By Ruth Schubert, Staff Reporter
One day after a student and faculty demonstration against proposed budget cuts turned violent in front of City Hall, protectors vowed to continue fighting for what they believe is their constitutional right to a public education.
"Of course there are always difficulties, but I think it was a good demonstration," said Anthony Lyles, the student body president at Bronx Community College and a member of the CUNY Coalition Against the Cuts, the group that organized the rally.
The demonstrations and sit-ins will continue this week, Lyles said, beginning with a mid-day rally today on the steps of the State Capitol in Albany. "It's not going to die with yesterday," Lyles said last Friday. "I think yesterday just revitalized us."
College and high school students from the borough joined thousands of other demonstrators to protest an anticipated $448 million reduction in city and state university funding as well as cuts proposed to help close a $690 million gap in the city schools budget.
Police arrested 61 protesters, including six minors, and forced thousands of others from City Hall Park. Nine officers and five protesters were injured as the police dispersed the crowd of students, faculty and supporters, police said.
Police estimated attendance at 8,000; organizers said over 20,000 people were there.
Reacting to the rally at an afternoon press conference, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said, "They're supposed to be in class today, and they're not. And I think you have a right to disagree with the wisdom of teachers that encourage them to come out here and protest as opposed to stay in class and learn."
City Councilman Jose Rivera, a Democrat from Morrisania, countered: "Does anyone have to remind this mayor of the demonstration he led of 10,000 cops a few years ago?" Giuliani gave a vitriolic speech before a group of protesting police officers in 1992.
At about 3 p.m., hundreds of helmeted police started to spray Mace and handcuff jeering demonstrators who were trying to break through barricades and march down Broadway.
"There was a point where the group was shouting,`We have a right to cross the streets,'" said Mark Benerofe, 25, a social studies teacher at Manhattan's High School for Health Professions and Human Services. The police "were there with their billy clubs and riot gear, and it just sort of erupted."
More than a half hour after being sprayed with Mace, Benerofe's eyes were still bloodshot and his skin [still] red and irritated.
Before the confrontation escalated, a group of students from Alfred E. Smith High School on East 151st Street had gathered on the east side of the park.
"We're just here to be heard," said Edwin G. Medina, 18, a senior. "We're not here for violence."
Medina said over 600 of his fellow students attended the protest, despite warnings from their principal to not cut class.
"I want to go to college," said Victor Santiago, a 19-year-old student from Fordham who attends Aviation High School in Queens. "Coming from the South Bronx, I don't have a lot of money. My dream is going down the tubes."