This activist Yalie committed what would be a crime in China when he wrote pro-democracy slogans in chalk in a public space. In new Haven, he didn’t get arrested. He was told to stop.
The student, senior Thomas Frampton, said he was with a group of eight to ten activists on Yale’s Beinecke Plaza Thursday night around 11 a.m. In preparation for Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to New Haven, they wrote slogans like “Teach Democracy” and “Democracy = Free Speech” on Beinecke Plaza, a concourse off Wall Street near College.
At that point a Yale police officer “grabbed” Frampton and told him to leave the area or he’d be arrested, said Frampton, whose 15 minutes of fame came during the 2004 Republican convention when he snuck into an area where he could confront Vice-President Dick Cheney.
Yale spokeswoman Gila Reinstein confirmed the incident occurred. She said police told the students the area had been closed off to the public for security reasons in advance of Hu’s visit. The cops told the kids the messages would disappear in the morning, anyway, when the plaza was to be washed.
