By popular request, these are the most recent updates. The court date is set and coming up soon. The ACLU has taken me on, and they should be there for the trial. Neither Kutztown University nor the Kutztown Municipal police have contacted me. The Morning Call did a sort of mini-interview with me, but I didn’t see what it was, it might just have been a retraction on their article that said I plead guilty. I have received 40 dollars in donations, and I thank every one of you.

Thanks everyone who still cares about what happened.

Since the first post about my arrest things have changed, some for the better, others for the worse.

The ACLU has contacted me and is taking my information.  I should hear back from them within two weeks or so.

The Morning Call has contacted me and the author of the article that made the claim I plead guilty did a miniature interview with me, and informed me that she got the information about my supposed guilty plea from Kutztown University.

However, Kutztown University has also had officials tell people that I was blocking the walkway.  This is an absolutely absurd  reason to give for my arrest.  I was nowhere near the walkway, and as anyone can see in the picture, I’m not blocking anything or anyone.

That Kutztown University would lie about this is one of the saddest things I have had to deal with, because it has become clear these last few days that my arrest was all the school’s doing.  Basement Coder’s blog has a post from a police officer from the Kutztown Municipal Police Station denying the Municipal’s involvement in my arrest.  I believe them, as when I was being walked off to be searched I was told that if I was being arrested it would be up to the school.  Kutztown University’s newspaper, The Keystone (http://keystoneonline.com) was initially interested in interviewing me after my arrest.  The student Editor-In-Chief herself was in contact with me and wanted to schedule a time when all communication was cut.  I feel that Kutztown University was behind this, as when the article on the protest came out, there was not a single mention of me.

Once again, I would like to thank everyone who has been supporting me.  Thank you all.

I wanted to thank everyone that have shown support these last few days.  Everyone that has sent an email, I’m sorry I can’t list all of you, there are more than I can reasonably write.  But specifically, and in no particular order I would like to thank the following people:

R. Stevens of Diesesweeties.com

Paul Sigerson of Team17.com, makers of one of my favorite games, the Worms series

Rob Walker of Nowpublic.com

BasementCoder.com who was the first person to write about what happened.

The people at digg.com that got me up to the #3 article

All the other bloggers who have been picking this up

Thank you all.

However, I would like to call out one group of people for their lack of
belief in my story and their inability to do any research before condemning me as a jerk out to get famous:  The Megatokyo message boards.  People who hadn’t even read my whole story have managed to condemn my actions and claim that since the school doesn’t support me, obviously I must be lying.  Thanks for your oh so carefully worded attacks against me.

http://forums.megatokyo.com/index.php?showtopic=1725046&st=0

Please don’t take this as an attempt to beg for money. I’m amazed at the outpouring of support and requests that I begin to take donations. I decided to put up a donation button now, with the express knowledge that some people will see this as me trying to make money. If I get any donations, the initial ones will be used toward my fine if I am found guilty. If found not guilty, I will be using the money as a donation towards a legal defense charity of some sort. I do not wish to make money off of this. Thank you.

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On April 18th, I was arrested. This normally wouldn’t be big news, but the situation arround which I was arrested brings up serious questions. I was arrested at Kutztown University, where I am a student, because I decided to try to liven the mood after the Life and Liberty Ministries began to upset students. They came on campus with signs that featured aborted fetuses, lists of people who will be going to hell, and catchy phrases such as “JESUS OR HELL”. I have friends who are gay, and these people who came onto Kutztown University’s campus without permission or prior notice were upsetting students all over campus.I decided not to simply let them upset people, so I went to the bookstore and purchased a posterboard and sharpie marker and made my own sign. It said “Equal Rights for Robots”, a saying I thought no one would be able to take the wrong way. The protesters had been on campus for about two hours at this time, and the whole time the police were protecting them from the students. To my knowledge, the protesters at this time had not been asked to leave. With my sign in hand, I walked out and waved my sign in the air.

I had some small support from students around me, as most saw the attempt at humor to lighten a rough situation. However, within about two or three minutes a police officer came over to me and told me to come with him. I was dropped off at the police area, searched and taken to the local precinct where I was held for an hour and a half. One of the protesters was held there with me, but I do not know why he was arrested.

I was charged with Disorderly Conduct with intent to “alarm or annoy” and in the citation it says I was “warned repeatedly” to stop. Neither is true, and when I pointed this out to the officer who wrote it out for me he said something along the lines of I don’t care and made a comment along the lines of tell it to the judge. I plead not guilty and face a three hundred dollar fine or up to 90 days in jail if found guilty.

After it happened, I tried to contact the local news and the school newspaper. Only one newspaper bother to contact me, the others didn’t believe me.

The Morning Call - http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-kutztown-04182007,0,2550072.story

WFMZ - http://www.wfmz.com/view/?id=86577

The Reading Eagle - It’s in the web archive, and you need to buy access to it.

The Keystone, the school newspaper was initially interested in running my side of the story, but then quickly backed down from it when the school decided not to support me. In fact, according to one student who spoke to school officials right after my arrest, the school had me arrested because “We didn’t want any jokers.” Now, I cannot verify that quote myself, but this student is one I would trust to tell me the truth.This is what happened, and here are some pictures to verify the truth.

Their Picture Page 1

Their Picture Page 2

Their Picture Page 3

Their Picture Page 4

Edit:I’ve been receiving emails suggesting I start taking donations. I’ve even had a donation sent to my email, hngkong@gmail.com through PayPal. I really do appreciate it, but don’t think of this as begging. If I do not need the donations for my legal fees or fine, I will donate the money to a group like the ACLU which would use the money to help others who got into crappy situations with the police.So once again, if you really want to donate, use PayPal to sent it to hngkong@gmail.com, but only if you really want to. Any extras will be sent to a legal defense fund.Thank you everyone for your support.

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EDIT: I’ve posted another update, http://hngkong.wordpress.com/2007/07/02/new-updates/