Maryam Alwan figured the worst was over after New York City police in riot gear arrested her and other protesters on the Columbia University campus, loaded them onto buses and held them in custody for hours.
But the next evening, the college junior received an email from the university. Alwan and other students were being suspended after their arrests at the “ Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” a tactic colleges across the country have deployed to calm growing campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war.
The students’ plight has become a central part of protests, with students and a growing number of faculty demanding their amnesty. At issue is whether universities and law enforcement will clear the charges and withhold other consequences, or whether the suspensions and legal records will follow students into their adult lives.
If they’re unable to get a sealed record at trial, they will be required to disclose all charges leading to conviction on any employment or housing application they complete. It’s horribly prejudicial of our system to allow the assumption that those with convictions are unworthy of employment or housing.
System working as intended. All of this was intended to keep minorities (most black ppl) in a perpetual state of incarceration. Only now the groups deemed undesirable have expanded. We could’ve fixed it decades ago but the majority of this country (white ppl) were fine with it because it didn’t affect them.
The epitome of its not my problem until it is
Step 1: keep slavery as punishment for crime.
Step 2: criminalize everything, overpolice black people.
Land of the free.
“Land of the free”
Whoever told you that is your enemy!
Now something must be done?
Bernie Sanders was arrested at protests in his youth, iirc. If there is any glimmer of hope in this shit storm, maybe in forty years a few of these students will be leading s political movement together as senators and representatives.
It’s restrictive to working in the private sector and renting an apartment. There is no disqualification for criminal background for a member of government. Trump can be elected if he’s convicted of any or all of the charges he’s facing. He’d just be barred from voting in the election.
Not entirely true. If he were convicted of treason, that’s a disqualifier based on the constitution.
If you simply gift Clarence an RV the Constitution is no obstacle to committing crimes against America.
That’s true, but he’s not being charged with treason in any of the cases.
Actually no. The supreme court’s decision explicitly said that clause was not self executing, meaning even someone convicted of treason cannot be disqualified without an act of Congress. It was one of the dumber decisions to come out of the court and that’s saying something.
Awesome, all of these arrested young folk should run for congress
Disliking genocide puts them far above many congressmen already. Disliking it enough to be arrested is a great reason to vote for them.
Unfortunately criminal arrests are only going to fuck up their lives. It takes a fuckload of money and backing to get into Congress.
I thought being a convicted felon prevented him from being on the ballot. Or maybe that was for primaries?
Nope. It just stops him from voting. Treason would exclude him from holding office according to the Constitution, but he’s not charged with treason.
Not exactly a bad idea for the people doing something like hiring a pharmaceutical delivery driver to be able to check who they’re hiring.
What does protesting got to do with one’s risk of running a pharma heist?
It’s horribly prejudicial of our system to allow the assumption that those with convictions are unworthy of employment or housing.
Holy shit the faculty against this need to strike immediately in solidarity. What the fuck sort of dystopia are we in that students are arrested and suspended for protesting? For protesting genocide? What the actual fuck.
Google called the police on and fired anyone remotely involved with the quiet sit-in in protest of Project Nimbus. No investigation, no finesse, nothing. Just straight up intimidation.
So listen, I’m not pro Hamas. Killing non settlers at a music festival is just terroristic murder and even killing random settlers is both counterproductive and terroristic even though most of them are very bad people. That said, this framing is ridiculous:
Some demonstrations have included hate speech, antisemitic threats or support for Hamas, the group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, sparking a war in Gaza that has left more than 34,000 dead.
Blaming Hamas for Israel’s slaughter is exactly the same as justifying Hamas’s actions. That’s very much a pro-genocide statement.
Spot on! Fuck Hamas and all the terroristic acts against Jews and innocent lives. But one should also be able to recognise the ongoing crimes and genocide of the right wing Israeli government. Do they really think this war will lead to the destruction of Hamas or antisemitism in the region? I bet we will se double the amount of antisemites/terrorists in the future and nothing will have changed. The west is losing its face and the region was never further away from peace. Hamas trapped the Israeli government into a war and the Israeli extremists were more than happy to use the opportunity for this genocide. Seems like nobody is honestly interested in peace and the victims will be the Palistinian people and some festival goers.
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a tactic colleges across the country have deployed to quash growing campus protests against the genocide in Gaza.
FTFY
So if the snipers don’t kill them today, they won’t be able to get a job in 20 years.
(I know exactly where that sniper at IU is standing and exactly where the protesters are and it is direct line-of-sight.)
But I was assured they weren’t snipers! Even though we should “treat them like snipers”? Umm so should I bring them coffee or call an artillery mission? Nobody told me whether they were friendly or enemy Not Snipers!?!
I’ve seen a more close-up view of the Ohio one which suggest that might not be a gun, but that is so clearly a gun in the IU one that it’s pretty damn hard to deny.
Wow, talk about trying to scare people into not protesting. However, it could have the opposite effect. Take away from the protestors and they have less to lose. They may start to shine a light on injustices at home, too.
I imagine they’re going to get sued in civil for refund of tuition.
people who protested vietnam, sexism, occupy wall street, etc and weren’t rich or well connected enough had to live with whatever actions their universities and local law enforcement institutions did to them for the rest of their lives and without this country changing its course; so i suspect that only the people paying attention will take note and be branded a tankie if they take any action.
Weird. I protested on my campus in college and I wasn’t arrested or suspended.
It’s almost like there’s a constitutional right to do so?
Yes, but most didn’t have consequences and managed to effect change. Even if it wasn’t as much change as they wanted.
It looks like they are trying to use heavy handed tactics and fear, as well as self interest to quell the action. Its unlikely to work well as most are doing so selflessly.
In fact it may embolden others rather than scare them off, or increase from a peaceful protest to having masks for anonymity etc.
Yes, many suffered repercussions for Vietnam era protests bit they wear it with a badge of pride now and conscription is done politically. Mental health of personnel. Is also considered more, RHA is to protests and sympathy.
Wow this is fuckkkkkked up
Based solely on the over-reactions of the authorities, I’m guessing these protests are threatening a lot of money.
Lmao they thought suspending students for exercising their first amendment rights was going to calm things down? We have truly forgotten how to deal with protests in this country without resorting to authoritarianism.
To forget something you have to have known in the first place. The US has a very very long history of trying to smash protests with the law. All the way back to the whiskey rebellion and before.
To be fair the Whiskey rebellion was more of an armed insurrection than a protest. But yeah, point taken.
Well the whole USofA as a nation is a violent protest in long form. Kinda hard to say they never knew the thing that started them.
The first amendment? Never heard of it.
Innocent until proven guilty? Pfffff, Arrest records are used to punish on the daily.
Imagine living in a country where the government says fear the other party and their insurrectionists but let them go free and instead arrest protesters. But at least Biden wiggled in some last minute toothless bill about transgender people while “slaying” his opponent with name calling.
Fascism
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It’s a risk that shouldn’t exist when practicing freedom of speech in a peaceful manner.
Not all of them have been peaceful, and it’s still private property and they can ask you to leave, with legal consequences if you don’t. And a lot of the rhetoric and chants have advocated violence.
The consequence should be the inconvenience of protesting. Even if you’re willing to go to jail doesn’t mean you want to.
Is it just to be jailed for protesting genocide?
No. But you wear your arrest like a badge of honor, not ask for your record to be cleaned so you can go back to your capitalist 9-5, and protest on weekends
I can give you plenty of reasons where it would be.
To start with, you haven’t defined your terms.
Is jailed actually jailed, or does book and release count?
What is your definition of protest here?
There are many things that have to be defined before you can try to pay you’re little word game there.
Wow, you’re a pedantic one.
Is jailed actually jailed, or does book and release count?
It you’re put in a jail, you’ve been jailed. Note: jail, not prison.
What is your definition of protest here?
What? I have never heard anyone need this defined for them. Look it up yourself.
There are many things that have to be defined before you can try to pay you’re little word game there.
You listed two thing, both well defined. I need you to define the word “defined,” “before,” and “word game” please. I can’t understand your comment.
“At what point does a legal protest become an illegal one?” would I guess be a better way to say it
My point is that what one person considers a peaceful protest, another can not.
If it’s a 99% peaceful protest does it still count.
For the record I understand your point to a point, but yes some people do deserve to be jailed for protesting genocide.
Just like the people who think anortion is basically baby genocide and fire bomb abortion clinics deserve to go to jail
Yeah, you didn’t say “peaceful” but also I’ve seen no evidence of violence from students in these protests. That said, I haven’t really kept up with it. Maybe there’s an instance of violence, but you can use collective punishment to hold them all accountable for that. If you do then no protest is allowed. I haven’t seen anyone defend anyone using violence. You’re bringing that up as a strawman.
You asked if it is just to be jailed for protesting genocide.
I said yes, you didn’t ask is it right for these students to be jailed.
People like to use questions that are extremely vague in conjunction with subjects that are related, but not as strongly as the questioned asked.
That is bullshit wordgamery and I will call it out
Such transparent dogshit on display here xD you insist that they define basic words like “jailed” and “peaceful” and “protest” , and accuse them of “wordgamery” bc you can’t understand the basic English words they’re saying. Just letting you know nobody is falling for this, you’re just making yourself look stupid by acting like others’ words are utterly incomprehensible when it’s obviously not :3
You asked if it is just to be jailed for protesting genocide.
I said yes, you didn’t ask is it right for these students to be jailed.
How is it ever just to be jailed for protesting genocide. Maybe it is while sometimes, if you do something illegal in conjunction with it. The act itself isn’t illegal though, so getting arrested for it is unjust.
I feel like peaceful is the difference between protesting and rioting
It isn’t, but I’ll take the bait anyway. Where were these students not peaceful? I haven’t seen it yet.
Just FYI, MLK Jr, the person most known for “peaceful protest” today in the US, was said to have been starting riots by much of the mainstream media. It’s easy to say people are rioting to make people disagree with them, especially if you use violence against them and accuse them of being violent now.
No, and that you thought it might have been is the scariest thing to me. This is why people should exercise their rights, otherwise the population doesn’t even know what rights are there and which aren’t. And not knowing those rights, can’t see them being encroached.
i’m not really sure how this is unfair. protesting can mean running up against laws and breaking them. the question is whether the cause you’re protesting for means enough to you to accept that.
Because it is unrelated to their studies/work at the university and they shouldnt be attacked for it by their institution/employer for their political views.
just being a student doesn’t give you permission to use college campuses as you want. if you break rules or laws, there’s consequences for that. if you believe that what you stand for is the most important thing, then you accept the consequences as a feature of what you’re campaigning for. If you don’t, then your heart isn’t really in it and you just want to do whatever you want and get away with it because you feel like that’s what you deserve.
It’s not illegal to protest.
protesting has rules and boundaries. you are allowed to organise and protest within those, and going outside of that is usually a civil office (like trespass) or a criminal one depending on what goes on. These students are likely committing trespass.
I’ll go with colleges are failing their basic mission of providing a safe place to help kids develop into adults. Whether you agree with them or not, the university should be in the business of creating that safe place, helping develop the future, not escalating, not poisoning the future of the kids entrusted to them.
i hear you, but there’s a difference between letting kids develop into adults and supporting students who trespass. You don’t just get to break laws because you’re a student and your school should support you to develop.
