Article by Robert Force
On July 27, 1980, 192 pro-Khomeini Iranian students were arrested in Washington, D.C. for "disorderly conduct." Officials claimed that the students had attempted to disrupt a peaceful demonstration by anti-Khomeini Iranians. Furthermore, they implied that the students were in league with militants holding the American hostages in Iran, that they were in the pay of supporters of the Ayatollah's brand of revolution, that their objective was to obstruct negotiations for the release of American hostages, and that, in general, they were trying to create an incident to embarrass the United States. In the words of a Washington Post editorial, the students who tangled with police and were arrested had gone out "looking for a fight and got it."
One of the students' attorneys offers a different version. Earlier on the day of the arrests the students had staged a peaceful demonstration at another site in Washington, D.C. From there many of them walked to the site of the anti-Khomeini demonstration. Upon their arrival they were told by police officers that they had five minutes to leave the scene or they would be arrested. Most of the students refused to leave and 192 arrests were made. The arrests were accompanied by violence and at least thirty-five students, some of whom were beaten with nightsticks, were injured.
Police have denied the use of excessive violence. However, media news reports and eyewitnesses have contradicted their statements. The Washington Post reported on September 9, 1980, that the FBI had started an investigation into the possible use of "excessive force" and other violations of civil rights.
The arrests marked the beginning of a saga during which the students were held in custody for ten days, first by Washington, D.C. officials and later by federal officials, and which continued outside a mosque in Queens, New York, where a crowd of "1000 flag-waving American protestors" had trapped seventy of the students who had sought refuge there after their release from custody. Ultimately, the students escaped unharmed. In the interval, the original group of arrestees, after spending four days in the custody of the District of Columbia, were told that the charges against them had been dropped. They were not released, however. Instead, the female students were seized by agents of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (I.N.S.) and transported to New York. Counsel for the students who were on hand in the jail were not advised of this action, nor were they informed later of the location in which their clients had been secreted. On the following day, the male students were moved in a similar fashion. For the next five days, the students were held at the federal prison in Otisville, New York, while I.N.S. agents checked their visas to determine whether they were lawfully in this country. While the students had voiced many complaints about abusive treatment in the District of Columbia jails, no similar complaints were made about their federal confinement. Finally, the students were released and allowed to return to their schools. Of the original 192 arrestees, only two had criminal charges filed against them, and one student had his visa declared invalid. All other charges were dropped.
About the Author
Robert Force. Thomas Pickles Professor of Law, Tulane University. B.S. 1955, LL.B. 1958, Temple University. LL.M. 1960, New York University.
Citation
56 Tul. L. Rev. 148 (1981)