CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) – Student protesters, including one wearing a black hood and an orange jumpsuit, heckled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at Harvard on Saturday, forcing him to leave the law school’s 25th reunion through an emergency door, a witness said.
Gonzales was at the university to deliver a lunchtime speech, a visit that was unannounced to students. Word, however, spread quickly after his security detail was spotted.
Students gathered around as Gonzales joined fellow classmates for a reunion picture. “When the photographer was getting everybody set up and having people say ‘cheese,’ the protesters yelled: ‘say torture, instead,’ ‘resign’ and ‘I don’t recall,”‘ said Nate Ela, a third-year student who witnessed the incident.
Harvard Law School spokesman Mike Armini said the impromptu protest was so small that some of those attending the photo shoot did not even notice it.
The determined protesters followed Gonzales into the law school’s library, chanting “shame” and “resign” before the security detail took the beleaguered attorney general to his motorcade through an emergency basement exit, Ela said.
Gonzales is struggling to resist pressure to resign even as lawmakers question whether he could effectively run the Justice Department amid the controversy over the firings of eight prosecutors.
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