- A Fayetteville man was arrested for criminal trespass
Saturday at the
- Northwest Arkansas Mall when he and other members of
a University of
- Arkansas student group attempted to enter the facility
wearing T-shirts
- emblazoned with antiwar slogans.
-
- Daniel Vaught, 22, a member of the university's Progressive
Student
- Association, said he tried to enter the mall's north
entrance after he and
- his fellow PSA members had been demonstrating around
Fayetteville. "Some of
- us had been demonstrating down on College and Dickson,"
Vaught said. "We
- just went to the mall for some lunch, but security wouldn't
let us in."
-
- The group members ' shirts bore the slogans "Support
the troops, not war or
- Bu $ h." "They met us at the curb and said
we weren't welcome," he said.
- "They told us our shirts were the reason."
-
- Vaught said mall security officers quickly called the
Fayetteville Police
- Department at about 2 p.m.
-
- A spokesperson for mall security said Sunday his office
could not comment on
- the matter.
-
- When officers arrived, Vaught stepped forward as the
group's spokesperson,
- said PSA member Nik Robbins, 24. "They wanted to
arrest someone and they
- picked out Vaught because they perceived him as the ringleader,"
Robbins
- said.
-
- Vaught said the group was inspired by the recent case
of a New York lawyer
- who was arrested at Crossgates Mall in Albany after refusing
to remove a
- T-shirt bearing the slogan "Peace on earth"
on the front and "Give peace a
- chance" on the back. He had purchased the shirt
at the mall. The charges
- were later dropped.
-
- Vaught said he it's the war he opposes, not those fighting
it. "We support
- the troops," he said. "We just want them to
come home."
-
-
- http://www.nwarktimes.com/times/story_searchresults.php?storyid=105645
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