Ed Hedemann outside Grand Central Station — before his arrest
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

NEW YORK — February 1, 2010. Ed Hedemann didn’t get the apology he felt the Police Department owed him, but he did walk out of court with a victory.

On October 7, 2009, War Resisters League organizer Ed Hedemann was arrested during a protest at Grand Central Station. The occasion was the eighth anniversary of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Hedemann was grabbed after he unfurled a banner that said “Afghanistan.” Hedemann’s banner draped one side of the Vanderbilt Avenue balcony in the terminal — on the opposite side activist Carl Lindskoog unrolled a banner that said “Enough!”

Shortly after the banners were unfurled, police handcuffed Hedemann but allowed the second activist to leave. As MTA police carried Hedemann head first down a set of stairs into the police substation, activist Eric Laursen and several others followed. Police then arrested Laursen for “disorderly conduct.”

Hedemann was also charged with disorderly conduct — and resisting arrest.

Watch A Video Of The Arrests
(Video: Thomas Good / NLN)

Hedemann, a well known nonviolent activist and author, spoke to NLN after the arrest, indicating that he planned to fight the charges as he was not engaged in civil disobedience or doing anything illegal when he was arrested. Hedemann said that he was merely exercising his right to peacefully protest. Previously, MTA police had allowed activists to display banners — but on this occasion they apparently overreacted. Hedemann speculated that the reaction was due to a lack of proper training or inexperience in dealing with protesters. He also said that he felt the police owed him an apology for violating his civil rights.

A few days after the arrests, Laursen received a notice in the mail saying that the District Attorney had dismissed the charges against him.

Hedemann, however, had to appear in court three times before the State acknowledged they weren’t ready to go to trial — a defacto admission that Hedemann had done nothing other than engage in First Amendment protected activity — exercising his right to Free Speech. At his final court apearance, on February 1, Hedemann’s case was dismissed.

Looking back, Hedemann has no regrets.

“I dislike being in jail as much as the next person but I’d rather be locked up for doing what I thought was right than to be free with my mouth shut,” Hedemann said.

“Despite the risks of enduring the ‘hospitality’ of the city, I find it essential to challenge manipulative police directives against handing out leaflets, holding signs, and unfurling banners rather than cave into their ‘crowd control’ demands. It seems that our speech is free as long as no one can hear it,” he said.

Activists in Grand Central Station protesting the U.S. war in Afghanistan
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)