Re: Protests 2024 - Stop Hey What's That Sound...
Posted: Sat May 04, 2024 5:57 am
UCLA faculty and staff members press conference:
That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons bring us some web forums whereupon we can gather
https://www.octopusoverlords.com/forum/
https://www.octopusoverlords.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=100353
I’d suspect, although obviously I can’t be sure, that ACAB might have something to do with the police breaking up the various encampments plus the farcial reasons that have been offered in support of the actions, such as the NYPD with the bike chain, two outside agitators, and “book on terrorism.” Then again, the protestors are on the left, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to believe that they support Gaza and dislike police.
Just spitballing here, but maybe the very excessive use of police violence against Gaza protesters?
Especially since this year's graduating class was also robbed of high school graduation ceremonies by covid-19 restrictions.Grifman wrote: ↑Sat May 04, 2024 8:31 am
I agree that there’s no evidence that these protests are “pro-Hamas”, but that doesn’t really change the point of the post nor dos it change what they did, nor how people are likely to react to it. Disrupting a once in a life time graduation ceremony is unlikely to change anyone’s minds.
On Tuesday night, we watched in horror as hundreds of riot police flooded our beloved campus and brutalized our classmates. The next day, students awoke with swollen faces, bruised wrists and lacerations – all results of inhumane police treatment. The past two weeks have been tumultuous, marked with mass arrests of student demonstrators, an encampment on our lawns, national media attention and vile acts of hatred. Countless have spoken on our behalf. But by speaking over us, media outlets and politicians have created a distorted narrative – one which unfairly characterizes our community.
Now, it is time to elevate student perspectives, the “us”, rather than the “them”. The traumatic environment and militarization of our campus are not the sole product of ill-intended protesters or reckless non-affiliates, as claimed by administrative emails; rather, they are the fault of the senior administration themselves. For months, this crisis has brewed as administrators neglected student and faculty voices. We must be clear: the administration has put our students’ safety at risk and has failed to ensure a conducive learning environment. As student leaders, it is time for our voice to be heard.
The seeds of the NYPD’s 30 April raid on Columbia University were planted nearly six months ago. On 24 October, Columbia’s senior administration unilaterally created an illegitimate university event policy in the aftermath of peaceful pro-Palestinian demonstrations, granting them the power to regulate protests and “‘sole discretion’ to determine sanctions on student organizations and their members”. Thus, senior administration circumvented process and procedure and undermined shared governance, rather than adhere to the rules of university conduct, adopted by our university senate and set out in the university statutes.
This was only the beginning of what would become a pattern of executive overreach. The results of this unprecedented action first manifested on 3 November, when the Columbia chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) were suspended due to unsubstantiated claims of “threatening rhetoric and intimidation”.
When this rationale was questioned in January, senior executive vice-president Gerald Rosberg admitted that “there was no intent to insinuate that one group was threatening” and “if the reference was read that way, he offered his regrets”. This dismissive and inactionable apology was inadequate and unproductive. Rosberg’s comments did not rectify the university’s wrongdoing, and only further initiated a standard of stifling free speech. The move, condemned by both faculty and students, elicited a commitment from the administration to re-evaluate its actions and engage in more transparent decision-making processes.
Unsurprisingly, this was an empty promise. The administration has continued to make decisions without our input, disregarding our community’s wellbeing, values and rules. The taskforce created to address antisemitism did not include students and was inefficient. The administration also failed to properly acknowledge, much less tackle, the growing presence of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian hate on our campus.
Adding fuel to the fire, senior administration then enabled our campus to turn into a hotspot for politicians, radicalists and opportunists, despite repeated claims by the senior administration that they were working to “ "keep all members of our community physically safe”. Shai Davidai, an assistant professor in the business school, publicly characterized Jewish students at pro-Palestinian demonstrations as “terrorists” and “Judenrat” whilst receiving more than 50 complaints. He was permitted to remain on campus for months. Professor Joseph Massad described the 7 October attack as “awesome”; he remains on campus. Even the co-founder of the terrorist militia group Proud Boys gained access to Columbia.
These administrative choices to avoid disciplining or barring extremists exposed many of our peers to known threats, perpetuated the narrative that Columbia is hatred-ridden and set the stage for political theatrics, without advancing the safety of Jewish students. As our community slowly burned, our president, the co-chair of the taskforce on antisemitism and the co-chairs of the board of trustees were questioned in Congress on the basis that Columbia tolerates antisemitism through hateful protests. Contrary to these allegations, the protests at Columbia were organized by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (Cuad): a non-violent and decentralized coalition of more than 100 recognized student groups across the political and cultural spectrum. At the hearing, the administrators also failed to defend our university’s commitment to academic freedom – a legal requirement and a core tenet of all educational institutions, furthering the false narrative of hate that continues to misrepresent our community.
On 17 April, in response to the persistent disregard by our administrators, student activists chose to demonstrate through a peaceful encampment on our university’s lawns – a description corroborated by the NYPD’s chief of patrol. Media and politicians sensationalized these students as largely violent extremists. Yet, we witnessed students create and uphold community guidelines disavowing all forms of hate. We witnessed people of different faiths and religions protecting each other during prayers. We witnessed a community form, with student groups dancing, singing, teaching and making art together.
But instead of engaging with these protesters or charging them with rules of university conduct violations, the administration chose to call the NYPD on to campus – leading to the arrests of 108 student protesters and the unsanctioned arrests of two legal observers on 18 April 2024. This action marked a gross escalation in the administration’s negligence of shared governance: ignoring a unanimous veto by the university senate executive committee, who are required to be consulted before police enter university grounds. This neglectful decision was met with harsh rebuke from much of Columbia and mischaracterized our community as violent extremists. Rather than quell the protest, tensions inflamed and a second encampment, even larger than the first, was erected within hours.
Of all the administration’s actions, the days preceding this week’s NYPD raid have been the most emblematic of their tactics to heighten tension and fear on our campus, silencing speech in the process. Their initial move to end the second encampment involved leveraging title VI, an anti-discrimination law, to mass-discipline students, citing the sensationalized narratives promoted by politicians and the national media. In response to the mass suspensions following a failure to come to an agreement in negotiations, an “autonomous group” of student activists occupied Hamilton Hall at about 12.30am on 30 April.
Within hours, the administration imposed a campus-wide lockdown, preventing all students from accessing vital resources – food and medical assistance – as well as one another – during final exam season. The overwhelming majority of us woke up shocked at this disproportionate university response. Subsequently, the administration denied EMTs and legal observers access to campus – a clear demonstration of what they were trying to accomplish: isolating the occupiers.
As the sky turned dark on Tuesday night, students received an ominous “shelter-in-place” directive. While we frantically called our parents in fear, NYPD trucks and correctional buses lined our streets, barring any escape from Morningside Heights. We were trapped in our dorms or outside in the rain as the raid escalated. Police penned bystanders into nearby buildings and steadily forcibly removed all remaining reporters from campus.
As Columbia lay void with the occupiers strategically alienated, the NYPD struck. The action, while in response to rules violations, was distinctly militaristic and disproportionate. Though NYPD footage showed that the officers, including Swat and strategic response teams, significantly outnumbered the protesters, they utilized flash-bang grenades, swung batons and drew firearms on the few dozen unarmed students. The police continued to limit video documentation by flashing lights at phones recording from the nearby dorms.
The few clips available captured police pushing students down the stairs, an unconscious student lying in front of Hamilton Hall, and hostile engagements between officers and bystanders. A student was even denied permission to leave a building to retrieve essential heart condition medication. The administration claimed to intend to restore safety and order by authorizing these hundreds of NYPD officers to commandeer our school. Instead, they terrified, sickened and traumatized us.
Right now we should be focused on our final exams. Instead, the university’s actions have made it impossible for us to focus on anything besides our peers’ physical safety and access to food. The misrepresentation of events perpetuated by administration has allowed them to justify extreme police force and brutality against their own students. The administration has betrayed us. As student representatives, we detest this false, harmful portrayal of our community. It is only because of student journalism, such as the Columbia Spectator and WKCR-FM’s 24-hour radio coverage, that we have started reclaiming our narrative.
We urge you to listen to us – not political figures, not the radical fringes and not misguided media. Across the country, non-violent protests and encampments on college campuses have been touted by administrations, media and bad-faith actors to be hateful without proper investigative journalism. While this has been a major topic in the news cycle recently, rarely do we see any student perspective represented other than a few token quotes. When we, a group of 60 and more elected to represent the student body, tried to share our voices through this piece, we were turned down by publication after publication.
We now ask you to give us, the students, our voices back. Not to turn attention towards ourselves, but towards where it rightfully belongs: the Middle East.
This statement was passed in the Columbia College Student Council by a margin of 22-4-2
I don't know what the NYPD PR/media team is like but I'd guess they're like most large departments. Meaning that they're not professional PR teams, they're career cops and admin staff who have some media training/experience. I know that's how CPD is.Holman wrote: ↑Fri May 03, 2024 7:38 pmHoly shit, It also appears that the large-size book that cop is holding is a blown-up prop.
The actual size of volumes in Oxford's "Very Short Introduction to" series is that of a *very* slim paperback novel. NYPD put that much work into this without even reading the back cover to see what the book was about.
New York City Police Department
Full-time · 20 yrs 5 mosFull-time · 20 yrs 5 mos
Deputy Comissioner of Public Information
Aug 2023 - Present · 10 mos
Deputy Inspector
May 2023 - Aug 2023 · 4 mos
Police Captain
Jan 2020 - May 2023 · 3 yrs 5 mos
Police Lieutenant
Jan 2015 - Jan 2020 · 5 yrs 1 mos
Police Sergeant
Jan 2010 - Jan 2015 · 5 yrs 1 mos
Police Officer
Jan 2004 - Jan 2010 · 6 yrs 1 mo
HIND’S HALL. Once it’s up on streaming all proceeds to UNRWA.
Sorry can’t resist.Holman wrote: ↑Fri May 03, 2024 7:38 pmHoly shit, It also appears that the large-size book that cop is holding is a blown-up prop.
The actual size of volumes in Oxford's "Very Short Introduction to" series is that of a *very* slim paperback novel. NYPD put that much work into this without even reading the back cover to see what the book was about.
Yeah. I just provided an example of someone from the other side's bad behavior. Not that every pro-Israel protesters are like that.hepcat wrote: ↑Wed May 08, 2024 7:51 am So you’re not really saying it’s happening on both sides with that video, you’re responding to someone who posted a video of it happening to protestors. The opening comments n your post seemed to say it was happening on both sides, here’s evidence of that. That’s what threw me.
you’re responding to someone who posted a video of it happening to Jewish or Israeli students
Today I offer a simple resolution:
NO to antisemitism.
NO to Islamophobia.
NO to racism and bigotry in all its forms.
YES to free speech and protest under the 1st Amendment, whether on a college campus or across our nation.
I think that's a sanitized and hindsight-inspired version of Civil Rights protest, although it's one we like a lot because it allows everyone to feel like conflict was smoothly managed.Zarathud wrote: ↑Wed May 08, 2024 6:43 pm Protests are stupid. They get so caught up in their mob action, they forget the goal is to persuade others.
Frankly, that’s one of the special things about the Civil Rights Movement. Many leaders were acutely aware of how their actions would play to Americans on TV, and moderated their actions to achieve maximum persuasion to achieve their goals.
Thanks for the link to the Perlstein piece. I read it. I couldn't stand it.Holman wrote: ↑Wed May 08, 2024 6:54 pm Protest actions like these include a lot of people, and not everyone agrees with everyone.
Projecting flames atop an American flag image just means that some of the most radical members of the protest had a projector. If they started burning actual American flags, most of the college kids would not enthusiastically be a part of that.
Rick Perlstein (always worth reading) has a new article in the American Prospect: "The New Anti-Antisemitism". He points out the complexity of the protest landscape (including an example where pro-Israeli provocateurs tried to get a "Death to All Jews" chant started before the pro-Palestinian protesters shouted them down).
There was not a chant. There was no attempt by "pro-Israeli provocateurs" to start one. It was a single idiot pro-Israel student trolling the protestors with a single comment. The story here is that the idiot police seized on that comment and took it out of context to justify their response. But come on. Your characterization is counter factual. Watch the video.Footage taken late Friday night of a tense confrontation between pro-Palestine demonstrators and pro-Israel counter-protesters at the encampment revealed it was a pro-Israel student demonstrator who said “Kill the Jews,” asking the pro-Palestine demonstrators “anybody on board; anybody on board?”
...
Multiple media personnel, including two Huntington News editors, were present during the verbal altercation and confirmed they heard someone say “Kill the Jews,” but could not confirm who. Huntington News reporters, who covered nearly the entire duration of the encampment, did not hear the statement repeated at any other point during the demonstration.
...
Tori Bedford, a GBH reporter who was on campus during the altercation, said on X she heard the statement “said by a counter-protester holding an Israeli flag, seemingly as a provocative joke in response to the group’s pro-Palestine chants.”
Pshaw, indeed. That's a really generous characterization of these protests, and I think it's a head-scratcher that he thinks the protestor's "specific issue" demands are easily realizable. What is he talking about?Students peacefully chanting slogans on a single, specific issue, backed by easily realizable demands? Pshaw.
I'm not justifying the counter-protestors attacking the encampment, but to act like it was just some flimsy plywood for self-defense is just stupid. They were fortifying behind wooden and metal barricades. Again, there are receipts. It's all on video.That was at UCLA, where, not to put too fine a point on it, taking advantage of a rare absence of police presence or any sort of security except for the flimsy plywood boards demonstrators deployed as shields to protect their perimeter, fashy thugs crying things like “No place in the world for you!” started going after them with flying karate kicks, sticks, and tear gas.
Israel's government is shit, but to call it fascist really calls into question whether Perlstein actually understands what that word really means.The chancellor said the encampment was a “provocation” to violence. Southern sheriffs used to say the same thing about civil rights demonstrations. Which now seems somewhat the position of the leadership class of the Democratic Party, too. In order to “protect Jews.” In effect, discouraging political speech against a war enacted by a veritable fascist government thousands of miles away, and doing so in a way that serially humiliates the president of the United States.
On this, I think I agree with him. The only thing that maybe makes me angrier than the rampant anti-semitism I'm seeing right now is the opportunistic, morally-bankrupt GOP trying to use it to attack education (they've now moved on from universities to public K-12) and as a wedge between Jewish voters and the Democrats. They're also using it to push through harmful restrictions on free speech like the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act.Last week, I noted a creepy viral right-wing blog post about how “the Democrats have crossed the bridge into unabashed Nazism.” I promised to follow up with more detail. So how have the Democrats, according to this, turned into Nazis? By making “certain that behind the scenes the Biden Administration does not waiver in taking all steps necessary to prevent Israel from permanently destroying Hamas.”
The sort of people who wrap themselves in flags and bust up protests think you are the Nazi, fellow Democrat. Even if you think the IDF has no choice but to do what they are doing: Trumpies don’t make distinctions like that among the “enemy.” So the war will go on yet more viciously, no matter what Joe Biden says; many more people, lots of them Jews, very, very anguished, will protest lots more.
Right. There were active Black Power movements that were vocal and in no way played to (white) Americans on TV. Even a lot of MLK's activities were scorned by white Americans, both in the North and the South. (MLK famously said after spending some time in Chicago (paraphrasing) "The people in Mississippi could learn a thing or two about hate from Chicago.")Holman wrote: ↑Wed May 08, 2024 6:56 pmI think that's a sanitized and hindsight-inspired version of Civil Rights protest, although it's one we like a lot because it allows everyone to feel like conflict was smoothly managed.Zarathud wrote: ↑Wed May 08, 2024 6:43 pm Protests are stupid. They get so caught up in their mob action, they forget the goal is to persuade others.
Frankly, that’s one of the special things about the Civil Rights Movement. Many leaders were acutely aware of how their actions would play to Americans on TV, and moderated their actions to achieve maximum persuasion to achieve their goals.
Many techniques were tried. Many were at odds with each other. Tactics were never managed from some top-down authority, and the movement itself was riven by divisions. Just like today.
At the time of his assassination, the great majority of white Americans hated MLK, and they hated him for the discomfort he'd made them feel.
Thank you. It boggles the mind that these protests today are being coloured as uniquely awful and anti-american and destructive. America has a long history of protests, many of which were for good causes and successful, that were denigrated and derided by media during their time.ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2024 10:17 am It remains to be seen what hindsight will make of today's protests, but once again it's worth noting that famous protest movements like civil rights and anti-Vietnam War were deeply unpopular at the time, and are only seen positively after many years have passed.