Incident

Incident Description

On August 19th, 1968 FBI, U.S. Marshals and Buffalo Police entered the Unitarian Universalist church on Elmwood Avenue to arrest Bruce Beyer. Beyer had been seeking sanctuary against arrest for draft evasion in the church for publicly burning his draft card since August 8th.

Outcome

Eight of Beyer's supporters were also arrested after a brief altercation with the police and federal agents. This group, later known as the Buffalo Nine, were charged with assault. Beyer was charged with failure to report for induction and assault of a federal marshal. He was found guilty of two of three counts of assault and was sentenced to three years in prison.

On March 19th, hundreds gathered in Lafayette Square in Buffalo to protest the sentencing and burn an effigy of the presiding judge. When nine University at Buffalo students were arrested, the protesters moved to the UB campus.