We have a couple of days of readers’ wildlife photos left, but I’m holding off until the encampment here ends so I can document it (more photos and videos later today).
Yesterday the protestors removed a lot of small Jewish flags that had been strung up by the Jewish students a few days ago, and also tore down some of the big (and expensive) banners that the Jewish students had put up over the weekend. The installation of all the flags and banners were, of course, approved by the University. Here are (or were) two of the large ones. Note that they are peaceful, referring only to the hostages and giving a QR code to read about Hamas.
The Chicago Maroon reports this vandalism of Jewish signage, as well as someone calling the Jewish students trying to replace the banners “rats”, and shows a photo of the torn-down small Jewish flags. Bolding in the main text is mine:
April 29, 10:32 p.m.:
Maroons for Israel set up their Israeli flags again. Someone with a dog watching them said, “The dog smells some rats.” This incident was caught on video and confirmed by the Maroon.
Noting that the Israeli flags were going up again, encampment organizers made an announcement telling protestors not to engage with “Zionists” or “counter-protestors,” stressing that confrontations were a threat to the entire encampment.
— Eva McCord and Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editors-in-Chief, Emma Janssen, Deputy News Editor
April 29, 9:50 p.m.:
The string of Israeli flags hung earlier in the day were taken down. The flags, along with the poster on a nearby lamppost, were approved by the University.
This marks 12 hours of the encampment.
— Eva McCord and Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editors-Chief and Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor
The calling of the Jewish students “rats” is part of the anti-Semitism fomented by the demonstration. And since the Maroon has video of this, it can be confirmed.
How much longer will the administration tolerate this kind of divisive behavior. Tearing down banners and calling Jewish students “rats” (something not unknown during the Third Reich) is not bringing the campus together, but fracturing it. Does the administration care? How long will they let this charade persist, a performative demonstration that both the President and Dean admit is against university regulations. Are we becoming Harvard, treating different groups differently, even when they violate University rules?
The Maroon’s photo:
Here’s the official statement of our President:
The last three paragraphs implicitly threaten the demonstrators because the encampment is “a way of using force of a kind.” But it does not affirm that the encampment will be dismantled, nor give a time limit for how long it will be allowed to stand. It’s clear that the encampment is already disrupting scholarship, not only by alienating the Jewish students by vandalizing their signs, but by obstructing the quad, and, especially, by allow signs to stand that block the main sidewalks accessing the quads from north and south, like this one.
My prediction, which I hope will not come true, is that the administration will continue to tolerate the encampment despite the threats of reprisal for violating University regulations. It won’t look good if they bring in the cops to remove protestors: I was once told by an administrator that the thing that would make the University look bad was “laying hands on students.” But without forcible removal of protestors and dismantling the encampment, it will stay. Since many of the protestors, I think, are not part of the University community, they won’t feel threatened by warnings about suspension.
Of course the Jewish students were extremely upset that their banners, which cost a lot of money to make, were ripped down by the protestors (notice that the vandalism is all by one side), and the protest itself (look at the map of Israel above) smacks of Israel hatred. The tearing down of the signs, however, smacks of Jew hatred, as the signs are not about Israel, but about the hostages and Hamas.
To provide some solace for the distressed Jewish students, Rabbi Yossi of Chabad and Rabbi Anna of Hillel stood for hours yesterday in the center of the quad, just outside the encampment, acting as a magnet for about 25-30 of the students. The students did not shout and they did not chant; they just stood in a group that was at once upset and defiant. I admire Yossi and Anna for going to the demonstration to show the Jewish students that someone cared.
Here’s the emailed letter we got from the Dean of Students:
Dean Rasmussen’s letter is stronger, affirming that the encampment is violating University policy, and implying that the signs blocking the sidewalks are, too. She notes that the camping protestors have been put “on notice”, but I don’t know how. The Deans on Call are empowered to ask for student IDs, which must be shown upon demand, but they have not done this. This is a nonviolent way of identifying which protestors are students, and getting their names should they be punished. Note that the email does not give any specific time limit for the encampment, nor a firm assurance that violators of University policy will be disciplined.
Although there are high-minded words about free speech in both letters—and, indeed, protests against what’s happening in Gaza are free speech—the encampment is not about free speech. In fact, the protestors prohibit any interaction with university officials, the press, or “Zionists”. It is about whether protestors can violate university policies for the time, place, and manner of such speech, and do so with impunity. The encampment is there to test the mettle and resolve of the University of Chicago to defend freedom of speech by preventing its disruption, and to ensure that the University is not impeded from carrying out its mission. So far, the University is failing the test.
So far, the University’s “threats” seem toothless, and are fracturing the campus, allowing Jewish students to have their banners vandalized and to be characterized as “rats”. I hope with all my heart that my University recognizes that an important part of free speech is allowing it to be exercised without disrupting the academic mission of the University. So far, the University have recognized that only in words, not in deeds.
And, of course, tearing down the banners of Jewish students is an explicit violation of free speech. Will those who did it be identified and punished? I wouldn’t count on it.
As my Polish friend Malgorzata said (she lost most of her relatives in the Holocaust), “I don’t understand how this can happen in America.”
I’ll be back later with photos and video of the encampment. So far the protestors seem to be there for the long haul, as they’re well equipped with food, tents (including a medical tent) and other supplies.
Finally, as all the readers know here, I’m an atheist, and reject the tenets of Judaism as I reject the tenets of all faiths. But that doesn’t extend to a group of students who are being attacked and terrorized by the campers, and their pro-Israel signs and flags ripped apart and thrown on the ground. The head of one Jewish organization in Chicago posted this mantra on her Facebook page, which also appeared on Twitter:
✡️💙 pic.twitter.com/dJJNy7U15d
— Brett Gursky (@BrettGursky) December 14, 2023
And, yes, I’m getting Jewisher (culturally, not religiously) and I call on the administration to not only prevent vandalism of the Jewish students’ own free expression, but to dismantle the illegal encampment before it tears the University apart. SJP and UCUP can march and holler as much as it wants, but it cannot be allowed to violate University rules.
Oh, and President Alivisatos, you know that although the administration would rather do anything than call the police to dismantle the encampment you recognize as illegal, Title VI lawsuits against the University will surely follow, as the night the day.
Re: “free speech” and “free expression”:
The “meme”-based approach:
“You keep using that word* ; I do not think it means what you think it means.”
-Ingo Montoya
The Princess Bride
1987
*[peaceably, assemble, speech… river, sea, free…]
The literature-based approach:
The following operational philosophy was not addressed (bold added) :
“There is no true word that is not at the same time a praxis. Thus, to speak a true word is to transform the world.”
[…]
“When a word is deprived of its dimension of action, […] denunciation is impossible […] and there is no transformation without action.”
-Paulo Freire
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
1968 (Spanish, Original)
Apologies for repeating this from the previous posts, but I think it helps demystify the They Scouts For Freedom. It is just one selection from the critical studies literature.
Surround them, make it impossible to get out unless they caught and prevent anyone from getting in and for those in there cut off water, power, Wi-Fi and if possible, the sewerage and let them start to starve and stink.
I suspect the university does not have the private security resources to cordon the grounds or do a counter-blockade. The Chicago police are needed all over one of America’s most violent cities and cannot stand permanent guard on what is essentially a summer camp for rich kids.
But you would think the university could at least lock the doors to the buildings. Then would-be occupiers will have to commit break and enter, something the CPD can arrest them for. You have to remember, though, that property crime is no longer punished in America’s cities. If the owner of a corner store can’t get the police to respond to a B&E, it’s not likely the university will get better service, especially since it is the social-justice policy mill the university represents that enabled this state of affairs.
“… it is the social-justice policy mill the university represents that enabled this state of affairs.”
So true, Leslie. Calling the police you were calling the city to defund in 2020 is pretty laughable. They (the University) need to clean up their own mess. Enforce their own rules.
I saw a video of a protester smashing a pane of glass in what was a building door, presumably to unlock the door. This was at Columbia, earlier today.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2024/04/30/columbia-protest-breaking-window-hamilton-hall-digvid.cnn
Yeah, I was being cynical. I admit I lost respect for all of this a long time ago.
If they burn something down, it’ll be arson.
At https://incidentreports.uchicago.edu/ there is a public record of police and fire incidents logged by UChicago Safety and Security, a little more complete than the daily newsletter emails (which only report “major incidents”).
I apologize for the bad formatting resulting from the cut-and-paste into this comment form (on the log site it is a row in a web-page table), but the following entry seems to be about the destruction of the pro-Israeli displays. (I have added in square brackets the column label where not obvious.)
Criminal Damage to Property
5800 S. Greenwood (Main Quad)
4/29/24 10:03 PM [Reported]
4/29/24 10:03 PM [Occurred]
An approved flag display was torn down and damaged by unknown person(s)
Open [Disposition]
24-00422 [UCPD #]
Here’s another entry probably related. From yesterday, mid-morning — somebody going to class felt the need for police escort.
Information [Incident]
1101 E. 58th St. (Main Quad)
4/29/24 10:21 AM [Reported]
4/29/24 10:15 AM [Occurred]
A person was escorted from the Quad to their classroom
Closed [Disposition]
24-00418 [UCPD#]
The administration of UC (or any school) should make explicit what behavior WILL NOT be tolerated and then act upon it. The protestors will go away eventually, but only when they feel the protest is successful or useless. It’s not clear when they would decide it’s useless, but it’s not anything that is likely to happen soon. What the University should NOT do, is to make a statement about what isn’t allowed, and then allow it. Once they have decided, they should be prepared to act, and, if they aren’t, then they shouldn’t be releasing statements. Allow it or don’t. By not doing anything, they are allowing it. As the old saying goes, the decision not to decide is still a decision.
True. Never issue an ultimatum that you both know will be ignored and both know will not be enforced. What happens when squatters’ rights kick in? Just 30 days in New York. Anyone know in Illinois? The police won’t get involved in landlord-tenant disputes unless the landlord attempts an illegal eviction. Then they arrest the landlord.
We are dealing with the unraveling of a social construct. People respect private property until it becomes widely considered theft, and then they steal it back. What happens when people no longer accept fiat paper money, or electronic digits on a spreadsheet, and demand gold, or oil, or sex to settle accounts?
As with ThyroidPlanet above, apologies for repetition from a previous post, but I’ve added the context this time:
“A few years after the bonfire of the mob came for him and his family. Like he said, it’s always the same—they start out burning books and end up burning people. Out of his parents and five kids, he was the only survivor.
“He passed through three camps in five years—all of them death camps, including Auschwitz. Because it was such a miracle he had survived, I asked him what he had learned.
“He laughed. ‘Nothing you call original,’ he said. Death’s terrible, suffering’s worse, as usual the assholes made up the majority—on both sides of the wire.
“Then he thought for a moment. There was one thing the experience had taught him. He said he’d learned that when millions of people, a whole political system, countless numbers of citizens who believed in God, said they were going to kill you—just listen to them.”
Whisperer turned and looked at me. “So that’s what you meant, huh? You’ve been listening to the Muslim fundamentalists?”
“Yes,” I replied. “I’ve heard bombs going off in our embassies, mobs screaming for blood, mullahs issuing death decrees, so-called leaders yelling for jihad. They’ve been burning books, Dave—the temperature of hate in parts of the Islamic world has gone out to Pluto. And I’ve been listening to them.”
“And you don’t think we have—the people in Washington?” He said it without anger. I was at one time a leading intelligence agent and I think he genuinely wanted to know.
“Maybe in your heads. Not in your gut.” — (Terry Hayes, I Am Pilgrim, part 3, section 5)
Trump has suggested that the protesters on campus should be treated like people who participated in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021
I assume that doesn’t mean he will pardon them like he said he would do to the Jan 6 protestors.
“You kids will take that tent fort in the living room down right now AND I MEAN IT. I’m counting. Five … four … three … two … one and 3/4 .. 1 and 1/2 …. 1 and 1/4 … 1 and 1/6 …”
I wish we had laugh icons here. Thanks for a chuckle amid the grim news.
🎭 I can easily post emojis here when I access the site from my old iPhone. I assume this can be done from other phones, too.
I’m not a legal expert but presumably the Dean and President are opening themselves up to lawsuits when they admit these encampments are against University policy AND they are going to let them occur anyway. As the parent of a current University of Chicago student who spends an exorbitant amount of money for my child to now have his learning disrupted I will be checking on this with counsel.
Yes, they are opening themselves up to a Title VI lawsuit, and I hope they know it. I would certainly write the President, Provost and Dean of Students about this if I were you. There is a lot of illegal stuff that the University is permitting.
Many years of training courses for numerous boards I’ve served on tell us:
1. Have good policy
2. Know your policy
3. Enforce your policy
As I had predicted from the President’s speech at the first Chicago Forum, while the university has excellent policy, this guy ain’t going to enforce it. So the university might as well start writing new weaker policy that he will enforce…good bye to the current charade of the Chicago Principles and Kalven Report. Maybe FIRE should have a special announcement about the former paragon of free speech and expression folding like a cheap suit and no longer being a beacon and example for other universities to emulate. Thanks a lot Mr. President. Thank you Board of Trustees for the terrific search and down-select which brought him to UChicago.
Two words are on every administrator’s mind: Kent State.
Consequently, their reticence to bring in the police is understandable. Probably the best they can do in lieu of police is to identify the protestors and expel them from the university. Most will probably leave. Those that don’t will be trespassing and will be subject to further charges once they leave the encampment.
Whatever the administrators do—at all of the campuses experiencing this unrest—they must do what they say they will do. They cannot create deadlines, threaten action, and then not act! In not following through they demonstrate their impotence and encourage escalation.
At Columbia, failure to follow through has today led to the occupation of a building. If administrators don’t get a handle on this and act with conviction, they *will* risk violence, for eventually, as the disruptions grow (and as outside professional agitators join the fray), there will be no choice but to call in the police or, yes, the National Guard.
Kent State was the National Guard rather than police, but yes, that probably is in the back of everyone’s minds. Are the police in Chicago not trained in non-lethal crowd control techniques? Surely they are. I really don’t understand the administration’s unwillingness to physically confront the encampment — at this stage I think the “optics” of them decisively doing something would be more than positively received.
Humans are deeply fickle. We say we want rules enforced BUT many of us would be viscerally repulsed by any aggressive tactics that might be necessary to disperse a crowd of mostly peaceful but passionate young people. And that repulsion and automatic sympathy is a potent weapon in the hands of protest organizers and their backers. A recruiting tool. The administration may also be concerned by the automatic revolt it would trigger in faculty and staff who espouse the oppressor/oppressed DEI theology or sympathize with the protestors for other reasons. The university’s president is probably hoping that the student protestors will go home for the summer and move on with their lives. Then the staff can clean up the quad and the administrators can formulate a more effective strategy for tackling demonstrations that break the rules. An aside: if the administration, after consulting the president of the faculty, announces that, starting at midnight, demonstrators breaking university rules will be suspended for the fall academic term and perhaps beyond, any fall strategy has a better shot of succeeding than if the administration takes no action at all for this round of rule breaking.
Meanwhile, at the University of Florida, university president Ben Sasse managed to unequivocally condemn the Hamas attacks in October, finding a clarity that eluded many of his peers. Last week, the university’s Division of Student Life reportedly handed out a flyer to demonstrators that clearly outlined allowed versus prohibited activities. It was also quite clear about penalties: violators would be trespassed from campus, students would be suspended, and employees would be fired. On Monday, nine of the protestors were arrested for various violations. University spokesman Steve Orlando (!) commented: “This is not complicated. The University of Florida is not a day care, and we do not treat protesters like children—they knew the rules, they broke the rules, and they’ll face the consequences.”
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/florida/2024/04/26/uf-sets-student-free-speech-boundaries-threatens-3-year-ban-for-rulebreakers/
https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2024/04/29/uf-police-arrest-9-pro-palestinian-protesters-after-days-demonstrations/
Wow, thanks for the info. After all, these students are legal adults. It should not be complicated. No need to send out long missives, just enforce the rules. If it’s a protest within the university rules, it can proceed. If not, then it cannot. Actions taken by the administration in such a case are not caused by the administration, they are caused by the violators.
Awesome that the spokesman’s name is “Steve Orlando”.
Pretty sensible. Thanks for the info & links.
And the Lord said go down ..
Moses ..
way down in Egypt land …
tell ‘ol …
Pharaoh ..
to let my people go
Louis Armstrong
Go Down, Moses
youtu.be/bXFz-4w1YhA?si=Cep9GfW8N2tj6_Po