Jamie Raskin (D-MD) Disrupted at University of Maryland

Hat tip The College Fix

l-r, Raskin, Pines

On March 28, US Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) was giving a lecture on Democracy at the University of Maryland. As is the custom on college campuses, when anybody comes to speak who is perceived as pro-Israel or insufficiently pro-Palestinian, Raskin was repeatedly interrupted by screaming students accusing him of being complicit in "genocide" against Palestinians. To make matters worse, the President of the university, Daryll Pines, cut the lecture short and then proclaimed to local media that,“what you saw play out actually was democracy and free speech and academic freedom.”  Here is the current article in The College Fix.

Here is how the campus newspaper, The Diamondback, reported the incident.

I am no fan of Raskin, but he has every right to speak, and those who invited him have every right to hear what he has to say. That doesn't apply as far as the brownshirts who are supporting the Hamas-led Palestinians of Gaza. To them, Raskin (who is Jewish) is guilty of complicity in genocide because he isn't sufficiently pro-Palestinian for the little rascals-or he is perceived as pro-Israel.

As for Mr Pines, I find it incredible tht a university president would consider this behavior as representative of free speech and democracy. Most university presidents at least have enough sense to  acknowledge that this is not supposed to be what a university stands for (even if they take no action against the miscreants). Pines was present. He observed what was happening. He asked them to stop, which they ignored. Finally, campus police removed the offenders, identified them, and referred their names to the appropriate campus office for disciplinary measures.

This is exactly what 11 members of the Muslim Student Union did at UC Irvine in 2010 when the Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, came to speak. In that case, the university police were present and prepared. They immediately removed each student as they got up to disrupt and they were all successfully prosecuted for misdemeanors in Orange County. That should be the standard.