As with the other days, there's not much to report on the UC Irvine Muslim Student Union's week of anti-Israel events (with no events). Today, there was only the wall again. Oh yes. The MSU was able to draw some students to their table with free bottled water on a very hot day. They also spread out across Ring Road with paper banners saying all kinds of unkind things about Israel and forcing annoyed students to walk around them. I recall in years past when speakers at the flagpoles were doing their thing, the audience was sitting on the steps in front of the flagpoles leading up to Ring Road, and cops made sure that the sides of the steps were clear for students passing through.
Hey campus police! Are they allowed to block access on UCI's main pedestrian walkway?
They also used a bullhorn to voice their message to all who could hear.
Question: Did MSU have a permit from the campus to use voice enhancements? They are required to according to my understanding.
Well, different rules for different folks, as they say.
I also learned today that on Wednesday, a Jewish student wearing a kippah was standing next to the apartheid wall reading one of the banners when two campus cops ordered him to leave the wall. Why? Because they knew that the student was on the other side. The student argued the point but followed the officers' orders.
So it appears that the campus police are turning their backs on rules when it comes to one group and making up rules for another.
* There are no pictures of this because it is my policy as a UCI teacher not to film UCI students.
I find it interesting that the UCI Cops demanded that a. Jewish student remove himself from the Hate-Wall. Do the Cops know about First Amendment Rights. Or, is the hate-Wall area a no go zone like those in France? Maybe someone needs to inform the Jewish students that no-go zones exist on campus, sanctioned by the UCI Anministration and unsourced by the Cops.
ReplyDeletePolice Officers who are aware of the First Amendment, California Penal Code and Cas Law, know there must be a reason (cause) in order to take police action. Did the UCI Cops think that the Jewist student was a terrorist, an extremist, or a person violating the law by reading?
I if was there, I would have asked the police why they are taking this action and taken names for future use. A video of the action would have been interesting to present to action groups that are concerned with civil rights of campus students and violations of First Amendment Rights.
Now if the Campus Police think that the MSU would get violent because a Jewish student is reading the vile propaganda on the Hat-A
Wall, they are not taking action with the right individuals or group.
Squid
I hope that UCIPD is not going back to the potted plant days when they stood by while a photographer was surrounded and accosted at her car by msu students.
ReplyDelete