Protests against Israel’s alleged genocide in Gaza have spread across university campuses around the globe. While most protests initially coalesced around anti-genocide sentiments and a shared value for human life, some critics have observed slogans, rhetoric and behavior that they claim has become more alarming over time.
Accusations have surfaced of “outside agitators” deliberately spoiling peaceful protests, and of police officers using excessive and unnecessary force against unarmed students.
Watch the video above for Straight Arrow News contributor Ruben Navarrette’s take on these events, and on how he says the limits to First Amendment freedoms fit into the wider picture.
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The following is an excerpt of the video:
The recent wave of protests at more than 200 colleges in the United States and the subsequent crackdown by police and arrest of more than 2,000 student protesters from Columbia University in the East to UCLA in the West shocked many Americans. I can only hope that it also served to educate a few of us as to the limits of free speech by spelling out what is allowed and what isn’t.
Freedom of speech, as we have been reminded by university administrators all across the country, is not a free for all. Some things are allowed, but some things are not. There are rules for radicals, and not just in the way envisioned by community activist and author Saul Alinsky. There were worrisome signs right from the beginning, in the earliest hours of the protest. It turned out to be a short walk from protests that were supposedly pro-Palestinian to words and actions that were anti-Israel, anti-U.S. and antisemitic.
When students started setting up tents, it signaled that the protesters were planning to become squatters. Soon it was feared the protesters would be receiving their mail at these makeshift encampments. And when the tents at dozens of colleges all across the country bore a striking resemblance to one another, it suggested that the protests were being coordinated, and students were being manipulated by what New York City Mayor Eric Adams called “outside agitators.”
But perhaps the most troubling sign of all was that many students, whether they were engaged in the protests or merely supported them from afar, seemed to understand the right to free speech as enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution as something of a blank check. Even civil liberties lawyers who practice this kind of law for a living will acknowledge that there are certain types of expression that the courts have ruled over the years are not covered by the First Amendment.
Have a look at how our other contributors across the political spectrum view this issue:
Dr. Rashad Richey: Today’s college protesters are tomorrow’s world leaders.
Star Parker: Left-leaning politicians too lenient with pro-Palestinian protesters.