Dreamers Protest Obama’s Visit to Bronx
By David Greene
BRONX, NEW YORK, MAY 6- Nearly 50 students of Herbert H. Lehman College gathered on school grounds to demonstrate against President Barack Obama's historic visit to the Bedford Park school.
Members of the Lehman College "Dream Team" hastily organized the protest to coincide with Obama's little-publicized visit to the school on Monday, May 4.
Many of the student demonstrators chanted slogans like, "Obama, Obama what do you say, how many kids have you deported today," upset that the current administration has not worked out a deal with Congress on immigration.
Christian Beruerio, a member of the Lehman College Dream Team which boasts 50 members at CUNY school's around the state, told the crowd, "I supported Obama thinking that Obama was going to represent the interests of people here in the Bronx" Beruerio continued, "I quickly found out that Obama was no better than Bush. The conditions in which I lived in were no different. I was still unemployed, there was no access to jobs and I'm still struggling to go to school in 2008 and I'm still struggling now working seven-days a week and I still can't go to school."
Fellow Dream Team member Tafadar Sourov fumed, "Obama dishes out billions of dollars to Israel to fuel that settler-colonial genocide state, meanwhile people in Detroit can't even get water."
"People continue to be killed," Sourov continued, "throughout the U.S by police. Black people continue to be killed every 28 hours and what's the best Obama can do? Stay silent on it until people start to riot and then he has to talk about it and the best he can come up with is, 'I'm going to give federal funds for body cameras.' Eric Garner died on camera, what did that accomplish?"
Listening to demonstrators, Lehman student Lincoln Lewis remarked, "Everyone is entitled to their position and opinions and it's good to see them speaking out. I'm not in agreement with some things, but they should speak out."
Asked if he believed if he agreed with some of the demonstrators that President Obama was guilty of war crimes, Lewis replied, "It depends on your definition of war crimes. He could be, but then you'd be opening up Pandora's Box for every president" who could be implicated.
Despite the protest student Stephanie Ramnauth was excited about the visit, "I didn't know until I got to class and they told me the president was here. I wanted to see him because I go here and it's nice to know that the president came to the school.”
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