General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAre We Sure That The Columbia University Protesters Are All.....
students?
Could there be any outside provocateurs involved - inciting the students to violence?
The clips they are showing of the protesters storming the building on campus - look similar to the storming of the Capitol Bldg on Jan 6th. Given these clips - I'm wondering how the Repugs will react to this storming of this building on campus and what they will say about it. I'm wondering what pearls of hypocrisy will come from their lips about this storming of the building?
Could this building storming - just be a way to embarrass Biden?
50 Shades Of Blue
(10,141 posts)sarisataka
(18,980 posts)differentiating between posters. The on-campus protesters were supposedly fine because IDs were checked so we could be sure they were all students.
But that was yesterday and now they have done something which may make them and those who support them look bad so...
Fla Dem
(23,950 posts)Think. Again.
(9,103 posts)....that they are NOT all students and that yes, disruptors, agitators, and provocateurs are probably the loudest voices we are hearing.
LakeArenal
(28,906 posts)Think. Again.
(9,103 posts)....and the rightwing party, and the Democratic Socialist party, and AIPAC and hamas and.... The list goes on of groups who could gain some advantage from fanning these flames.
LakeArenal
(28,906 posts)Think. Again.
(9,103 posts)ripcord
(5,553 posts)Just arrest everyone in the building and start charging them, students will get additional discipline from the school.
LeftInTX
(25,914 posts)Maybe Columbia knows what it's doing? Who knows?
JohnSJ
(92,595 posts)students, expel their stupid asses, and let them put that on their resumes
Rebl2
(13,647 posts)for them from the school should be suspension and never allowed back on campus. This will likely follow them if they try to enroll in another college and they will be denied admission.
global1
(25,316 posts)Rebl2
(13,647 posts)wondering about this for days. I would not be surprised if there are not maga people instigating some of this to somehow make President Biden look bad. Maybe they have been planning this for months.
wnylib
(21,858 posts)understand why people might speculate about them.
Just as the Rs have people on the extreme right (a majority of them now), there are people on the extreme left, like Susan Sarandon.
In January of 2003, I joined a huge protest in DC against Bush the Younger's push for invasion of Iraq. It meant traveling by car with friends to Buffalo and boarding buses there for DC.
The buses were sponsored by a socialist group and I am a liberal Dem, not a socialist. I was on the bus only for the transportation.
Once the bus was on the road, the socialist leader on our bus (there was one for each of the 8 or so buses) passed out pamphlets to each passenger. The pamphlets were strongly anti Israel with language that had some anti Jewish tropes. My seat mate was a young Black woman who worked for a Buffalo bank. After looking at the pamphlet, she crumpled it up and said that she did not support racism of any kind. Several other passengers did the same thing, including me.
I am not condemning groups like DSA. I respect and admire AOC on many issues. But there are some people who seem to go so far left that they go full circle and end up beside the far right.
(I am also not a "centrist" Dem. I lean to the left of them, but not as far left as the DSA or someone like Sarandan.)
LeftInTX
(25,914 posts)Link to tweet
I don't know it's true, but they are posting pictures. She's about 60 years old. And has a history with black bloc tactics. (Noticed all the "Ninja looking" people in black last night reminded me of black bloc)
Voltaire2
(13,356 posts)My 60s flashback continues.
BannonsLiver
(16,556 posts)?si=gGx60phTcFQxQHsH
Ping Tung
(833 posts)No. They're citizens exercising their 1st Amendment rights.
Are the humanitarians in Gaza delivering food, aiding the wounded civilians "outside provocateurs" working to embarrass Biden? No. They're too busy saving lives to worried about embarrassment.
EllieBC
(3,054 posts)take workers hostage and threaten Jewish students?
Ping Tung
(833 posts)The same applies to people who kill or starve civilians no matter what the rationale.
EllieBC
(3,054 posts)Should be punished for whats going on in the Middle East? I guess then you were in favor of American Muslims being punished for 911?
Ping Tung
(833 posts)No matter which side they're on.
mopinko
(70,437 posts)if they dont work there or attend, they have no RIGHT to b there, let alone stir up violence and hate.
Beastly Boy
(9,625 posts)violating college policies.
And what's with the comparisons of loud entitled assholes cosplaying intifada in the safety of the university's compound to volunteers delivering food in Gaza?
EllieBC
(3,054 posts)are destroying property and now taking workers hostage. I dont give a fuck who they are. Arrest them, charge them, bye bye and off to jail.
Iris
(15,693 posts)EllieBC
(3,054 posts)I mean, Im sure if she was Jewish she was asking for it right? Because Jews should be punished wherever they are for whats going on in the middle of east, right? Like those Jewish students at that campus totally deserve to be threatened and harassed right?
LeftInTX
(25,914 posts)The newspaper reported that a maintenance worker exited the building at 12:40 a.m. after yelling to be released, telling the crowd as he left that he had been held hostage inside. Three other workers reportedly left some 30 minutes later after the barricades blocking one door were removed.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/intifada-anti-israel-protesters-break-into-columbia-campus-building-and-seize-it/
MichMan
(12,018 posts)That will look good on their resumes
getagrip_already
(15,090 posts)Any student or faculty who cannot present themselves or prove via a notarized proctor that they are not in the building can be put on suspension pending expulsion.
Ez enough.
Marcus IM
(2,306 posts)And to the police doing the arrests: don't go easy on them, bang their heads on the car door.
Sounds about right.
elleng
(131,601 posts)The 'violence,' however, appears caused by 'officers/police,' not 'protesters.'
LeftInTX
(25,914 posts)AkFemDem
(1,836 posts)While you break doors, windows, and furniture, kick in and spray paint walls, and start fires is a weeeeee bit violent. Bringing hatchets, swords, and knives on campus to a protest is a wee bit violent. Pelting riot squad watch lines with full water bottles is a wee bit violent. Hitting Jewish students in the head is a wee bit violent. Threatening to murder Jews is a wee bit violent.
Oh but hey, those nice protesters on Jan 6 weren't violent either, that was all capital police.
Abolishinist
(1,342 posts)Why, they're merely tourists, taking selfies and minding their own business!
LexVegas
(6,125 posts)SunSeeker
(51,898 posts)Beartracks
(12,854 posts)Mosby
(16,448 posts)Nt
homegirl
(1,439 posts)can a chip card be passed back to be used again?
LeftInTX
(25,914 posts)onecaliberal
(33,035 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,632 posts)Appears they were bought for their current use. Did the students or some outside group buy them?
Response to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Reply #41)
Mosby This message was self-deleted by its author.
Voltaire2
(13,356 posts)David__77
(23,677 posts)Voltaire2
(13,356 posts)2naSalit
(87,095 posts)That the purpose of many is to make Joe look bad.
They will make use of every opportunity to do so.
Mosby
(16,448 posts)The leaders are all students, the so called provocateurs are being attracted to the illegal encampment because of the pro-Hamas messaging going out.
shrike3
(3,948 posts)Maybe there are outside agitators. There sure were during BLM.
Traildogbob
(8,939 posts)The right to protest. But
.I and my fellow service members from the Vietnam era war for cash and power were attacked by so many of those college protesters who were safely here in college. For the rest of us we HAD to go (with no right to vote) and try to stay alive and return. But upon coming home those protesters directed their vial assaults on us, as Baby Killers and murderers. We could never wear uniforms here, and just having short hair made us the Enemy.
The stigma they put on us lasted for 25+ years as dangerous killers.
Only after the first Gulf could we feel good about ourselves, just for surviving a war we wanted no part of, and show at least the pride in a branch we served in.
The protest of that war was extremely supported by us, that were there not by choice, but just trying to stay alive for two years.
And the privileged attending college had no clue what we faced.
I just wish these protesting today would direct their hate at the right enemies and try to educate themselves on the history of the region.
And they need to Know, not voting for Biden will allow Trump and his Bannon cabinet to wipe Gaza clean and make Kushner condos on the beaches.
Maybe they are just trying to avoid final exams?
I do see the same privilege and pampered young college kids, not fully understanding what will happen if Biden loses. The consequences could not be more dire to Palestinians.
The 68 protests, Put Nixon in and added Five years to war.
But protesting Bibi and sending him weapons I fully understand.
Voltaire2
(13,356 posts)LeftInTX
(25,914 posts)Martin68
(23,050 posts)serious question and seems designed to distract from the fact that students are demonstrating against a mass bombardment of a densely populated urban area in which thousands of innocent civilians are being killed. Using the suggestion that "outside agitators " are involved to question the validity of student demonstrations smacks of Red Scare propaganda used to suggest that Vietnam protesters were being funded and influenced by the Soviet Union.
global1
(25,316 posts)I fully accept that these students have the right to protest.
My post this morning was in response to the news that the students busted into a building on campus ala Jan 6th style and that is where I drew the line and asked the question - are we sure that all these protesters at Columbia were students?
That's when the thought entered my mind that there might have been some 'agitators' seeding the crowd of students and luring them into the violence that resulted in this building being taken over.
At this point - I don't know if I have an answer to my query about outside 'agitators' and until I know that this didn't actually happen - I'm going to stick by my suspicions.
Martin68
(23,050 posts)groups. Stick to your "suspicions" if you must, but every report I've read tells a different story. A few outside ex-students or non-students would be too small a minority to have a significant effect on the demonstrations. The situation in Gaza is too dire to ascribe demonstrations to outside agitators. check out this story:
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/4/30/omer_bartov
Kennah
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