It's About Damn Time Somebody Stood Up to Them
The University of Michigan Finally Tells Lefties to Stop Breaking Up Events
I’m not sure precisely where it started, but Liberals in America have been breaking up rallies and speeches that they disagree with. Ask Ben Shapiro how many campuses he has been banned from speaking on. Of course, it’s not all about prevention and permit denials. UC Berkley had to stop a rally featuring Isreal speaker Ran Bar-Yoshafat was due to speak about his experiences fighting in Gaza. Leftist protestors broke down the doors in an effort to assault the people inside.
Of course, this is hardly surprising. Their ideological forebears, the original Fascists, the Italians Under Benito Mussolini.
In the provincial centers, Fascist violence was initially used to break the Socialist hold on local administration and labor organizations. Fascists interrupted meetings, beat elected officials, and made impossible the work of local government. Socialists in particular were intimidated, threatened, and even beaten until they resigned. The consequences for the Socialist Party, which was entirely unprepared to counter organized, paramilitary violence, were disastrous. In the province of Bologna, one of “reddest” provinces in the entire Po Valley, where the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) received almost three-quarters of the vote in 1919, the Fascists demolished the Socialist Party in a matter of months. Between March and May 1921, the squads destroyed dozens of newspapers offices, chambers of labor, peasant leagues, cooperatives, and social clubs.6
The Nazis did it, too.
After January 30, 1933, Hitler’s coalition government acted to effectively give Nazi paramilitary units control of the German streets. The SA, which had dramatically increased in size with Nazi electoral success, numbering some 3 million members by mid-1934, disrupted or shut down Leftist assemblies and protests, often with police support. In mid-February, Hermann Göring, the newly named Prussian Minister of the Interior, ordered the police not to hinder SA and SS actions, but to help them. Shortly thereafter, he created an auxiliary police force out of these two Nazi orders. As a result, their violent actions were given state sanction.
Of course, the Liberals in the United States haven’t gotten official government sanction for busting up other people’s rallies just yet. I’d find it hard to believe that it’s not on their to do list, but as of yet, they haven’t received their official government sanction. Although the majority of people arrested for crimes that took place during the BLM riots were never prosecuted, so they’re getting there. Especially when over a thousand people were convicted for the January Sixth Protests. But, to be fair, they seem to be okay with political violence as long as they’re the ones committing it.
It’s about time Lefties feel some backlash for their actions. I’m not saying they shouldn’t be allowed to state an opinion. Leftoids have as much right to voice an opinion as I do. I just think a little self restraint would seem to be in order. Burning cities and physical attacks are not how civilized people debate politics.
Except that they University of Michigan seems to be flirting with standing up to Leftists breaking up events even if, in this case, it doesn’t seem mean to protect political protests from either side:
University of Michigan officials are considering a policy that would sanction students for any activity deemed disruptive to university operations or facilities, which would likely impact on-campus protests or other demonstrations.
The "Disruptive Activity" policy proposal comes days after a group of students protesting Israel disrupted an academic ceremony on March 24 honoring the academic achievements of undergraduate students, which the event's invitation calls "one of the University’s most important academic traditions." The students' protest interrupted university President Santa Ono as he made a speech at the ceremony, according to reporting by The Michigan Daily.
Sunday's protest at the university was organized by a group called the TAHRIR Coalition, which encompasses more than 80 student organizations, according to The Michigan Daily. The coalition is a student-led movement which advocates for the university to pull out of investments linked to Israel's military actions in Gaza. The students cite investments made by the university in companies such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
The Left’s actions are hardly surprising. Harvard’s Claudine Gay supported threats to Jewish students on her campus and called it “Freedom of Speech” as well. This is nothing new. Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president when the St. Louis, a shipload of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution, was denied entry to the US. Anti-Semitism is a theme as common among Democrats as it is among the KKK and Neo-Nazis.
But it is nice to see the University of Michigan taking a stand against this type of thing. The undergraduate students who were being awarded had just as much right to enjoy the fruits of their academic labors as the protesters had to protest. The protesters could just as easily held their rally somewhere else, or in the same space on a different day. Their decision to break up an award ceremony was clearly meant to terrorize and intimidate by making university functions unsafe if their demands were not met.
The university seems to be sensitive to this:
On Tuesday, Ono wrote in a statement posted to the community that the event's interruption brought "profound disappointment" to the students, parents and other well-wishers who had shown up to the academic ceremony.
"Like many of you, I am proud of our university’s history of protest. But none of us should be proud of what happened on Sunday," he wrote. "We all must understand that, while protest is valued and protected, disruptions are not. One group’s right to protest does not supersede the right of others to participate in a joyous event."
And it sounds like this policy, assuming it’s adopted, may just have some teeth.
The policy would slap offending students with written notice for disruptive activity and give them an opportunity to meet with a U-M official. Students could then accept responsibility and sanctions including restriction from employment at U-M, formal reprimand, probation, restitution or other punishments. Students could also request a hearing to determine responsibility. If found responsible, they would face sanctions.
Real world consequences make sense for real world actions. Good for the University of Michigan. I hope this policy is adopted, and I hope other schools will adopt something similar.