Franklin Township, OH - A group of Kent State Students organized a march today to protest both the United States Military and Sheets Gas Stations.

The march started in Kent and came down Main Street to the US Armed Forces Recruiting center in the Acme Plaza, where several members of the Portage County Sheriff’s Office were on hand to make sure the demonstration stayed peaceful.

Once in front of the Recruiting Center, several protestors also took to the bullhorn microphone, telling stories of misconduct by the US Government, the US Military and other organizations.

“Since September 11th, eight years ago, we can’t even board a f***ing plane… We can’t be sure that the CIA isn’t even reading our mail under some form of the Patriot Act”, one of the protesters shouted in a speech to the crowd.

While Plaza business employees and shoppers glanced at the protesters, most did not allow it to interrupt their normal activities.



The group then walked one block east to the Sheets Gas Station, at 1762 East Main Street, to protest.

When asked why the group was protesting Sheets, Nick Long, who appeared to be leading the group said, “Sheets right now has mounted an aggressive campaign where it is basically trying to get exempted from all the local zoning laws that all the local businesses have to follow…. They have taken their case to a higher court, to basically break the back of our local laws that local businesses have to follow.”

Once at the Sheets Gas Station, the group first flooded the store, buying small products, mistakenly thinking that if they were customers, the large Sheriff’s Deputy presence would not be able to make them leave the property.



Within minutes the protestors swamped the gas pump bays, making it difficult for Sheets patrons to fuel their vehicles. That’s when Sheriff David Doak and Major Dale Kelly, both from the Portage County Sheriff Department stepped into action, forcing protestors to move to allow the customers’ fuel purchases.

After a few tense moments of the group’s refusing to obey the Sheriff’s request that they move off the Sheets property, back up was called into action. Within moments of putting out the call for back up, a large force of Sheriff’s Deputies was on the premises, some with in gear.



The major law enforcement presence was enough to discourage the protestors and help them make the decision to retreat to the street corner peacefully. There they started chanting “Hey Hey! Ho Ho! The Kent Sheriff Has Got To Go!” obviously not realizing that there is no such entity as the Kent Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff serves the entire Portage County area.

“I have no idea why they are protesting”, said Trish Boyd the Manager of the Sheets location, adding, “They all seem to love us at three o’clock in the morning.”