U.S. University Did Something Crazy: Listened to Student Protesters Instead of Calling the Cops on Them

submitted by jeffw

www.jezebel.com/us-university-did-something-cra…

Log in to comment

89 Comments

unreasonabro

it's like violence is the response of an idiot or something

spyd3r , edited

The irony is these college protests are actually supporting terrorist groups and inciting violence...

Edit: apparently the mods here do too.

Aceticon

They are only "supporting terrorist groups" in the eyes of those who are so incredibly racist that they think that all Palestinians, including children, are Hamas and hence all deserve to die.

The only way to bridge the logic chasm between "being against the mass killing of Palestinian children" and "supporting Hamas" is the extreme racist idea that "Palestinian children are Hamas".

StaySquared

Brah.. the protest calls for 2 things. 1. BDS 2. End of genocide

Neither one is in support of terrorist groups and last I check the ones inciting violence, which is on video for all to witness, was pro-Zionist protestors who came with weapons and attacked the opposition.

UrPartnerInCrime

Nope. They're not supporting Hamas, even indirectly because hamas is in control of Palestine. They're raising awareness to the needless killing of children and other innocents

Dearth

The Democrats are in the white house. So all Americans are Democrats

UrPartnerInCrime

Thats actually a really good rebuttal

spyd3r

Self-deception is a process of denying or rationalizing away the relevance, significance, or importance of opposing evidence and logical argument. Self-deception involves convincing oneself of a truth (or lack of truth) so that one does not reveal any self-knowledge of the deception.

SkyezOpen

Do you condemn genocide?

spyd3r

Do you know the definition of the word genocide?

faceula

Wow, this is more relevant to you than others. Why go in so hard initially with your previous comment if you're only later going to present a statement like this. I do mean this kindly, let's try and talk rather than go in aggressively on others who have differing views to you. How on earth can something so nuanced and difficult be reduced to an attacking comment?

can

You see the difference between "supporting terrorist groups" and not wanting to be complicit in indiscriminate killing of civilians, right?

spyd3r

Deleted by moderator

catsarebadpeople

Oh the irony 😂

deft

imagine traveling your entire life to arrive at the wrong conclusion

can you say brain dead

some_guy

This is the fourth or fifth one I’ve read about today. The kids are effecting change. I love it.

Crackhappy

Thank you for spelling effecting correctly.

blazeknave

Isn't effect a noun, affect a verb? Am I supposed to discern which in other ways?

ClockworkOtter

To "affect" a change would be to alter the change itself, for example if the university had already been reviewing its portfolio then the protesters might be affecting the change by making it happen more quickly.

To "effect" a change would be to cause the change in the first place.

prole

This is one of the few oddities of the English language that I struggle with constantly. It seems like, as a native speaker, most of the other ones just "feel" or "sound" right, but I haven't been able to nail that down with effect/affect for some reason

Jojo, Lady of the West

The trouble is that both words have a verb sense and a noun sense.

The noun sense of affect is something like "mood" or "emotion" and isn't used often, while the noun sense of effect is "thing that happened (because of some cause)" and is a rather common word.

The verb sense of affect is "to cause something to happen (to something)" and is a pretty common word, while the verb sense of effect is more like "to make something be true" as in "effecting change" above.

The mnemonic I use is from dungeons and dragons, some spells are "mind-affecting effects" meaning they change minds and they're caused by the spell being cast.

Laurentide

If I use my Persuasion skill to help someone think their way through a problem, is that a "mind-effecting affect"?

Burn_The_Right

"Effect" can also be used as a verb, as used above.

jaybone

Both can be both nouns and verbs. This to me is the most annoying English oddity of all.

Crackhappy

I hope to effect a change in your perspective.

some_guy

You know, I'm also super pedantic about this and only learned I'd been doing it wrong very recently.

VelvetStorm

These are full-grown adults in university. They are not kids.

JWBananas

It's all relative

some_guy

I greeted my fellow 20-ish-year-olds with "what's up kids" at that age as a way of saying we were still young party machines. I am not disrespecting these folks.

zalgotext

I don't think I'd consider most 18 year old "full grown adults"

VelvetStorm

Old enough to be sent to die and kill innocent non white people for profit so they are old enough to be adults.

zalgotext

The vast, vast majority of 18 year olds are not in the military, and it's really weird to consider all 18 year olds adults because a tiny fraction of them are soldiers

VelvetStorm

I never once said they all were in the military or that them being in the military made them adults. I said if we consider them adult enough to be able to do that, then we need to just consider them adults in general.

Flying Squid

In this case, no change happened because the university didn't invest in Israel in the first place.

zalgotext

The students being allowed to peacefully protest at all is a nice change, and hearing about it could encourage other peaceful protesters, who could enact more direct change

gedaliyah

Sacramento State’s updated policy states that it “does not have any direct investments in these areas” right now but, in accordance with students’ demands, its investment portfolios will “remain free of such direct investments.”

Students: We're protesting until our school stops investing in stuff that's bad!

University: Uh, we already don't.

Students: We did it! We freed Palestine!

deaf_fish

I don't think the students though that divesting would save all the Palestinians. I mean, I am sure one person did, but that is what happens when you have a large group of people. I think they just wanted to apply pressure against Israel where they could.

I think it is based and probably the most effective thing they could do to stop the genocide.

postmateDumbass

Divesting is a step, but it just allows them to remove personal responsibility for the death/suffering. (Which matches the latent cultural narcissism)

It does not actually stop anything, it may delay the scheduled future.

Meanwhile bombs and bullets already in production will go down range.

KevonLooney

Divesting is a step, but it just allows them to remove personal responsibility for the death/suffering.

Uh, no. Divesting from South Africa had a big effect on the end of Apartheid. It's just not enough to do much by itself. But it is enough to push it over the top.

postmateDumbass

Sure, it took years.

The Palestinians have weeks to months.

unreasonabro , edited

I mean, you jest, but a lot of the time, all you can do in this world is limit your own contribution to the problem

FiniteBanjo

That and vote to regulate wrongdoings. It sounds so obvious and yet somehow we're losing that battle.

Snapz

You attempt a lazy joke here because it seems you need attention, but policy like this matters, especially when things get "quiet" again after the spotlight fades. Also, in addition to divestment, the university also met their demand to appoint “a faculty member from Faculty for Justice in Palestine to sit on the finance committee, ensuring that investments remain ethical every year.”

gedaliyah

Attention seeking? It seems like this could have been a single student government vote.

The university’s communications office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Jezebel on whether it is referring explicitly to Israel, or whether it regards Israel’s actions in Gaza as falling under the umbrella of “genocide, ethnic cleansing, and activities that violate fundamental human rights.”

And more effective, too.

tastysnacks

And more effective? Which university had a student government vote that change the university policy?

gedaliyah , edited

Edit: Actually, just posting a list of the hundred + of schools that have changed official investment policy is not a fair response. The point is that it happens all the time, but it doesn't grab headlines. SGAs work with university leaders to cooperatively effect change not only on a regular basis, but as an essential part of their functioning.

I'm happy to repost the list if you would like.

Snapz

Yes, attention seeking - your undereducated pussyfooting is transparent, exhausting and embarrassing, friend.

Cas9111

They did win. They know now that University is morally right and doesn't support a genocide.

gedaliyah

They could have just asked first

pastermil

Wow, I guess listening to the protesters instead of calling cops on them is crazy 🙄

jeffw [OP]

Yeah that’s… that’s the joke

DarkNightoftheSoul

You know what, honestly, I can't blame the above commenter. Have you seen some of the trash headlines are made of these days?

jeffw [OP]

Maybe if it were the National Review, Daily Caller, NYPost, or something like that.

DarkNightoftheSoul

Definitely in that case, but short of something wackily eye-catching like "infoturkbot" or w/e tf that garbage is, I usually dont notice the name until im already on the page. I'm just sayin, I could easily imagine a few circumstances that would lead to someone not getting the obvious sarcasm in the headline.

Deceptichum

It’s Jezebel, which tells us nothing except that I’m surprised they’re still in business.

pastermil

I think Jezebel should be included in the "something like that"

refalo

what if they listened but still disagreed with the protestors?

pastermil

Then at least they should be able to say why they disagree exactly instead of "aNtiSeMiTiSm"

refalo

But would that change the outcome? I assume not really.

pastermil

I guess not. But then again the chance of it happening is zero, or close to it.

roguetrick

Are you asking if direct action campaigns work against the powerful that disagree? Yes, yes they do.

loopedcandle

Ok listen, I'm all in favor of Israel knocking it the f*ck off and students protesting, but this article is written with a very specific skew.

Last week, Columbia University summoned an army of heavily armed, riot gear-clad police officers to attack its own students for peacefully protesting Israel’s war on Gaza and the university’s financial ties to Israel.

Couple of notes here. * It has evolved to a non peaceful protest. Some neo-nazi assholes were physically engaging with Jewish students. That's not cool. * A good number of nom-students showed up and we're the ones causing the problems. * Columbia called the local police to disperse a situation that was getting unsafe fast, because a university isn't really qualified to do that. Which is the right call IMO. It's the NYPD that choose riot gear.

Should it have been handled differently? Yes. Was the school dumb? Yes. We really don't need this slanted BS news to see that.

This is some of the quotes from a Newsweek article:

One video posted on X, formerly Twitter, showed a masked protester outside the university's gates appearing to chant: "Go back to Poland!"

Another video showed a man telling Jewish students outside the campus gates that "the 7th of October is going to be every day for you."

Sgt_choke_n_stroke

Devolved into non peaceful protests?

You got a source there, buddy?

loopedcandle

I live nearby, I walked by.

I think (I don't know for sure) that the students were peaceful, it looks like it got co-opted by a few loud neo-nazis who were being assholes.

My thing is the original article was pretty off.

catsarebadpeople

Then maybe arrest the Nazis instead of beating the actual protesters and shutting down the protest? Interesting that the absolute thinnest veil of an excuse is enough for you to be ok with police brutalizing innocent people who just happen to be exercising their right to protest.

loopedcandle , edited

Ok I. The interest of an honest conversation these are my thoughts:

  • I haven't seen any reports of beatings during the arrests. Can you send me something if you saw that? Were there brutalizations taking place? If so, you're absolutely right.
  • I have no problem with the protest, but I do think there is a line between protest and vandalism/rioting. I went to the NYC MeToo marches and a protest in DC against the US in Iraq when I was younger, causing material damage is just not what you do. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/campus-protests-live-updates-students-occupy-columbia-university-rcna149926
  • Looking at the pictures of the baracades and furniture, doesn't Columbia have an obligation to disperse a situation that is becoming dangerous? Isn't that one of the police's jobs?
  • I haven't been in a situation like that, but I'm pretty sure the police officer in that situation can't tell the difference between a Nazi and not a Nazi. And they might not self identify. I'm guessing things are getting heated. I read somewhere (sorry I don't have a source on this either) that the students were let off with a misdemeanor of trespassing, and the identified external agitators were charged with more. Then the students freely went back to protesting. I'm going to reiterate, b.c. this is the internet, I would be protesting Israel too if I were a bit younger. My issue is with the way the story was reported.
Sgt_choke_n_stroke

trust me bro

Got it, that's your source?

postmateDumbass

<The poster above me may be a government agent>

Sgt_choke_n_stroke

Yep I'm a government agent part of a 3 letter organization to institute gay space communism in america

Source: trust me bro

Snapz

So many words for a useless response with no substance or meaningful source

WhoIsTheDrizzle , edited

*Columbia called the local police to disperse a situation that was getting unsafe fast*

Got it, so they called in backup for the neo-nazi assholes.