Columbia University is colluding with the far-right in its attack on students

[Derec]

Catching up.

We talked about this already. This is where "protesters" defaced a statue with pro-Hamas slogans while carrying pro-Hamas signs.

 

[Derec]

Pro-Hamas creeps are breaking stuff at Cornell at the start of new academic year.

Anti-Israel vandals deface Cornell University on first day of classes

Anti-Israel vandals defaced a building at Cornell University on the first day of classes Monday — smashing the glass of a doorway and scrawling hateful messages like “Blood is on your hands.”
“We had to accept that the only way to make ourselves heard is by targeting the only thing the university administration truly cares about: property,” the vandals said in an anonymous statement to the Cornell Daily Sun, the student newspaper that broke the story.
The vandals struck sometime overnight or in the early morning, shattering the glass at an entrance to Cornell’s Day Hall and spray-painting messages including “Israel bombs and Cornell pays.”
[...]
Cornell Law professor William A. Jacobson said the crimes sent a message at the start of the semester.
“Given the weak response at Cornell last academic year to intimidation tactics by anti-Israel activists, it is no surprise that they have upped the aggressiveness by opening the semester with vandalism and destruction of property,” said Jacobson, founder of EqualProtect.org. “This is a bad omen.”

That's what happens when you let politically motivated vandalism go without consequence - you get more of it.

 

[laughing dog]

Pro-Hamas creeps are breaking stuff at Cornell at the start of new academic year.

Anti-Israel vandals deface Cornell University on first day of classes

Anti-Israel vandals defaced a building at Cornell University on the first day of classes Monday — smashing the glass of a doorway and scrawling hateful messages like “Blood is on your hands.”
“We had to accept that the only way to make ourselves heard is by targeting the only thing the university administration truly cares about: property,” the vandals said in an anonymous statement to the Cornell Daily Sun, the student newspaper that broke the story.
The vandals struck sometime overnight or in the early morning, shattering the glass at an entrance to Cornell’s Day Hall and spray-painting messages including “Israel bombs and Cornell pays.”
[...]
Cornell Law professor William A. Jacobson said the crimes sent a message at the start of the semester.
“Given the weak response at Cornell last academic year to intimidation tactics by anti-Israel activists, it is no surprise that they have upped the aggressiveness by opening the semester with vandalism and destruction of property,” said Jacobson, founder of EqualProtect.org. “This is a bad omen.”

That's what happens when you let politically motivated vandalism go without consequence - you get more of it.

Other than spouting "Get Tough", what is your actual solution?

 

[Derec]

Other than spouting "Get Tough", what is your actual solution?

That is an actual solution. Suspend or expel the vandals, and charge them with crimes. Make them pay restitution for all damages too.
Problem solved.

 

[Elixir]

That's what happens when you let politically motivated vandalism go without consequence - you get more of it.

Yay. Looking forward to more J6.

 

[laughing dog]

Other than spouting "Get Tough", what is your actual solution?

That is an actual solution. Suspend or expel the vandals, and charge them with crimes. Make them pay restitution for all damages too.
Problem solved.

In order to suspend or expel the vandals, you have to catch them. What’s your solution?

 

[Derec]

In order to suspend or expel the vandals, you have to catch them. What’s your solution?

Obviously, they have to be caught for there to be consequences. There cannot be a solution that does not involve identifying perpetrators.

The larger problem is that even when they are caught, universities cave and do not pursue appropriate discipline. Like Barnard (part of Columbia) who gave amnesty to 55 previously suspended students.
Barnard reaches resolution with ‘nearly all’ suspended students, spokesperson says

 

[laughing dog]

In order to suspend or expel the vandals, you have to catch them. What’s your solution?

Obviously, they have to be caught for there to be consequences. There cannot be a solution that does not involve identifying perpetrators.

So you want thus university to expand more resources in the hopes of catching them?

The larger problem is that even when they are caught, universities cave and do not pursue appropriate discipline. Like Barnard (part of Columbia) who gave amnesty to 55 previously suspended students.
Barnard reaches resolution with ‘nearly all’ suspended students, spokesperson says

And the evidence this is an actual problem is?

 

[Derec]

So you want thus university to expand more resources in the hopes of catching them?

No, I want the university (and local police, in this case Ithaca) to expend more resources.

And the evidence this is an actual problem is?

As we have seen from vandalism at Cornell on the first day of class, lax attitude toward these vandals encourages more vandalism.

 

[laughing dog]

So you want thus university to expand more resources in the hopes of catching them?

No, I want the university (and local police, in this case Ithaca) to expend more resources.

And what should Columbia University give up doing in order to catch these vandals?

And the evidence this is an actual problem is?

As we have seen from vandalism at Cornell on the first day of class, lax attitude toward these vandals encourages more vandalism.

Who’s this “we”? It seems to me you are engaging a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

So you want thus university to expand more resources in the hopes of catching them?

No, I want the university (and local police, in this case Ithaca) to expend more resources.

And the evidence this is an actual problem is?

As we have seen from vandalism at Cornell on the first day of class, lax attitude toward these vandals encourages more vandalism.

Wouldn't it having it occurr during the middle of the day imply it being lax, not in the middle of the night?

 

[Arctish]

In order to suspend or expel the vandals, you have to catch them. What’s your solution?

Obviously, they have to be caught for there to be consequences. There cannot be a solution that does not involve identifying perpetrators.

The larger problem is that even when they are caught, universities cave and do not pursue appropriate discipline. Like Barnard (part of Columbia) who gave amnesty to 55 previously suspended students.
Barnard reaches resolution with ‘nearly all’ suspended students, spokesperson says

There is no mention of vandalism in the article about the Barnard students who were suspended. It appears they were peacefully protesting in an encampment on the campus grounds when the College suspended them.

It looks like Code of Conduct violations were committed and the rules were enforced. So what's the problem here? That the punishment for inconveniencing people by setting up tents on the Quad and voicing opinions they didn't want to hear is less than the punishment for sexually assaulting them?

 

[Derec]

More vandalism from the pro-Hamas Columbia "peaceful protesters".
Keffiyeh-Clad Columbia Students Demonstrate, Vandalize University Property on First Day of Classes

Students at Columbia University staged anti-Israel demonstrations — which included vandalism of a statue on campus and slogans calling for continued violence against the Jewish state — on Tuesday, the first day of the academic year. At least two protesters have been arrested after pushing through barricades around the entrance.
Blocking the main gate to Columbia’s campus, the protesters held signs with “intifada,” “resist until victory,” and “to rebel is justified” written across them. The group Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which organized the protest on Tuesday and the encampment on the school’s main lawn in the spring, published a flyer calling on students to join.
[...]
“This action is the first of many,” the group wrote. “We will not stop until the university fully divests from all forms of settler-colonial violence. Divestment is not an incrementalist goal. True divestment necessitates nothing short of the total collapse of the university structure and American empire itself. It is not possible for imperial spoils to remain so heavily concentrated in the metropole and its high-cultural repositories without the continuous suppression of all populations that resist the empire’s expansion; to divest from this is to undermine and eradicate America as we know it.”
[...]The protests come just over a week after a convocation ceremony at which Columbia University Apartheid Divest handed out pamphlets supporting Hamas and quoting Sheikh Saleh Al-Arouri, a leader in the terrorist organization, and his remarks on October 7.

That's what happens when you ignore such behavior before - Alvin Bragg refused to prosecute, and the college gave most of the vandals a slap on the wrist. And nobody can pretend any more that these people are just "anti war" and not actually pro-Hamas.

 

[laughing dog]

The National Review is a rightwing propaganda rag. Their opinion is laughable.

There is no evidence to suggest that if NYC or Columbia University would have come down harder that protests would not have continued at the same level. Changing a few names will not change the story.

 

[Arctish]

The National Review is a rightwing propaganda rag. Their opinion is laughable.

There is no evidence to suggest that if NYC or Columbia University would have come down harder that protests would not have continued at the same level. Changing a few names will not change the story.

The red paint on the statue is a genuine misdemeanor. That is university property that will cost money to properly clean and restore. The defacement should be investigated and the perpetrator(s) prosecuted. It is undoubtedly a violation of the Student Code of Conduct, so if a student did it, he or she should be punished according to the system the university has in place to deal with CoC violations of that nature.

Anything that happens off-campus is not something the university can or should police, especially exercises of First Amendment rights like holding signs and handing out pamphlets, even if it happens right outside the gates.

Like it or not, Columbia University is now part of the larger controversy over US involvement in the Middle East. Ignoring the issue, or trying to suppress critical speech, isn't going to make it all go away.

 

[Arctish]

“Campus Has Become Unrecognizable”: Columbia Prof. Franke Faces Firing After DN Interview on Gaza

 

[laughing dog]

If Prof Franke is really in danger of being fired fir expressing her views, Columbia University cannot be considered a top notch university.

 

[Politesse]

If Prof Franke is really in danger of being fired fir expressing her views, Columbia University cannot be considered a top notch university.

Not how it works. If your university has a large endowment and historical connections to the Right Families, you describe yourself as a top notch university and everyone just sort of has to agree. Think any journalist really wants to diss the school that hands out the Pullitzers?

 

[Derec]

The National Review is a rightwing propaganda rag. Their opinion is laughable.

They are right of center, but far less biased than the far-left rags like The Intercept or Democracy Now! that get posted here all the time.

Also, can you point to anything in the article that is false or misleading?

There is no evidence to suggest that if NYC or Columbia University would have come down harder that protests would not have continued at the same level. Changing a few names will not change the story.

What evidence do you expect? We can't run a controlled experiment.
However, it stands to reason that if you fail to disincentivize bad behavior, you get more of it. The prospect of expulsion and/or criminal prosecution is a good disincentive.

 

[Derec]

The red paint on the statue is a genuine misdemeanor. That is university property that will cost money to properly clean and restore. The defacement should be investigated and the perpetrator(s) prosecuted.

Unfortunately Alvin Bragg is not very keen on prosecuting these creeps.

It is undoubtedly a violation of the Student Code of Conduct, so if a student did it, he or she should be punished according to the system the university has in place to deal with CoC violations of that nature.

Likewise, universities like Columbia have been pressured into taking back disciplinary actions against students that have vandalized property.

Anything that happens off-campus is not something the university can or should police, especially exercises of First Amendment rights like holding signs and handing out pamphlets, even if it happens right outside the gates.

Free speech is one thing. Impeding free access to university grounds through barricades and such is quite another.

Like it or not, Columbia University is now part of the larger controversy over US involvement in the Middle East. Ignoring the issue, or trying to suppress critical speech, isn't going to make it all go away.

How would schools like Columbia act if there were pro-Nazi protesters on campus? Would they be allowed to continue? Pro-Hamas are no better. Glorifying terrorism is not mere "critical speech".