Let's face it: academic institutions (and many Blue cities) are run by spineless cowards. 

They are willing to see conservatives shouted down, harassed, driven off campuses, and persecuted. But when it comes to students who are engaged in planned takeovers and assaults on individuals and police officers, they cower in fear. They mumble nostrums about "free speech," ignoring that there are time place and manner restrictions. 

They will hold tribunals and silence anybody who knows what a woman is, but students "dearresting" their vile compatriots who have committed actual crimes is A-OK. 

pic.twitter.com/Br5HiOZdSR

— anita (@anitainchicago) April 25, 2024

Some of their fear is driven by a desire to show solidarity with Leftists, regardless of their acts. But much of it is because they created these monsters and know that they are on the edge of actual riots, and riots on prestigious campuses are a really bad look especially if lots of people get hurt. 

Students continue to attack police @NorthwesternU while a coalition of Students for Justice in Palestine groups and @wearedissenters calls for reinforcement. Chilling to watch coordinated riots unfold while @NUPoliceDept seems impotent. Shame on administration if they don’t call… https://t.co/bJpSCE2bNj pic.twitter.com/Rv18y2J5LV

— anita (@anitainchicago) April 25, 2024

These students are following instructions that explicitly describe how to assault police and get away with it. They celebrate the effectiveness of mob action. They have "occupied" places and make demands. And administrators are negotiating with them instead of treating them like adults in a civilized society. 

Of course, universities don't believe in civilization, which is a problem for them. As with all these elites, they expect they will be exempt from the consequences of their ideology. All this unrest is supposed to be directed outward, not at themselves. 

Today, I saw firsthand the radical mob Columbia has allowed to run amok on campus, spouting antisemitism and threatening Jewish students.

If universities don’t get it under control, it will escalate.

Taxpayer dollars should not be going to institutions that allow this chaos. pic.twitter.com/drFd8WCuqJ

— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) April 25, 2024

In one of my few disagreements with FIRE, whom I admire greatly, I strongly approve of UT-Austin's use of (very minor) force against student protesters on campus. I agree wholeheartedly with freedom of speech on campuses, and even the vile sentiments expressed by the protesters should be tolerated and rebutted, not silenced. 

Intense police repression at Emory. As soon as the press conference ended—about three hours into the encampment—GSP and APD ambushed students with pepper spray and tasers. Many attempts at dearrest. pic.twitter.com/SWHalnLH3T

— National Students for Justice in Palestine (@NationalSJP) April 25, 2024

But don't confuse what is happening on campuses and in the streets of our cities with speech. Marches require permits. Campuses have rules, and they don't only apply when you want them to. There is no leftist-violence or occupation exception to the laws and rules. Free speech is protected speech; assaulting and harassing people is not. 

The chilling show of force at the University of Texas at Austin is a disproportionate response to an apparently peaceful protest. Sending in a phalanx of law enforcement threatens protected speech where it should be at its most free: a public university like UT Austin.…

— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) April 25, 2024

FIRE rightly is concerned about the incident in which a journalist got caught up in a melee between police and the protesters, but I haven't seen them get outraged about student protesters blocking journalists from entering the encampments. Perhaps I missed that, but you get the point. The students aren't interested in free speech; they only have tantrums and expect everybody to treat those tantrums as persuasion. And journalists in the midst of a riot should be aware that being there is risky. 

Just a reminder that you don’t have to accept arrests and can/should de-arrest when feasible, AKA at a mass gathering where your strength is in numbers. Isolate the cops and grab your friends back, surround their vehicles, do what you have to https://t.co/DXB0BapCuT

— sarah (@sa_rrrahhh) April 25, 2024

And what of the freedom of the students who actually want to get an education at these institutions? They have paid for the privilege, and yet the universities are denying it to them because they give in to people who have no right to be there or to disrupt the campus. 

Arrests being made right now & will continue until the crowd disperses.

These protesters belong in jail.

Antisemitism will not be tolerated in Texas. Period.

Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled. https://t.co/XhLlQdvUl0

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) April 24, 2024

We live in a world where a person saying something that annoys a liberal gets censored and driven out of polite society. And we live in a world we our elite cede the streets to violent people protesting in support of terrorists. 

These students have a right to be stupid, ignorant, hateful, and to express their antisemitism. I don't believe they should be censored, despite the fact that they and their liberal allies work tirelessly to silence me and mine. 

🚨UPDATE: Students have taken to the streets to prevent the corrections buses with the students from leaving. The student body is on the side of the Encampment and Palestine!!! COME TO 114 and AMSTERDAM to show solidarity and protect our own!!! pic.twitter.com/6SxFkJPA8e

— sebas 🇵🇸🇸🇩🇨🇩🇵🇬 (@cybersebb) April 18, 2024

But don't expect me to sympathize with them as they violate laws, make life a living hell for the people they come in contact with, and spread hatred against others. If they break the law, arrest them. Prosecute them. Jail them. 

And if they resist, they deserve what they get. Police should use only enough force as is necessary to disperse the crowd, but they should use no less either. 

Of course, school administrators are spineless cowards, so don't expect the police to be invited to many campuses--especially not the Ivy League schools which sell themselves as spas and prestige factories.