On the #UTAustin campus, activists hold up names of students and educators killed in Gaza, along with facts about the damage war has done to education.
“When members of the public are engaged in a peaceful #protest in a public space—assuming they are not obstructing traffic, or disrupting campus activities—there is very little legal basis for law enforcement to demand they leave.”
Most BLM protesters were white people advocating for Black civil rights.♥️ All their lives, they thought that they had the 1st amendment right to protest, because they had seen white supremacists march without being beaten by cops. They didn't realize that the right to free speech depends heavily on what you are speaking about, and who you are speaking for.
Now I'm seeing college professors and students learn the same lesson about what US cops will do to you if you speak up for the wrong thing.
New today: A UT professor and expert on freedom of expression weighs in on the controversial arrests of 57 individuals, including a journalist, at a campus demonstration yesterday. An interview from Reporting Fellow Francesca D'Annunzio ... https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-dps-palestine-first-amendment/
@TexasObserver
"Then what was the point of sending riot police and arresting people?
The point is absolutely to intimidate the students and other protesters into not exercising their First Amendment right to speak. The whole goal of sending in riot police, of making the statements that the governor of Texas made, is to chill freedom of expression. "
Yesterday, UT Austin brought in Texas DPS cops in riot gear from 3 hours away to harass and arrest students peacefully protesting on their own campus. Just for reference, 6 months ago UT posted a video on YouTube explaining why anyone is allowed to come protest peacefully on campus. The video has since been unlisted and had its comments disabled.
Jay Hartzell, President of the University of Texas at Austin, yesterday broke the single most important compact that academics have with each other and their institutions: do not intentionally hurt students.
The TX governor, for his own political purposes, sent state troopers to campus before a student protest even began. Hartzell both let these outside law enforcement agencies in, and provided cover for the violence they inflicted on dozens of peaceful, unarmed UT students.
@alexwild You know, they completely f*cked this up. If you wanted to play this to maximum effect for propaganda purposes, they would have allowed the students to set up the tents on the lawn (breaking policy). Then they would have moved in.
But to attack the students BEFORE the march even began. Ridiculous. Everyone could see through Hartzell's bullsh*t after that.
They handed the the students a huge win. Images of their overreaction went worldwide.
The only thing that has caught my attention about these University protest is the following. This is america, these students protesting either their families are loaded, or the have accepted a debt that will haunt them for the rest of their lives, or they are extremely talented.
Education in America is NOT cheap, and it’s very unusual to see these confortable people “protesting”.
I was at the protest against Palestinian occupation at #UTAustin today and all I have to say is this: the entire time the protests stayed entirely peaceful. People respected and did not cross barriers set up by police. When cops told protestors to move back, they moved back. They were just there to be heard. The amount of force used against protestors is unjustifiable.
Fantastic photo from UT Austin. I was not able to find the original photographer to give credit, despite them deserving it.
Pretty crazy time to be on a college campus right now, Umich's "liberation zone" on the diag has grown in size, as has the police presence. The movement will not be stopped.
WEEK 30: That line of black SUVs you can see in the middle there are State Troopers on their way from Houston to the UT Austin campus.
via Ryan Chandler of KXAN News on the dark side.
About 50 #Texas DPS State Troopers were sent out in response to a peaceful attempt to march and occupy a Plaza at UT #Austin today. Reportedly three arrests according to those on scene.
UT #Austin faculty are reportedly planning to walk out tomorrow in response to the brutal #police violence on campus today against activists who support #Palestine.
This is an expansion of an already planned rally in solidarity with faculty who lost their jobs in an anti-#DEI backlash.
National Lawyers Guild members and other legal volunteers have been working all day to secure the release of the arrestees from UT #Austin today. Over 50 arrests total. The first two just got released from Travis County Jail.
Per #Austin Chronicle reporter Austin Sanders, the DIstrict Attorney has been dropping all charges against the dozens of protesters arrested yesterday on the #UTAustin campus as their cases come before her.
UT Austin bows to political pressure from white supremacist state senator Brandon Creighton and begins to purge staff involved in equity and diversity work.
There will be first amendment lawsuits if students are expelled from public universities because they failed to show sufficient loyalty to a small foreign country on the other side of the planet.
Fuck Greg Abbott, Fuck Israel, and Fuck anyone who tries to hurt my students for daring to stand against an ongoing genocide.