By
Eric Swedlund
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Former SAS member arrested during nonviolent demonstration against police brutality
John Hardenbergh walked up the steps of the downtown Los Angeles Rampart Police Station at noon last Tuesday, raised his fist in the air and sat down.
Three days later, he was released from jail, having plead to one of four charges on which he was arrested.
Hardenbergh, who graduated from the UA in May with degrees in political science and Middle Eastern studies, was one of 38 people arrested during a nonviolent protest against police brutality during the Democratic National Convention.
Initially arrested on charges of trespassing, obstruction of a business, resisting arrest and refusal to disperse, Hardenbergh's sentence was 72-hours time served, a $400 fine and a year of probation after he pleaded to the trespassing charge.
"We marched up to the steps, arm in arm, fists raised in solidarity," Hardenbergh said. "We also had gags in our mouths to symbolize two things. One was the way victims of police brutality were silenced and we also wanted to make clear that while we were marching in solidarity with these people, we didn't claim to speak for them. It was very solemn."
Hardenbergh, who was an active member of Students Against Sweatshops for two years while a UA student, said about 1,000 people marched to the Rampart Station. There, Hardenbergh sat down in a nonviolent protest.
"The officer told us to disperse, I didn't respond," he said. "He took that as no, and one by one they carted us off."
Hardenbergh's bail was set at $2,500, and he stayed in jail until Saturday noon.
"Jail really really sucks. The whole process is designed to make you feel like an animal, to make you feel less than human," Hardenbergh said. "That being said, what we went through in the days I was there - people are still in jail right now - is nothing compared to the daily harassment that people go through in communities of color in Los Angeles."
Hardenbergh said his experience in jail added to the force of his demonstration.
"It was very powerful knowing that people go to jail every day for bullshit, but here I am, white and relatively privileged, making a decision to stand in solidarity with the people who are oppressed by these forces," he said. "I did break the law, there's no way getting around it. I knew when I walked up on those steps and refused to disperse that I was going to get arrested and that these things do carry consequences.
"Being in jail really crystallized a lot of things in my mind and focused them into a larger critique."
Hardenbergh said that even though he has left school, he stays active with the same causes that brought him into activism the in the first place.
"Just because I graduated doesn't mean these things are over," he said.
