate of choice and on Wednesday night, they accomplished just that. Although the students were released without charges and citations, they may face fines or disciplinary action from the university.
Another student, Amit Patel defended their rights, “Agree or disagree with it, they have every right to chalk on public property.”
The students, who didn’t want their names publicized yet said that they were affiliated with the Rutgers Young Americans for Liberty and Rutgers Libertarians campus groups. Police demanded their college IDs, ran their names through a database, and asked to search their backpacks. Adamant about his free speech rights, one of the chalkers added that his group would construct a free speech wall in the coming weeks to protest what he described as “a blatant violation of free speech.”
The laughable Rutgers “chalking guidelines” have 11 rules–the first three are as follows,
1. Chalking requests must be submitted in writing five days prior to actual chalking.
2. Complete a Chalking Request form and deliver to the Student Involvement Office at 613
George Street, in the Student Activities Center.
3. Contact person must be present at the chalking and have a copy of the form with them.
Organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union have successfully challenged similar, unconstitutional guidelines at many colleges recently and according to The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, this is just one of many civil liberties violations that have occurred at Rutgers University. This incident will only further blight the damaged brand of Rutgers University as it oddly enough coincides with the first day of the Tyler Clementi trial and immediately after the revelations of the NYPD spying on student groups.
Was the officer afraid of getting hit with a piece of chalk by people promoting peace signs? lol 
