Protest by occupation goes beyond demonstrating
Hartsdale, N.Y.: Nice of Voicer Blake Fleetwood to self-out being one of the students who vandalized the president’s office at Columbia University in 1968. It’s funny that there was no mention of how that was resolved: Since the university is private property, the NYPD got into the campus using the access tunnels and summarily removed the protesters — you know, pretty much like what was done the other day, but this time it was much more kid-gloves.
Fleetwood refers to the protesters (photo) as “peaceful,” which is somewhat at a variance to the racket they make that can be heard blocks away. These “protesters” are squatters and posers with upper-class privileges and should be removed from the campus.
I don’t think many people are against peaceful protest. As a former and present protester — against the Vietnam War, against civil rights violations, against gun crimes and against homophobia — I am all for it. What is happening at my alma mater is not peaceful protest; it is an occupation by a vocal minority of bullies who seek to change, by force, policies that were adopted not by force, but by reason.
One thing I can guarantee to the Blake Fleetwoods of the world: You aren’t making many allies in your support of Palestine’s Gaza population, who are similarly not supported by most of the Arab world. Can you explain that?
Norman E. Gaines Jr.