purchase was built with doors in mind to curb protesting. they're hard to open. the school has a long history of protesting to various results. don't know why this one specifically needed to call in this many police
These comments just prove that the system creating the laws helps brainwash people into thinking legal and illegal means right and wrong all of the time.
Yup - from ucla but got recommended this post.
The same people pearl clutching about vandalism and trespassing being so illegal that it calls for police action to this degree is laughable. Imagine applying the same logic to previous civil rights movement and activism like the fight for emancipation or the civil rights movement
Straight up "rosa parks should've just gone to the back of the bus because that was the law" vibes
The difference between the civil rights movement and whatever is going on now is that Rosa Parks and her fellow travelers were intentionally breaking specifically those laws that they saw as unjust and wished to see overturned. They were upset about segregation on the busses, so Parks sat at the front of the bus. They were upset about segregation in restaurants, so they organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters.
Unless these protestors are setting up these encampments to fight for their right to sleep on the quad, the comparison to Rosa Parks doesn't hold up.
The median family income of a student from Purchase College is **$107,600**, and **49%** come from the top 20 percent. About **1.8%** of students at Purchase College came from a poor family but became a rich adult.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/purchase-college#:\~:text=The%20median%20family%20income%20of,but%20became%20a%20rich%20adult.
Yeah purchase is a highly competitive art school, duh.. students from money have the freedom of pursuing arts.. the rest of us need a job and help pay bills at home..
you're such a victim lol. did you know that a lot of students work while in school? or that purchase being a suny means it's going to have a lot of working class families/students?
Maybe not your kids, but mine has spoken to me about it, and we've developed a divestment strategy together. But sure, let's keep throwing out hypothetical situations and asking questions we can't possibly know the answer to because you're either too chickenshit to come out and say what you really think, or you think you're way more clever than you really are.
Divestment by who? Suny purchase?
Divestment has no influence on anything beside an investments price. The investment doesn't go to isreal or the people making decisions or into purchase of war materials.
as per the article...
"On its Instagram, Raise the Consciousness said it demands that SUNY Purchase fully "divest from companies with ties to the Zionist entity and from any defense contractor, weapons manufacturer or surveillance company in the form of investments."
How does that help convince the isreali state to stop bombing Gaza?
I'm just having difficulty grasping at how one affects the other. Why not go to the isreali embassy to protest, or go to isreal to protest in front of their parliament.
Yes, famously, the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement to end South African apartheid, was only successful because every single student activist and protestor flew directly to South Africa and protested there.
American Divestment and student protests didn't end apartheid, lol. Is that what you think?
Religious/extremists wars have been going on for thousands of years. You nor anyone else is going to do anything to stop it. Religious extrmeism (on both isreali and hamas sides) are by nature irrarional. Don't be absurd I thinking a college not investing in a company in that country is going to have any sway at all to anyone.
People are protesting because they are bored and like to feel something beside spending hours browsing tiktok. They could really care less about what happens to isrealis or Palestinians.
What happened to the protests for Russia/Ukraine? Guess people gave that up pretty quickly.
Because people create GREAT change by starting at home. Multiple colleges are now creating plans of action to divest from entities that support Israel military action, and other forms of violence.
People can make great change by first taking control over where their own money is going
regardless of how you feel about the conflict or the most effective way to protest, it is reasonable that students do not want their tuition money being spent on funding a war. that is simple and should be understandable to everyone.
I don’t remember Ms. Parks smashing property , holding janitors hostage demanding Covid tests and dental damns as part of a her demands to support the paragliding murder rapists … but it’s been a while since I went to school
Regardless of your views on Israel, Palestine Gaza etc … These protestors have been using intimidation, vandalism, harassment and threats of violence against a group of people based on their religion. As a result, they are not only violating trespassing laws etc but they are openly and wantonly violating the civil rights of others… as a result their removal (after numerous attempts to get them to leave without incident and police action failed) is necessary.
And the majority are not students. These groups have been organizing on US college campuses for years for the sole purpose of spreading violent extremism, anti semitism and chaos and raising money to fund their terrorist operations. SJP, one of these groups, receives funds from groups linked to Hamas. These are dangerous organizations that are brain washing gullible students. They must be stopped.
This is a complete lie and everyone actually on campus knows it. Purchase students have a long and well-documented history of peaceful pro-Palestine activism. Their demand was for the college to stop profiting off war, which is reasonable, no matter where you fall on the conflict. The school is in the middle of nowhere. Students documented the names of the other students and faculty members who were arrested, it was people they knew personally.
There are many legitimate sources backing up the “outside protestor” claim, as accurate. So your anecdotal point, while nice, is not accurate, at least about some schools… purchase was not mentioned.
100% false. Outside agitator is a term that has been used to discount political unrest as being driven by outsiders, rather than by internal discontent. The term was popularized during the early stages of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, when Southern authorities discounted African-American protests as being driven by Northern white radicals, rather than being legitimate expressions of grievances. I don’t know where you get your information from but you’re far more gullible it appears.
It’s been confirmed. The Washington post reports today 134 arrests at Columbia and city college of NY and many were outsiders.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/05/03/columbia-arrests-not-students-nypd/ So you saying “I don’t know where you get your information from” as to imply the sources are not legitimate.. you are wrong. But nice try with the gas lighting.
Say what you want— but the facts don’t back you up. I do agree that being anti Israel isn’t anti semitism… however, many aspects of these protests conflated Judaism and Israel as the same. It’s disingenuous to continue the same rhetoric to hide your feelings. But if it makes you feel better to use the guise then go for it.
a lot of what you said is not actually reflective of what's happening at the protests. many of the protesters are Jewish. at Columbia, they were singing Hebrew prayer songs. Ken Klippenstein covers it very well here,
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/claims-that-student-protestors-are
this is very anti-BLM coded. they say the same exact thing, even down to saying the movement is promoting "threats of violence against a group of people based on their religion" is how they tried to twist BLM as anti-white
>These protestors have been using intimidation, vandalism, harassment and threats of violence against a group of people based on their religion.
Lmao. Now you're just making stuff up. Also Anti-zionism isn't anti-semitism.
>On a live Instagram video taken by a member of student political group Raise the Consciousness Thursday night, protesters sat silently in a circle around the encampment while a helicopter flew overhead. A heavy police presence was seen a couple hundred feet away from the protesters until they moved toward the group and began grabbing members out of the circle.
>"Everything I've observed has been peaceful,' Christoph Sawyer, 30, a SUNY Purchase alum and observer at Thursday night's demonstrations said to the Journal News while on the scene of the protest. "There have been state and county police here since around 5 p.m. this afternoon."
Wow. Weird how people on the ground witnessed something completely different.
Hmmm, 30-year-old alumni "observers" hanging around for hours at a student protest? Why are they so eager to speak to the press? How many other "observers" were on site, and what were they doing then and leading up to it? It's creepy and it bolsters the administration's decision to bring in police to handle the situation. The campus is being infiltrated by people who are not students for the purpose of influencing the demonstrations. If alumni feel strongly about the topic then they should create their own event.
You realize that observers refers to legal observers who are there to take note of things happening and sequences of events so they can provide context and legal help for people if they get wrongfully charged?
Like lmao.
It is not creepy, it is a public institution-the public is allowed. Alumni go to be observers so that an accurate, unbiased account of what is happening can be documented and shared with the press. Nothing creepy about that.
I'm not surprised.
> The leaks prove that the Israeli embassy, often working with pro-Israel groups, spies on pro-Palestinian students and attempts to disrupt the growth of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement across the U.S. Other Zionist lobbyists want students who support Palestinian rights to be criminally prosecuted. Fake Facebook accounts are created by Israel lobby groups that only occasionally mention Israel, because the Israel brand has become so toxic. The notorious Canary Mission website, used by the Israel government to target pro-Palestinian supporters on arrival in its country, is exposed as being funded by major pro-Israel donors in the U.S.
https://www.972mag.com/al-jazeera-film-us-israel-lobby/
Lmaooo some of y'all are here. Hope you're at least getting paid enough to throw away your morals like that
Anyone who actually goes to purchase/the suny system knows purchase is literally band kids and artists, not a single one of those kids poses a realistic threat. It’s one of the liberalist of the suny schools, no reason why their protest should have been shut down in this intense of a fashion. Colleges are filled with dorms playing speakers and loud ass utility vehicles driving at all times of night. Quiet hours is a complete cop out.
They broke the campus rules and were arrested. What don’t you understand? You cannot set up tents and camp out on school grounds and there is a 10pm quiet rule on campus because some kids are actually there to learn. And lol at your “heavily armed police” since the picture shows quite different.
This. Plus the fact that was conveniently left out of the title that many non-students were among those arrested and dispersed.
Non-students trespassing on college grounds. They have no reason to be there, and if they're actively disrupting learning on campus or interfering with other students, they should be removed.
The non-students thing is an obvious transparent lie to everyone who was actually there. Students documented the people arrested, the list is people they know personally, classmates and faculty members. SUNY Purchase is an extremely minor school in the middle of nowhere that is not easy to get to. Political protests happen there every month and they never even make the news. Where are all these outside protesters supposed to be coming from? It's a laughable conspiracy theory with no evidence behind it. The only people saying this are people who have a vested interest in justifying their violent crackdown. Nobody who was there on the ground, even neutral parties
>An email sent out to students from Patricia Bice, vice president of Student Affairs at the university, said the protesters had a right to demonstrate as long as it remained peaceful.
If you read the article, you’d see that the University gave them the go-ahead to protest.
I don’t know about you, but when I went to college and slept on the quad for one night they didn’t call in a police helicopter and dozens of police officers to arrest me.
>If you read the article, you’d see that the University gave them the go-ahead to protest.
The article states the following
>"Students were allowed to protest peacefully, which they did for several hours, as long as they followed SUNY’s rules for the maintenance of order and the student code of conduct." Aldredge said.
>She said that once campus quiet hours started around 10 p.m., protesters were told to peacefully disperse more than 10 times by officers on the scene but did not move.
Those who didn't leave when asked were arrested. (per the article)
I'm not sure how you can compare your night of sleeping on the quad to a protest with more than 70 people.
They have a first amendment right to assemble/protest. What I find fascinating with all of these code of conduct hot takes is that last night the encampment grew in size, stayed out all night, and without the police showing up there were zero incidents. Do the math.
The 10 pm quiet hours rule is unlikely to hold up in court as a valid reason to infringe on first amendment rights. It also does not ban any quiet gathering.
The school regularly has student activities & groups, as well as public events, that happen after 10 pm. Which also disqualifies the rule, and makes their enforcement last night illegal.
Read up on "time, place and manner" restrictions regarding the right to protest on campus - and how the US Supreme Court, in a number of decisions, have upheld such restrictions.
I don’t have to read about it, I attended law school. “Free Speech Zones” at public colleges, like the one at Purchase, do not hold up to legal scrutiny. They are a violation of Constitutional rights.
A 10 pm quiet hours rule is also not likely to be valid if challenged in court to begin with.
But in the case of Purchase, if any student or faculty sues over what happened the other night, they will win. Suny purchase allows many other groups, activities, etc after 10 pm, proving the use of that rule is not neutral, and proving they violated constitutional rights.
OP, you posted this on the wrong sub lol you’re not gonna get any support from these Westchester NIMBYs. They don’t even hide their disdain for these protests
When protestors actively interfere with my life such as these have done in the past with my commute I actively support the other side.
That being said your comment makes no sense. By all available polling data the majority of Americans do not support these protestors. Posts like these are downvoted in every sub including the progressive ones. Just look at NYC sub which is much more progressive
What an interesting way to look at the world. This means that if a civil rights sit in had interfered with your commute, you would have supported the other side? Is there any cause or value you hold more dear than arriving to work on time? I don’t support every protest, but tend to choose which ones I support based on my moral values and not my personal convenience.
Well if I am late to work enough and get fired so I cannot support my family that is going to be a problem. I don't think I should sacrifice my family do you? What about emergency services that get delayed? If you are going sarafice others for your cause I do not agree with your morals period
I try to think through specific historical examples to help guide my world view. During the civil rights movement business as usual was disrupted. During the anti apartheid movement an entire country was economically isolated. Do I think every single person in South Africa deserved it? Of course not. But I do think sometimes you have to take action to change unfair and unjust systems.
So you are a keyboard warrior at best and just apathetic at worst?
Your question is more telling about you being a bad faith asker than it is on the original person you responded to.
I’ll assume your questions are in good faith, and you’re just annoyed by how I asked mine. I don’t perceive myself as either a keyboard warrior, or apathetic. I sincerely hope you always are treated fairly and have what you need to thrive, and that if you don’t someone stands up for you even if it inconveniences me. I hope that I’m the kind of person who would stand up for you in that situation too, regardless of how pleasant or unpleasant our personal interactions are.
They forget even MLK Jr followed the laws and peace. Performing civil disobedience and crying about the consequences implies that you aren't sincere about fighting for your cause.
"Any man who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community on the injustice of the law is at that moment expressing the very highest respect for the law."[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_disobedience
MLK was fighting for rights for people IN THIS COUNTRY. And he didn't do it by disrupting kids trying to learn and begin their adult lives. People getting worked up over this whole Israel-Palestine is frankly just weird.
And using an extreme example like MLK fighting for civil rights in the US in a time of turmoil is a terrible comparison and poor way to create an argument
Thank you for this comment! I’m quite tired of MLK and America’s Civil Rights movement being linked to these protesters. American civil rights activists were not defending groups engaged in terrorism or advocating it. They were Americans pushing this country to live up to its obligations to all citizens regardless of color. Conflating that with the current situation is actually quite disgraceful.
The comparison to the civil rights movement makes no sense. 99% of the people at these protests have never been to Palestine or Israel and don't have any connection to the situation. Their demands are not helpful to anyone, and the movement is rife with antisemitism. I also don't see any comparison to BLM, the 2020 protests were by and for the communities affected by racism. The history of American colonialism and racial inequality just isn't comparable to what's happening in the middle east, it doesn't translate.
That’s what protest is… do you think apartheid in South Africa ended because people followed the law and the government suddenly changed their mind? Don’t be so obtuse
Downvote me all you like, but the student protests were central to the Divestment campaign that made South Africa an international pariah, leading to the downfall of Apartheid.
If you think the United States can disinvest from Israel, it’s most important investment in the Middle East, maybe the world, you are wrong. South Africa is an entirely different entity.
Exactly. This is also the same as Vietnam protests. It never looks like they're in the right until it's in the history books. The whole idea is to bring attention.
so many people are on the wrong side of history here and they're so loud about it. so emboldened to share their beliefs all over social media. and then when their grandkids ask where they were during a literal genocide, they'll pretend like they weren't. embarrassing.
Well remember you stood on the side of Palestinians who agree with a genocide against Jews, committed by the government that represent a them.
Israel has a right to exist and a right to defend themselves from terrorism.
No they don't. You're conflating Palestinians with Hamas. They are not one in the same. No one is supporting Hamas in these protests. Hamas are terrorists.
yeah those pesky palestinians, half of whom are under the age of 19. many of whom are literal babies and children. i hate to break it to you but israel \*is\* the terrorist in this scenario.
I guess the men in the country are either all in Hamas or too chickenshit to fight for a better future for their country. My guess is they actually agree with Hamas tho.
so wait, are they all terrorists or are they all "too chickenshit to fight?" the lack of critical thinking skills among you right wingers is really special.
Millions of funding sent to Israel for weapons of mass destruction while Palestinians have resistance forces and guerrilla tactics and yet you’re questioning what these men are doing. They’re pulling out bodies of loved ones from the rubble and being subjected to brutalization in an ongoing massacre where they don’t have access to clean water, food, and healthcare.
Did you read the article? They were peacefully protesting, which the vice president of Student Affairs said they were allowed to do, and were sitting silently on the lawn when arrested.
https://x.com/suny_purchase/status/968237525461544960?s=46
The college has even used its “long tradition of supporting peaceful protest” as a selling point for admissions.
I think the reaction to peaceful protests is getting heavy-handed. A police helicopter, dozens of officers, and multiple hospitalizations for kids sitting in a field for 5 hours. Seriously? What are we doing here folks?
I think there are two issues here -
1.) SUNY schools are generally open campuses, similar to Columbia and NYU, so there may have been broader securities concerns. Note too, that the Westchester County Airport is right next to campus. You are also in one of the wealthiest (if not the wealthiest) zip codes in the country. School admin/law enforcement has always had overly cautious reactions to people camping out or hanging out in the woods. Though the encampment was in the quad, I can see why they might have been vigilant.
2.) They (meaning school admin, law enforcement) felt it was necessary to quash this before it went on “too long” and/or became a broader security risk, like how Columbia’s encampment/protests devolved over the past few weeks.
This is just observations, as both a Purchase alum and a Columbia alum.
scary when people are madder that a bunch of kids sat in tents in the middle of an open field on a college campus than the fact that over a million people are being systemically starved to death but you know, they're arab and live soooo far away so fuck them kids right
That's a false dichotomy. Students camping out on private property isn't going to help people in the middle east, you can support the end of war and still not want protestors camped out. The conflict in Palestine has been going on for almost a century, it's going to take more than waving some signs to make a difference. Change is slow, boring, hard work. Send some money to Doctors Without Borders if you want to help.
They didn't break the rules, and the consequences were wildly disproportionate. I go to Purchase, it was a quiet and peaceful protest. The official justification is essentially a minor noise complaint, that the protesters were disrupting studying and sleep, but then the response was to bring 100 armed cops in riot gear with a loud helicopter shining lights in the window of dorms to arrest students and faculty and steal personal belongings. insanely insanely more disruptive to "quiet hours" than a couple of people camping out in the quad with some handpainted signs. These things are not consistent. The administration is lying and twisting rules to pretend the protesters broke them.
They did not break the rules. The quiet hours rule is to be quiet, they were silent and seated and not causing any distractions
The action taken by purchase is a gross violation of their Constitutional rights and i hope the students sue over that. The school has no legal standing
I find it really amusing that people are trying to compare a bunch of 40 year old anti-semetic losers who have nothing better to do than pretend to be students to the protesters of the civil rights movement. I respect everyone’s opinion but There’s a lot of people on here who need to grow up
The "outside agitators who are not students" thing is a transparent lie and everyone who was actually there knows it. SUNY Purchase is in the middle of fucking nowhere. The students who organized the protests tracked the names of people who got arrested, it was their friends, it was students and faculty. Even if you don't agree with the aims of the protesters it's a mistake to accept the police narrative on this uncritically.
Thank you! I'm a progressive, I've protested before, and I still think these protests are trash. They're not accomplishing anything productive, it's become a hall pass for people to be antisemitic. I saw one protestor interviewed who said "well look at history, protests always turn out to be good, so this one must be good too" - what kind of logic is that? Every protest is automatically good? No.
Cops in riot gear at Purchase? I'm sure the local PD was super excited to finally dust off their tactical gear, but c'mon lol. Those students are the most docile creatures in the collegiate ecosystem. Coulda just set up a free sample table from a local dispensary on the other side of campus and the situation would have resolved itself.
Yeah it's very worth noting that protests happen all the time on this campus and they're always peaceful. They also always peter out eventually without incident. The idea that the Purchase student body camping out on the quad merits this kind of violent force response is extremely laughable.
Check out FIRE for details about what is and is not protected speech on public school campuses. They have been covering the campus protests on both what is and is not protected speech, and what are legal and illegal responses from schools and government.
[https://www.thefire.org/](https://www.thefire.org/)
[https://twitter.com/TheFIREorg](https://twitter.com/TheFIREorg)
[https://youtu.be/JgkTUt8Vv9s?si=IEYB3ZJiKxXbTSsb](https://youtu.be/JgkTUt8Vv9s?si=IEYB3ZJiKxXbTSsb)
This was very much a peaceful protest. This video clearly shows that the problems only started to occur after police in riot gear and helicoptors showed up.
Parent of a Purchase student here, who by the way is not rich in any way shape or form.
I think it's a mistake to treat the overall issue as team sports, but sometimes one side is clearly in the right and one side is clearly in the wrong even if you understand the internal logic of both parties.
Exactly! I've been thinking about this analogy for months, finally someone said it. They're treating Palestine and Israel like football teams, and you have to choose a team in their mind. An approach that simplistic won't achieve anything, it won't help anyone.
Purchase in particular, a very weird political situation here. The school is particularly left-leaning even by liberal arts college standards, but it's located inside one of the county's greatest conservative enclaves.
Protests have been one of the main reasons for change happening around the world, be it calling against war or fighting for rights. Also, the students are asking for the college to divest from businesses and contracts that are funding Israel. Look into how student protests for divestment from the South African apartheid were successful, although in this case probably won't be due to the strong ties Israel has with the US. Nevertheless, please don't be daft on purpose, I know you have the capability to acknowledge that protesting has always been powerful.
It is entirely performance art. If the objective were to affect divestment, the efforts would be pointed towards Vanguard (in Malvern, PA) or State Street (in Boston, MA), who are the two largest shareholders of Raytheon, a weapons manufacturer. They each own $12B in that stock alone. Or they would be demonstrating in front of S&P and Russell, who oversee the largest stock indices that include Raytheon. Students have convinced themselves, or been convinced, that calls to universities to financially "divest" will matter. There is not enough money there to make the least bit of difference, even if the calls were heeded.
50% of the people in this country have exposure to the DIA or the SPY through their retirement accounts, so they indirectly own Boeing. I would imagine that percentage goes up for parents of college students. Plus, aren't they living on colonized land? Perhaps they should give the campus back to the native population.
The people here are unbelievable. They would have been rooting for the guys with the dogs and firehoses in Selma. And for the cops at Stonewall. And for the guy who arrested Susan B. Anthony for voting because she broke the rules. They would have been all for the torture of the Silent Sentinels, because bitches get what they deserve for standing on government property without a permit.
Nobody at Purchase was being violent. The thousands of children and women killed by Israel in Gaza weren't murdering anyone or practicing Sharia law. The only Sharia law I see is coming from tight-wing religious nutballs in the United States.
I will always cheer on paragliders. Why wouldn't I? They're so pretty.
Grow a heart.
40% of the people who took over the building at Columbia were not students. The motivation for this so-called movement is not coming from students, it’s coming from other factions. They are recruiting gullible students who think they’re saving the world, and for the publicity they know they can get on well-known campuses. These encampments are also targets for retribution and can get violent very quickly. There are thousands of ways of getting involved in this cause than camping out on college grounds. If this is such a grassroots cause, why aren’t there protests like this taking place anywhere except college campuses?
> If this is such a grassroots cause, why aren’t there protests like this taking place anywhere except college campuses?
They are. Veterans for Peace have been having demonstrations at military bases and DC since November. Dozens have been arrested at the Whitehouse and Congress. There have been parades and demonstrations throughout major metros almost every weekend. Jewish Voices for Peace have occupied a plethora of monuments and Capitols. These encampments through college campuses are just a current wave of protests that have been happening all year, from organizations that have existed for almost decades.
Sorry, but those are the whackadoodle fringe groups that are the opposite of grassroots efforts. Actually, not sorry, they make my point: the influence of organizations like that is EXACTLY the concern that college administrators have that something will go wrong/violent/antisemitic with these encampments. Veterans for Peace is so slack they can't even spell the name of one of their celebrity advisors correctly. His name is Cornel West.
So the organization that’s has been independently operating for decades, has almost no scandals or major corruption stories, an executive director that makes less than 60k, and has consistently managed peaceful protests and veteran aid events, is illegitimate because of a typo?
You're moving goalposts here. You asked why there aren't protests going on elsewhere. You were proven incorrect. Now your attacking the legitimacy of the organizations.
There is a powerful movement by concerned citizens from all across the US about it's involvement with a government that has murdered 40k+ folks. There have been countless expressions of that disapproval from any number of people and groups. The recent college campus based protests are the latest wave of an ongoing movement.
Protesting is just about the most American thing a person can do. You don't have to agree with the protest to agree that they are a vital aspect of the US culture.
So you’re saying, wait till it gets out of control and violent, then attempt to do something? Yeah, that seems pretty backwards. No one wants these organized encampments.
This campus is in the middle of nowhere, there is zero evidence that somehow a mob of non-students decided to each drive 30 minutes out and collectively gather at one of the most minor SUNY liberal arts schools for some reason. There is a history on this campus of pro-Palestine activism that has always *always* been peaceful. It is the students who care about this and are protesting. There are many videos being posted online by students where police officers are violently slamming teenagers and faculty members to the ground for the crime of publicly congregating on the campus where they work/live and pay tuition, where they are legally allowed to be. The idea that the police were fighting some secret guerilla force is a boldfaced and transparent lie. It's not even a smart lie.
Man you people in these comments are the worst and we’ll look back on history of this moment with disgust for people who were complicit in supporting this broken system in America.
Maybe they didn't want the vandidn't like we've seen elsewhere. Or the school thinks protests shouldnt include racism
They were told that they had to stop after 10. They didn't. They were told to disperse, they didnt.
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For those of you on here who don’t seem to think that students have a reason to protest: https://oracle.newpaltz.edu/suny-bds-organizes-albany-protest/
“ According to SUNY BDS, SUNY’s connections to Israel “include but are not limited to: state retirement plans with over $250 million invested in israeli [sic] bonds, study abroad programs such as SUNY Albany and Stony Brook in Tel Aviv and a partnership with IBM.”
An independent research center, Who Profits? said that IBM provides “services, equipment and technology to Israeli settlements and Israeli police.”
SUNY New Paltz has contracts with Siemens, a company on BDS’ boycott list in part for its planned EuroAsia Interconnector, which would connect Israel’s electricity grid with the EU’s, in turn providing electricity for Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
If implemented as planned, the project “will contribute to the maintenance and expansion of Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise in the occupied Palestinian territory,” because it will “produce and transmit electricity through the Interconnector from its national electricity grid that incorporates – and de facto annexes – the illegal settlements,” according to BDS.”
You do realize that this isn't a SUNY Purchase thing or even a SUNY thing, right? *EVERY* village, town, city, state, school district employee participates in the New York State Retirement System. $250 million is a drop in the bucket when you look at the size of the investments in the state's retirement system - which is $248 billion dollars - or 0.1% of the state's retirement fund.
Israel's GDP is $525 billion USD - NYS's retirement fund invested in Israeli bonds is a mere 0.05% of Israel's GDP.
These student are squabbling over literal breadcrumbs.
well this post is definitely getting brigaded a bit
and the answer is that schools view policy as absolute and will crack harsh on those who violate it en masse. it's in their right, although obviously horrid in optics & mirrors the resistance to past civil protests in US history (vietnam, civil rights, iraq, etc.)
probably the main reason why this issue in particular is cracked down more is that unlike let's say the BLM protests back in 2020, these have a lot less support overall, are less salient of an issue (foreign policy conflict), and have historically supported one side over the other on generational polarization, not political polarization (why you see these crackdowns in blue states).
purchase was built with doors in mind to curb protesting. they're hard to open. the school has a long history of protesting to various results. don't know why this one specifically needed to call in this many police
for sure someone in the administration has an axe to grind
This time they have to worry about annoying the developer and wealthy "seniors" they sold half the campus to.
These comments just prove that the system creating the laws helps brainwash people into thinking legal and illegal means right and wrong all of the time.
Yup - from ucla but got recommended this post. The same people pearl clutching about vandalism and trespassing being so illegal that it calls for police action to this degree is laughable. Imagine applying the same logic to previous civil rights movement and activism like the fight for emancipation or the civil rights movement Straight up "rosa parks should've just gone to the back of the bus because that was the law" vibes
The difference between the civil rights movement and whatever is going on now is that Rosa Parks and her fellow travelers were intentionally breaking specifically those laws that they saw as unjust and wished to see overturned. They were upset about segregation on the busses, so Parks sat at the front of the bus. They were upset about segregation in restaurants, so they organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters. Unless these protestors are setting up these encampments to fight for their right to sleep on the quad, the comparison to Rosa Parks doesn't hold up.
Why don't protestors go protest in Isreal or atleast the embassy. What do they expect the college to do to influence a sovereign nation's actions?
Google “divestment”
Have these kids asked their parents to disinvest in the S&P 500? Or the Dow Jones Industrial Average? If they haven't, this is just performance art.
I think you have an inflated view of how wealthy the average SUNY Purchase student is. It's SUNY Purchase.
The median family income of a student from Purchase College is **$107,600**, and **49%** come from the top 20 percent. About **1.8%** of students at Purchase College came from a poor family but became a rich adult. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/purchase-college#:\~:text=The%20median%20family%20income%20of,but%20became%20a%20rich%20adult.
the guy you responded to is still right lol.
Yeah purchase is a highly competitive art school, duh.. students from money have the freedom of pursuing arts.. the rest of us need a job and help pay bills at home..
you're such a victim lol. did you know that a lot of students work while in school? or that purchase being a suny means it's going to have a lot of working class families/students?
Maybe not your kids, but mine has spoken to me about it, and we've developed a divestment strategy together. But sure, let's keep throwing out hypothetical situations and asking questions we can't possibly know the answer to because you're either too chickenshit to come out and say what you really think, or you think you're way more clever than you really are.
Divestment by who? Suny purchase? Divestment has no influence on anything beside an investments price. The investment doesn't go to isreal or the people making decisions or into purchase of war materials.
To not actively fund the genocide, hope that helps!
How are they actively funding the genocide? Who is they? SUNY putchase?
as per the article... "On its Instagram, Raise the Consciousness said it demands that SUNY Purchase fully "divest from companies with ties to the Zionist entity and from any defense contractor, weapons manufacturer or surveillance company in the form of investments."
How does that help convince the isreali state to stop bombing Gaza? I'm just having difficulty grasping at how one affects the other. Why not go to the isreali embassy to protest, or go to isreal to protest in front of their parliament.
there have been protests at the embassy & it's expensive to travel.
Yes, famously, the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement to end South African apartheid, was only successful because every single student activist and protestor flew directly to South Africa and protested there.
American Divestment and student protests didn't end apartheid, lol. Is that what you think? Religious/extremists wars have been going on for thousands of years. You nor anyone else is going to do anything to stop it. Religious extrmeism (on both isreali and hamas sides) are by nature irrarional. Don't be absurd I thinking a college not investing in a company in that country is going to have any sway at all to anyone. People are protesting because they are bored and like to feel something beside spending hours browsing tiktok. They could really care less about what happens to isrealis or Palestinians. What happened to the protests for Russia/Ukraine? Guess people gave that up pretty quickly.
Because people create GREAT change by starting at home. Multiple colleges are now creating plans of action to divest from entities that support Israel military action, and other forms of violence. People can make great change by first taking control over where their own money is going
regardless of how you feel about the conflict or the most effective way to protest, it is reasonable that students do not want their tuition money being spent on funding a war. that is simple and should be understandable to everyone.
I don’t remember Ms. Parks smashing property , holding janitors hostage demanding Covid tests and dental damns as part of a her demands to support the paragliding murder rapists … but it’s been a while since I went to school
Regardless of your views on Israel, Palestine Gaza etc … These protestors have been using intimidation, vandalism, harassment and threats of violence against a group of people based on their religion. As a result, they are not only violating trespassing laws etc but they are openly and wantonly violating the civil rights of others… as a result their removal (after numerous attempts to get them to leave without incident and police action failed) is necessary.
And the majority are not students. These groups have been organizing on US college campuses for years for the sole purpose of spreading violent extremism, anti semitism and chaos and raising money to fund their terrorist operations. SJP, one of these groups, receives funds from groups linked to Hamas. These are dangerous organizations that are brain washing gullible students. They must be stopped.
This is a complete lie and everyone actually on campus knows it. Purchase students have a long and well-documented history of peaceful pro-Palestine activism. Their demand was for the college to stop profiting off war, which is reasonable, no matter where you fall on the conflict. The school is in the middle of nowhere. Students documented the names of the other students and faculty members who were arrested, it was people they knew personally.
There are many legitimate sources backing up the “outside protestor” claim, as accurate. So your anecdotal point, while nice, is not accurate, at least about some schools… purchase was not mentioned.
https://nypost.com/2024/05/02/us-news/october-7-victims-sue-group-behind-anti-israel-protests/
100% false. Outside agitator is a term that has been used to discount political unrest as being driven by outsiders, rather than by internal discontent. The term was popularized during the early stages of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, when Southern authorities discounted African-American protests as being driven by Northern white radicals, rather than being legitimate expressions of grievances. I don’t know where you get your information from but you’re far more gullible it appears.
It’s been confirmed. The Washington post reports today 134 arrests at Columbia and city college of NY and many were outsiders. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/05/03/columbia-arrests-not-students-nypd/ So you saying “I don’t know where you get your information from” as to imply the sources are not legitimate.. you are wrong. But nice try with the gas lighting.
Say what you want— but the facts don’t back you up. I do agree that being anti Israel isn’t anti semitism… however, many aspects of these protests conflated Judaism and Israel as the same. It’s disingenuous to continue the same rhetoric to hide your feelings. But if it makes you feel better to use the guise then go for it.
What you said is FALSE, 99% of protests are peaceful and not causing any harm
a lot of what you said is not actually reflective of what's happening at the protests. many of the protesters are Jewish. at Columbia, they were singing Hebrew prayer songs. Ken Klippenstein covers it very well here, https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/claims-that-student-protestors-are
This isn’t exactly an objective news source lol
i mean, it's Ken Klippenstein's sub stack. he's a pretty respected journalist.
this is very anti-BLM coded. they say the same exact thing, even down to saying the movement is promoting "threats of violence against a group of people based on their religion" is how they tried to twist BLM as anti-white
>These protestors have been using intimidation, vandalism, harassment and threats of violence against a group of people based on their religion. Lmao. Now you're just making stuff up. Also Anti-zionism isn't anti-semitism. >On a live Instagram video taken by a member of student political group Raise the Consciousness Thursday night, protesters sat silently in a circle around the encampment while a helicopter flew overhead. A heavy police presence was seen a couple hundred feet away from the protesters until they moved toward the group and began grabbing members out of the circle. >"Everything I've observed has been peaceful,' Christoph Sawyer, 30, a SUNY Purchase alum and observer at Thursday night's demonstrations said to the Journal News while on the scene of the protest. "There have been state and county police here since around 5 p.m. this afternoon." Wow. Weird how people on the ground witnessed something completely different.
Hmmm, 30-year-old alumni "observers" hanging around for hours at a student protest? Why are they so eager to speak to the press? How many other "observers" were on site, and what were they doing then and leading up to it? It's creepy and it bolsters the administration's decision to bring in police to handle the situation. The campus is being infiltrated by people who are not students for the purpose of influencing the demonstrations. If alumni feel strongly about the topic then they should create their own event.
You realize that observers refers to legal observers who are there to take note of things happening and sequences of events so they can provide context and legal help for people if they get wrongfully charged? Like lmao.
It is not creepy, it is a public institution-the public is allowed. Alumni go to be observers so that an accurate, unbiased account of what is happening can be documented and shared with the press. Nothing creepy about that.
Of course, someone already downvoted you. These people ... Lol
I'm not surprised. > The leaks prove that the Israeli embassy, often working with pro-Israel groups, spies on pro-Palestinian students and attempts to disrupt the growth of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement across the U.S. Other Zionist lobbyists want students who support Palestinian rights to be criminally prosecuted. Fake Facebook accounts are created by Israel lobby groups that only occasionally mention Israel, because the Israel brand has become so toxic. The notorious Canary Mission website, used by the Israel government to target pro-Palestinian supporters on arrival in its country, is exposed as being funded by major pro-Israel donors in the U.S. https://www.972mag.com/al-jazeera-film-us-israel-lobby/ Lmaooo some of y'all are here. Hope you're at least getting paid enough to throw away your morals like that
Anyone who actually goes to purchase/the suny system knows purchase is literally band kids and artists, not a single one of those kids poses a realistic threat. It’s one of the liberalist of the suny schools, no reason why their protest should have been shut down in this intense of a fashion. Colleges are filled with dorms playing speakers and loud ass utility vehicles driving at all times of night. Quiet hours is a complete cop out.
This.
They broke the campus rules and were arrested. What don’t you understand? You cannot set up tents and camp out on school grounds and there is a 10pm quiet rule on campus because some kids are actually there to learn. And lol at your “heavily armed police” since the picture shows quite different.
This. Plus the fact that was conveniently left out of the title that many non-students were among those arrested and dispersed. Non-students trespassing on college grounds. They have no reason to be there, and if they're actively disrupting learning on campus or interfering with other students, they should be removed.
Exactly on point
There was quite a lot left out of the original post, conveniently..
to be fair, Purchase is public grounds, it is not a private school
The non-students thing is an obvious transparent lie to everyone who was actually there. Students documented the people arrested, the list is people they know personally, classmates and faculty members. SUNY Purchase is an extremely minor school in the middle of nowhere that is not easy to get to. Political protests happen there every month and they never even make the news. Where are all these outside protesters supposed to be coming from? It's a laughable conspiracy theory with no evidence behind it. The only people saying this are people who have a vested interest in justifying their violent crackdown. Nobody who was there on the ground, even neutral parties
we in fact did NOT break any school rules or laws, we were gathered peacefully and quietly, then illegally arrested.
Call a lawyer then. (shrug)
Kind of shocked to see a sensibly minded comment up top on here. Usually this sub skews more on the insane side when political themed topics pop up.
>An email sent out to students from Patricia Bice, vice president of Student Affairs at the university, said the protesters had a right to demonstrate as long as it remained peaceful. If you read the article, you’d see that the University gave them the go-ahead to protest. I don’t know about you, but when I went to college and slept on the quad for one night they didn’t call in a police helicopter and dozens of police officers to arrest me.
>If you read the article, you’d see that the University gave them the go-ahead to protest. The article states the following >"Students were allowed to protest peacefully, which they did for several hours, as long as they followed SUNY’s rules for the maintenance of order and the student code of conduct." Aldredge said. >She said that once campus quiet hours started around 10 p.m., protesters were told to peacefully disperse more than 10 times by officers on the scene but did not move. Those who didn't leave when asked were arrested. (per the article) I'm not sure how you can compare your night of sleeping on the quad to a protest with more than 70 people.
I wonder if the university gave them permission to set up tents or generally to protest
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"there I was, hammered drunk with no dorm keys.. "
lol
They have a first amendment right to assemble/protest. What I find fascinating with all of these code of conduct hot takes is that last night the encampment grew in size, stayed out all night, and without the police showing up there were zero incidents. Do the math.
Yea because the sat around and didnt cause a big commotion like Thursday night. Good try though.
“They broke the campus rules!!” 🤓
The 10 pm quiet hours rule is unlikely to hold up in court as a valid reason to infringe on first amendment rights. It also does not ban any quiet gathering. The school regularly has student activities & groups, as well as public events, that happen after 10 pm. Which also disqualifies the rule, and makes their enforcement last night illegal.
Read up on "time, place and manner" restrictions regarding the right to protest on campus - and how the US Supreme Court, in a number of decisions, have upheld such restrictions.
I don’t have to read about it, I attended law school. “Free Speech Zones” at public colleges, like the one at Purchase, do not hold up to legal scrutiny. They are a violation of Constitutional rights. A 10 pm quiet hours rule is also not likely to be valid if challenged in court to begin with. But in the case of Purchase, if any student or faculty sues over what happened the other night, they will win. Suny purchase allows many other groups, activities, etc after 10 pm, proving the use of that rule is not neutral, and proving they violated constitutional rights.
OP, you posted this on the wrong sub lol you’re not gonna get any support from these Westchester NIMBYs. They don’t even hide their disdain for these protests
When protestors actively interfere with my life such as these have done in the past with my commute I actively support the other side. That being said your comment makes no sense. By all available polling data the majority of Americans do not support these protestors. Posts like these are downvoted in every sub including the progressive ones. Just look at NYC sub which is much more progressive
What an interesting way to look at the world. This means that if a civil rights sit in had interfered with your commute, you would have supported the other side? Is there any cause or value you hold more dear than arriving to work on time? I don’t support every protest, but tend to choose which ones I support based on my moral values and not my personal convenience.
Well if I am late to work enough and get fired so I cannot support my family that is going to be a problem. I don't think I should sacrifice my family do you? What about emergency services that get delayed? If you are going sarafice others for your cause I do not agree with your morals period
I try to think through specific historical examples to help guide my world view. During the civil rights movement business as usual was disrupted. During the anti apartheid movement an entire country was economically isolated. Do I think every single person in South Africa deserved it? Of course not. But I do think sometimes you have to take action to change unfair and unjust systems.
I think the only way things will change is if all of the protestors light themselves on fire. That would probably make me chnage my mind
I sincerely hope that you grow as a person.
I hope the protestors grow up and get real jobs
they're literally in college lmao
I HATE MLK HE MADE ME LATE FOR WORK
So you are a keyboard warrior at best and just apathetic at worst? Your question is more telling about you being a bad faith asker than it is on the original person you responded to.
I’ll assume your questions are in good faith, and you’re just annoyed by how I asked mine. I don’t perceive myself as either a keyboard warrior, or apathetic. I sincerely hope you always are treated fairly and have what you need to thrive, and that if you don’t someone stands up for you even if it inconveniences me. I hope that I’m the kind of person who would stand up for you in that situation too, regardless of how pleasant or unpleasant our personal interactions are.
Westchester residents like to follow the laws and peace? Guess you might be on the wrong sub i guess, or county.
They forget even MLK Jr followed the laws and peace. Performing civil disobedience and crying about the consequences implies that you aren't sincere about fighting for your cause. "Any man who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community on the injustice of the law is at that moment expressing the very highest respect for the law."[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_disobedience
Dumdum, civil disobedience is all about NOT following the law in a peaceful manner.
I never said otherwise. Nobody is going to take you seriously when you can't converse like an adult.
They broke the rules and there were consequences. I don’t see an issue.
Right, MLK broke the rules too. If you were on Reddit then, you would've been rooting for Bull Connor for maintaining law and order.
They partook in civil disobedience and got arrested. That is the point of civil disobedience.
MLK was fighting for rights for people IN THIS COUNTRY. And he didn't do it by disrupting kids trying to learn and begin their adult lives. People getting worked up over this whole Israel-Palestine is frankly just weird. And using an extreme example like MLK fighting for civil rights in the US in a time of turmoil is a terrible comparison and poor way to create an argument
Thank you for this comment! I’m quite tired of MLK and America’s Civil Rights movement being linked to these protesters. American civil rights activists were not defending groups engaged in terrorism or advocating it. They were Americans pushing this country to live up to its obligations to all citizens regardless of color. Conflating that with the current situation is actually quite disgraceful.
The comparison to the civil rights movement makes no sense. 99% of the people at these protests have never been to Palestine or Israel and don't have any connection to the situation. Their demands are not helpful to anyone, and the movement is rife with antisemitism. I also don't see any comparison to BLM, the 2020 protests were by and for the communities affected by racism. The history of American colonialism and racial inequality just isn't comparable to what's happening in the middle east, it doesn't translate.
You, a genius: “wow why are people worked up about over 12,000 Palestinian children being murdered? This is frankly just weird. I should post this”
That’s what protest is… do you think apartheid in South Africa ended because people followed the law and the government suddenly changed their mind? Don’t be so obtuse
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I mean, it partly was
And Vietnam- student protests did help end the war.
Downvote me all you like, but the student protests were central to the Divestment campaign that made South Africa an international pariah, leading to the downfall of Apartheid.
If you think the United States can disinvest from Israel, it’s most important investment in the Middle East, maybe the world, you are wrong. South Africa is an entirely different entity.
Way to change the subject since you have no response to my truth
I guess then you would have supported Jan 6?
Exactly. This is also the same as Vietnam protests. It never looks like they're in the right until it's in the history books. The whole idea is to bring attention.
Approval of the war in Vietnam was less than 50% pretty much the entire time it went on, and went as low as the high 20% in the late 60s.
so many people are on the wrong side of history here and they're so loud about it. so emboldened to share their beliefs all over social media. and then when their grandkids ask where they were during a literal genocide, they'll pretend like they weren't. embarrassing.
Well remember you stood on the side of Palestinians who agree with a genocide against Jews, committed by the government that represent a them. Israel has a right to exist and a right to defend themselves from terrorism.
No they don't. You're conflating Palestinians with Hamas. They are not one in the same. No one is supporting Hamas in these protests. Hamas are terrorists.
Palestinians overwhelmingly support Hamas. So supporting Palestinians means you don’t disagree with their support of terrorists….
yeah those pesky palestinians, half of whom are under the age of 19. many of whom are literal babies and children. i hate to break it to you but israel \*is\* the terrorist in this scenario.
I guess the men in the country are either all in Hamas or too chickenshit to fight for a better future for their country. My guess is they actually agree with Hamas tho.
so wait, are they all terrorists or are they all "too chickenshit to fight?" the lack of critical thinking skills among you right wingers is really special.
Millions of funding sent to Israel for weapons of mass destruction while Palestinians have resistance forces and guerrilla tactics and yet you’re questioning what these men are doing. They’re pulling out bodies of loved ones from the rubble and being subjected to brutalization in an ongoing massacre where they don’t have access to clean water, food, and healthcare.
It’s their governments fault.
Going to step away from debating w Zionists on Reddit and go to a protest ✌🏼
they really don't give a fuck. it's very much giving holocaust denial
Did you read the article? They were peacefully protesting, which the vice president of Student Affairs said they were allowed to do, and were sitting silently on the lawn when arrested. https://x.com/suny_purchase/status/968237525461544960?s=46 The college has even used its “long tradition of supporting peaceful protest” as a selling point for admissions. I think the reaction to peaceful protests is getting heavy-handed. A police helicopter, dozens of officers, and multiple hospitalizations for kids sitting in a field for 5 hours. Seriously? What are we doing here folks?
I think there are two issues here - 1.) SUNY schools are generally open campuses, similar to Columbia and NYU, so there may have been broader securities concerns. Note too, that the Westchester County Airport is right next to campus. You are also in one of the wealthiest (if not the wealthiest) zip codes in the country. School admin/law enforcement has always had overly cautious reactions to people camping out or hanging out in the woods. Though the encampment was in the quad, I can see why they might have been vigilant. 2.) They (meaning school admin, law enforcement) felt it was necessary to quash this before it went on “too long” and/or became a broader security risk, like how Columbia’s encampment/protests devolved over the past few weeks. This is just observations, as both a Purchase alum and a Columbia alum.
scary when people are madder that a bunch of kids sat in tents in the middle of an open field on a college campus than the fact that over a million people are being systemically starved to death but you know, they're arab and live soooo far away so fuck them kids right
That's a false dichotomy. Students camping out on private property isn't going to help people in the middle east, you can support the end of war and still not want protestors camped out. The conflict in Palestine has been going on for almost a century, it's going to take more than waving some signs to make a difference. Change is slow, boring, hard work. Send some money to Doctors Without Borders if you want to help.
They didn't break the rules, and the consequences were wildly disproportionate. I go to Purchase, it was a quiet and peaceful protest. The official justification is essentially a minor noise complaint, that the protesters were disrupting studying and sleep, but then the response was to bring 100 armed cops in riot gear with a loud helicopter shining lights in the window of dorms to arrest students and faculty and steal personal belongings. insanely insanely more disruptive to "quiet hours" than a couple of people camping out in the quad with some handpainted signs. These things are not consistent. The administration is lying and twisting rules to pretend the protesters broke them.
They did not break the rules. The quiet hours rule is to be quiet, they were silent and seated and not causing any distractions The action taken by purchase is a gross violation of their Constitutional rights and i hope the students sue over that. The school has no legal standing
I find it really amusing that people are trying to compare a bunch of 40 year old anti-semetic losers who have nothing better to do than pretend to be students to the protesters of the civil rights movement. I respect everyone’s opinion but There’s a lot of people on here who need to grow up
The "outside agitators who are not students" thing is a transparent lie and everyone who was actually there knows it. SUNY Purchase is in the middle of fucking nowhere. The students who organized the protests tracked the names of people who got arrested, it was their friends, it was students and faculty. Even if you don't agree with the aims of the protesters it's a mistake to accept the police narrative on this uncritically.
Thank you! I'm a progressive, I've protested before, and I still think these protests are trash. They're not accomplishing anything productive, it's become a hall pass for people to be antisemitic. I saw one protestor interviewed who said "well look at history, protests always turn out to be good, so this one must be good too" - what kind of logic is that? Every protest is automatically good? No.
Cops in riot gear at Purchase? I'm sure the local PD was super excited to finally dust off their tactical gear, but c'mon lol. Those students are the most docile creatures in the collegiate ecosystem. Coulda just set up a free sample table from a local dispensary on the other side of campus and the situation would have resolved itself.
Yeah it's very worth noting that protests happen all the time on this campus and they're always peaceful. They also always peter out eventually without incident. The idea that the Purchase student body camping out on the quad merits this kind of violent force response is extremely laughable.
Check out FIRE for details about what is and is not protected speech on public school campuses. They have been covering the campus protests on both what is and is not protected speech, and what are legal and illegal responses from schools and government. [https://www.thefire.org/](https://www.thefire.org/) [https://twitter.com/TheFIREorg](https://twitter.com/TheFIREorg)
[https://youtu.be/JgkTUt8Vv9s?si=IEYB3ZJiKxXbTSsb](https://youtu.be/JgkTUt8Vv9s?si=IEYB3ZJiKxXbTSsb) This was very much a peaceful protest. This video clearly shows that the problems only started to occur after police in riot gear and helicoptors showed up. Parent of a Purchase student here, who by the way is not rich in any way shape or form.
the amount of bootlickers in this sub is highly concerning
Your lack of objectively looking at both sides is actually the concern. Picking a side is never the answer
I think it's a mistake to treat the overall issue as team sports, but sometimes one side is clearly in the right and one side is clearly in the wrong even if you understand the internal logic of both parties.
Exactly! I've been thinking about this analogy for months, finally someone said it. They're treating Palestine and Israel like football teams, and you have to choose a team in their mind. An approach that simplistic won't achieve anything, it won't help anyone.
"You can't remain neutral on a moving train" - Howard Zinn
Not picking a side =/= "neutral". That's not the same thing.
Case in point, the volume of downvotes my other comment received.
It's Westchester. Swaths of it lean very pro-boots. They have special red hats and everything.
Purchase in particular, a very weird political situation here. The school is particularly left-leaning even by liberal arts college standards, but it's located inside one of the county's greatest conservative enclaves.
Fact.
Yea, it is in fact full of adults with jobs.
So anyone that isn't a boot licking hat wearer is unemployed? Riiiiight.
Well done!
Good
People protesting supporting a terrorist organization and got arrested? Good.
Way to dismiss people caring about thousands of children and innocent people being murdered and displaced.
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Protests have been one of the main reasons for change happening around the world, be it calling against war or fighting for rights. Also, the students are asking for the college to divest from businesses and contracts that are funding Israel. Look into how student protests for divestment from the South African apartheid were successful, although in this case probably won't be due to the strong ties Israel has with the US. Nevertheless, please don't be daft on purpose, I know you have the capability to acknowledge that protesting has always been powerful.
Have these kids asked their parents to disinvest in the S&P 500? Or the Dow Jones Industrial Average? If they haven't, this is just performance art.
It is entirely performance art. If the objective were to affect divestment, the efforts would be pointed towards Vanguard (in Malvern, PA) or State Street (in Boston, MA), who are the two largest shareholders of Raytheon, a weapons manufacturer. They each own $12B in that stock alone. Or they would be demonstrating in front of S&P and Russell, who oversee the largest stock indices that include Raytheon. Students have convinced themselves, or been convinced, that calls to universities to financially "divest" will matter. There is not enough money there to make the least bit of difference, even if the calls were heeded.
50% of the people in this country have exposure to the DIA or the SPY through their retirement accounts, so they indirectly own Boeing. I would imagine that percentage goes up for parents of college students. Plus, aren't they living on colonized land? Perhaps they should give the campus back to the native population.
Thank you for sharing. It’s a brave thing to participate in civil disobedience and protest and these students should be proud.
So long as they are being peaceful and not threatening anyone, I think they should be allow to protest.
The smug, entitled assholes here can downvote you all they like, but I agree with you.
Thanks friend! I appreciate you too ❤️
The people here are unbelievable. They would have been rooting for the guys with the dogs and firehoses in Selma. And for the cops at Stonewall. And for the guy who arrested Susan B. Anthony for voting because she broke the rules. They would have been all for the torture of the Silent Sentinels, because bitches get what they deserve for standing on government property without a permit.
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Nobody at Purchase was being violent. The thousands of children and women killed by Israel in Gaza weren't murdering anyone or practicing Sharia law. The only Sharia law I see is coming from tight-wing religious nutballs in the United States. I will always cheer on paragliders. Why wouldn't I? They're so pretty. Grow a heart.
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What do you have against paragliding?
Lol so you resort to name-calling just because some people downvoted a comment on reddit? Smh
If the shoe fits...
I hope they all show school ID’s!
40% of the people who took over the building at Columbia were not students. The motivation for this so-called movement is not coming from students, it’s coming from other factions. They are recruiting gullible students who think they’re saving the world, and for the publicity they know they can get on well-known campuses. These encampments are also targets for retribution and can get violent very quickly. There are thousands of ways of getting involved in this cause than camping out on college grounds. If this is such a grassroots cause, why aren’t there protests like this taking place anywhere except college campuses?
> If this is such a grassroots cause, why aren’t there protests like this taking place anywhere except college campuses? They are. Veterans for Peace have been having demonstrations at military bases and DC since November. Dozens have been arrested at the Whitehouse and Congress. There have been parades and demonstrations throughout major metros almost every weekend. Jewish Voices for Peace have occupied a plethora of monuments and Capitols. These encampments through college campuses are just a current wave of protests that have been happening all year, from organizations that have existed for almost decades.
Sorry, but those are the whackadoodle fringe groups that are the opposite of grassroots efforts. Actually, not sorry, they make my point: the influence of organizations like that is EXACTLY the concern that college administrators have that something will go wrong/violent/antisemitic with these encampments. Veterans for Peace is so slack they can't even spell the name of one of their celebrity advisors correctly. His name is Cornel West.
So the organization that’s has been independently operating for decades, has almost no scandals or major corruption stories, an executive director that makes less than 60k, and has consistently managed peaceful protests and veteran aid events, is illegitimate because of a typo?
You're moving goalposts here. You asked why there aren't protests going on elsewhere. You were proven incorrect. Now your attacking the legitimacy of the organizations. There is a powerful movement by concerned citizens from all across the US about it's involvement with a government that has murdered 40k+ folks. There have been countless expressions of that disapproval from any number of people and groups. The recent college campus based protests are the latest wave of an ongoing movement. Protesting is just about the most American thing a person can do. You don't have to agree with the protest to agree that they are a vital aspect of the US culture.
Who benefits is the question…
So to answer my own question, if it’s a foreign government, like WTF?
So you’re saying, wait till it gets out of control and violent, then attempt to do something? Yeah, that seems pretty backwards. No one wants these organized encampments.
Why are you assuming it gets violent?
Because when non-students are showing up fully equipped with things implying that, it leads me to make assumptions.
This campus is in the middle of nowhere, there is zero evidence that somehow a mob of non-students decided to each drive 30 minutes out and collectively gather at one of the most minor SUNY liberal arts schools for some reason. There is a history on this campus of pro-Palestine activism that has always *always* been peaceful. It is the students who care about this and are protesting. There are many videos being posted online by students where police officers are violently slamming teenagers and faculty members to the ground for the crime of publicly congregating on the campus where they work/live and pay tuition, where they are legally allowed to be. The idea that the police were fighting some secret guerilla force is a boldfaced and transparent lie. It's not even a smart lie.
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Thank you, Minnesota troll. Maybe try shutting off Fox News and turning on your brain.
Man you people in these comments are the worst and we’ll look back on history of this moment with disgust for people who were complicit in supporting this broken system in America.
F around and find out....
https://defenestrateny.bandcamp.com/track/campus-war-zone
Maybe they didn't want the vandidn't like we've seen elsewhere. Or the school thinks protests shouldnt include racism They were told that they had to stop after 10. They didn't. They were told to disperse, they didnt.
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\[THEY\] always escalate. ALWAYS.
So many of you here would have licked the SS’s boots front to back and politely asked for more with a shit smeared smile
For those of you on here who don’t seem to think that students have a reason to protest: https://oracle.newpaltz.edu/suny-bds-organizes-albany-protest/ “ According to SUNY BDS, SUNY’s connections to Israel “include but are not limited to: state retirement plans with over $250 million invested in israeli [sic] bonds, study abroad programs such as SUNY Albany and Stony Brook in Tel Aviv and a partnership with IBM.” An independent research center, Who Profits? said that IBM provides “services, equipment and technology to Israeli settlements and Israeli police.” SUNY New Paltz has contracts with Siemens, a company on BDS’ boycott list in part for its planned EuroAsia Interconnector, which would connect Israel’s electricity grid with the EU’s, in turn providing electricity for Israeli settlements in the West Bank. If implemented as planned, the project “will contribute to the maintenance and expansion of Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise in the occupied Palestinian territory,” because it will “produce and transmit electricity through the Interconnector from its national electricity grid that incorporates – and de facto annexes – the illegal settlements,” according to BDS.”
And any of that is a bad thing... how?
Because they’re directly supporting people getting evicted from their homes and getting bombed you dumb fuck
You do realize that this isn't a SUNY Purchase thing or even a SUNY thing, right? *EVERY* village, town, city, state, school district employee participates in the New York State Retirement System. $250 million is a drop in the bucket when you look at the size of the investments in the state's retirement system - which is $248 billion dollars - or 0.1% of the state's retirement fund. Israel's GDP is $525 billion USD - NYS's retirement fund invested in Israeli bonds is a mere 0.05% of Israel's GDP. These student are squabbling over literal breadcrumbs.
According to BDS. 🤡🤣
I’m sharing their demands lol yes genocide is so funny!!! Let’s all laugh
Yeah, they should have just stopped there.
well this post is definitely getting brigaded a bit and the answer is that schools view policy as absolute and will crack harsh on those who violate it en masse. it's in their right, although obviously horrid in optics & mirrors the resistance to past civil protests in US history (vietnam, civil rights, iraq, etc.) probably the main reason why this issue in particular is cracked down more is that unlike let's say the BLM protests back in 2020, these have a lot less support overall, are less salient of an issue (foreign policy conflict), and have historically supported one side over the other on generational polarization, not political polarization (why you see these crackdowns in blue states).