Here is video from the Columbia anti-Minutemen demonstration, you can see that the violence was carried out by the Minutemen, not the students. A Minuteman dressed in white and wearing a baseball hat is seen kicking students.
The video is from Univision, so it is in Spanish, but the pictures tell the whole story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N41eXtVK7hAKarina Garcia, Political Chair of Chicano Caucus, will be on the popular Pacifica radio show, Democracy Now, tomorrow morning, October 11. Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, will be the other guest on the segment.
The Chicano Caucus, along with other progressive and student organizations sponsored the large protest outside the auditorium where Gilchrist spoke on October 4. She, along with a large number of students and alumni also participated in the protest inside the auditorium. When students attempted to unfurl a banner on stage while Gilchrist was speaking, Minutemen thugs viciously attacked them. Since that time, the Republican Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, FoxNews, and the Minutemen themselves, have engaged in a campaign of demonization and villification against the anti-racist protesters. They have been demanding that Columbia University carry out reprisals against the students. Tell your friends to listen to Democracy Now tomorrow, to hear the students' side of this important struggle.
Over 3,000 letters have been sent to Columbia President, Lee Bollinger, showing support for the students and demanding no reprisals. Since FoxNews, the New York Post, and other right-wing media outlets are continuing the campaign against the students, it is urgent that people of conscience from around the country let Columbia University know that you agree with those who protested. The Minuteman Project is a dangerous armed vigilante organization that terrorizes undocumented immigrants and other Latinos in the U.S.-Mexico border states. They are a neo-fascist movement that has gained a certain "legitimacy" because of the favorable coverage they've received in the corporate-dominated media.