At 9am Thursday morning 10 Macalester students locked themselves to the doors of an Army and Navy Recruiting center on Washington Avenue, shutting both down for an entire day.

The Mac SDS action was undertaken alongside a protest at the U by the Anti War Committee, UofM SDS, and Youth Against War & Racism. The slightly larger anti war march started at noon and met up in front of the Navy and Army recruitment center.

While police presence was heavy—including many St. Paul officers on bike, either out for a innocent morning jaunt or taking note in preparation for the upcoming RNC—officers refrained from attacking the Macalester Students. An unwillingness to undertake the difficult task of sawing the Mac students free was cited.

However when members of the march from the U tried to likewise shut down a nearby National Guard recruiting office by occupying it, those protesters were quickly arrested and later released without incident.

While the Minneapolis (and St. Paul) police never overtly moved against the Mac SDS action, a small group of student veterans attempted to menace and intimidate the handcuffed SDS activists.

Having finally admitted defeat and promised not to move against the locked-down Mac students, towards the end of the day the five individuals from the sheriff's department jumped onto the scene in a car filled with tools and tried to inspect the locking equipment used by the mac students. After briefly taking a number of pictures with their camera phones and facing off against a legal representative the officers beat a hasty retreat.

At 3:45 pm the Mac Students unlocked themselves, sore but enthused, and departed.