This is a very good piece by a colleague accusing university presidents of lying, in their own narrow self-interest, about what's happening on campuses. Their craven behavior barely protects them and makes everyone else far less safe. Including Muslim and Jewish students, faculty, and staff.
I should have also tagged #UCLA which is also featured in this piece, though the author is at USC. UCLA had the horrorshow of protesters getting attacked for hours by far-right counterprotesters including Nazis and violent right-wing Israel supporters (below).
The only violence at USC (my campus) was #LAPD. On both campuses (and nearly all others), the actual student protesters were peaceful.
"To support the training and legitimacy of their own on-campus police force during the 1960s and 1970s, university leaders increased police budgets and lobbied for expanded statutory authority. University leaders steadily increased budgets to outfit and support police officers."
Aftermath of #Petrocultures2024 last week: colleagues are now sending emails urging the Academic Senate to take up the matter of #policing on campus. Because there was a SERIOUS police presence/perimeter. A number of attendees dropped out in protest of that alone... & I don't blame them one bit
I think it's gonna take a lot more than eloquent letters... And unf I don't think we should plan any more conferences for police state campuses, ever again
An attempt by the government to widen police powers over protests has been ruled unlawful by the High Court.
Two judges have now ruled that the Home Office acted outside of its powers, and did not properly consult on the move.
The regulations, passed by MPs in June last year, lowered the threshold for what protest activity counts as "serious disruption" in England and Wales.
"A handful of powerful businessmen pushed New York City Mayor Eric Adams to use police to crack down on pro-Palestinian student protesters at #Columbia University, donating to the politician and offering to pay for private investigators to help break up the demonstrations, based on leaked WhatsApp conversations"
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal must ensure the Police Service of Northern Ireland and other police forces are held to account for surveilling journalists. A free press is essential for an open and functioning democracy.
ORG joined with Committee to Protect Journalists, Amnesty International UK, Index on Censorship and Reporters Without Borders UK to support Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey in their case.
"The way to fight #crime is not with stops based on hunches and pretext, but by investing proactively in communities and with #policing targeted at people for whom there is suspicion of serious criminal conduct.
On the other hand, there is a real #trafficSafety problem in this country… #transportation officials should focus their efforts... better lighting… #protectedBikeLanes & pedestrian crossings; self-ticketing cars with speed limiters, … [#transit]" 🚎 🚲
meanwhile in #Portland, "PPB Expands Central Bike Squad" ...to ten (10) total. It wouldn't hurt a few of the rest to get out of their ($80k/each) cars sometimes though, the city is less than an hour wide on #eBikes.
@enobacon The other way of looking at DDACTS would be to recognize that where you build stroads (especially when you bulldoze pre-existing neighborhoods to do so), you not only get vehicular violence, you also increase gun, knife, fist… every possible type of violence as well as property crime. You can’t arrest or ticket your way out of bad planning. City planners rather than cops should have been the primary users of this data from the start.
Unleash the litigation gates! These universities calling the police on their students will be in litigation for years. And those costs don't include the $ NYC is bleeding paying for these cops.:
In an interview I just taped with Rashid Khalidi about #Columbia he said words to the effect of "this is the neoliberal dream of the university--no students, no professors, just administrators and cops on campus"
"police raids do not serve a university’s own interests in maintaining peace and civility on campus. The 1960s made that crystal clear. Bringing law enforcement to campus invariably intensifies protests, fuels acrimony, and creates a climate of distrust. Police involvement doesn’t dampen protests; it accelerates them, often with devastating consequences"
If you're in the UK, check out this new Rough Sleeping Criminal Justice Bill. Feel free to boost this for visibility or add hashtags - I think it's important to set &/or maintain the precedent that these laws be debated and critiqued very thoroughly. Telling someone with no home to 'move along' is a stiff order. That police could be asked to uphold this law (as it is written) could carry a risk of moral injury to our coppers.
“Nuisance rough sleeping” starts at s.59, and the offending smelly “rough sleeping condition” can be found at s.69(5)(c). Including words from subs.(4):
> A person does “something that is a nuisance” if the person ... causes or does something capable of causing ... damage to the environment (including excessive noise, smells, litter or deposits of waste)...
If one were to parody this, I'd propose the following as a start:
"Sleeping in public in the UK must now be done only in a suit and tie or equivalent formal dress, whilst wearing a perfume. Snoring is illegal. Campaigners are lobbying the government to permit it to be carried out whilst wearing a polo-shirt and chinos, however the government maintain that this is a slippery slope to people wearing pyjamas in public, and thence anarchy."
Information about one's MP is available at https://www.theyworkforyou.com/ if you feel further critique of this law is a worthy cause. I'd suggest any MP pushing for this would get positive media coverage.
My 1st study as part of my PhD has been published. It explores the circumstances of seriously harmed missing children and the associated guardianship opportunities and issues.