Posted on April 17, 2015

BAMN Protesters Are Arrested After Storming U-M Regents Meeting

Jeremy Allen, MLive, April 16, 2015

Eight protesters, including one possible student, were arrested during the University of Michigan Board of Regents meeting Thursday afternoon after more than 20 members of the pro-affirmative action group By Any Means Necessary, known as BAMN, violently rushed through a table of barricades with chants of “open it up or we’ll shut it down.”

Seconds after University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel called order to the Board of Regents, the protesters rose from their seats and bulldozed through a line of tables that separates members of the audience from the president, regents and other U-M officials.

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Ultimately, several of the protesters were forced to the ground–some fell and some were taken to the ground by the officers on hand–and arrests were made.

It was the second time in the last several months that a U-M meeting was disrupted. In November, roughly 25 members of BAMN broke out with chants of “Minority enrollment’s been going down, open it up or we’ll shut it down” and “We don’t need another committee, open it up to Detroit city.”

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The protesters said they were calling for the university to open its doors to more minority students, particularly through on-site admissions at inner-city high schools.

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