How is GOP War on Students Going?

[Truman62]

How did that Peaceful UTD Protest go?

Very well except for the brutality of the local cops.

I am a history professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. At 4:03 p.m. on Wednesday, May 1, I was arrested along with 20 other faculty, students, alumni, and community members.

Fifteen minutes earlier, university administrators released a statement assuring the protection of peaceful student protest and freedom of speech. Along with this assurance came an immediate order to disperse a student-created “Gaza Liberation” encampment calling for the university to divest from five weapons companies responsible for the systematic killing of Palestinian people. As a historian, I teach my students about the importance of citing sources with clarity and specificity, so I noticed that the order did not reference any specific campus policies. Still, I attempted to comply.

A ring of students locked arms and sat calmly at the center of the encampment. A colleague and I stood silently well outside the encampment but between the students and the army of riot-gear-clad state troopers, who were flanked by officers from at least four other law enforcement agencies. They massed in front of what appeared to be a tank. Behind us, another professor implored the advancing officers that force was unnecessary. I had no illusion that an out-of-shape, middle-aged professor could actually offer physical protection for my students, but I believe in peaceful protest. This was my attempt to demonstrate disapproval of an extreme and unnecessary show of force. For this, I was arrested with 20 others. We face up to six months in jail on charges of criminal trespassing at the university where we study, teach, and learn.

We were chained at the wrist, feet, and legs, and piled into police vans. There we sat for almost 30 minutes in a metallic, un-air conditioned, sunbaked sweat box before being brought to a jail in an adjacent county where an officer lectured us about the “suicide” of Sandra Bland. Despite being arrested in Dallas County, we were booked into the Collin County Jail and arraigned. We will be tried in the neighboring, more conservative jurisdiction.

https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2024/05/what-my-students-and-i-learned-in-jail-after-protesting-on-the-ut-dallas-campus/

[Truman62]

Seems White American students and police have no problem denying others their right
to free speech and peaceful protests.

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The University of Mississippi has opened at least one student conduct investigation after videos of pro-Palestinian protesters surrounded by counterprotesters circulated online, including one that many have singled out as racist.

Chancellor Glenn F. Boyce sent a letter to students and staff on Friday noting that Ole Miss leaders were aware of behaviors that were "offensive, hurtful, and unacceptable, including actions that conveyed hostility and racist overtones" at Thursday's protest.

"While student privacy laws prohibit us from commenting on any specific student, we have opened one student conduct investigation," Boyce wrote. "We are working to determine whether more cases are warranted."

On Thursday, a group of roughly 30 to 60 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered on the quad and added to the list of demonstrations on college campuses nationwide. But the event turned hostile as they were outnumbered by counterprotesters, who at one point drowned out the chants of protesters by singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Videos of the event circulated online, with many noting that the pro-Palestinian demonstrators appeared to be a multiracial group but were surrounded by a mostly white group of counterprotesters taunting them.

One confrontation drew particular offense, in which a Black female graduate student on the protest side of a barricade went up to two young men to record the group as they yelled in her direction.

In the corner of one widely shared video, a man can be seen jumping up and down and appearing to make a noise to imitate an ape at the woman.

Other members of the group yelled "Lizzo" and "Lock her up" at the woman, who was guided away by police.

The university's Black Student Union released a statement in solidarity with the pro-Palestinian group, whom they described as "nonviolent demonstrators who were advocating for Palestine," according to The Daily Mississippian.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/ole-miss-opens-conduct-investigation-protest-confrontation-rcna150764