EAST ORANGE, N.J. - The five United States Army recruiters who work from a storefront office here arrived on the morning of Feb. 5 to discover that a plate-glass window above the main entrance had been shattered, along with a window in the Navy office next door.

By noon, about 35 protesters were marching out front with antiwar placards, condemning the American invasion of Iraq and the recruiters' efforts to enlist new soldiers.

The group's leader, Lawrence Hamm, a New Jersey civil rights activist, said the protesters had nothing to do with the broken windows, and he condemned any violence against the recruiters. The police have not found any evidence of a political motive.

But for the men on the other side of the broken glass, and recruiters throughout the New York area, the vandalism here underscored what they say are the risks of signing up young people for the military during a war that has polarized the American public.

The shattering of windows here followed two similar incidents in New York City and a third in the Midwest that week. On Jan. 31, authorities said, recruiters at a station near the Flatiron section of Manhattan reported that a door had been cracked, and that anarchist symbols had been scrawled in red paint on the building.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/21/nyregion/21recruit.html