Glenn labels this the crushing of dissent, and I have to disagree. I will call it what it is: Absolutely Disgusting.
Sgt. 1st Class Jeff Due, right, a U.S. Army recruiter, is surrounded by protesters at Seattle Central Community College, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2005, in Seattle. After about a 10-minute standoff during which protesters tore up U.S Army literature, the protesters were successful in getting Due and another recruiter to leave their table under escort by campus security officers. Several hundred students walked out of classes at several Seattle colleges and universities to protest the inauguration of President Bush.
This isn’t dissent. This is despicable. Although when you peruse the rhetoric of ‘moderate’ Democrats like Oliver Willis, it is hardly surprising that the ‘radical fringe’ might do something like this. After all, ‘moderate’ Oliver’s buddy Michael Moore seems to be stirring up the twerps.
Oliver
I have no idea what your point here is. Are you trying to say *you* are some kind of moderate, right above the post applauding people getting pepper sprayed?
John Cole
The brainwashing is complete. You can’t even detect attempts at humor, much less actual humor anymore.
Oliver
Or perhaps your post is a muddle. I can’t make heads or tails of what the fuck you’re saying.
whatever
It’s about how the left is intolerant of anyone who has ideals that differ from those. That the left is against free speech, assembly, or any other freedoms. I have no doubt that the lefties would string me and my whole family up if given the chance, and it looks like they would have also done it with this guy in the picture.
Kimmitt
And yet they, you know, didn’t.
There’s a followup story here. It looks like a demonstration that clearly got out of hand. Kudos to the recruiters for keeping their heads, and we can all be glad that no one was seriously hurt. I would imagine they’d want to press assault charges against the idiots who did this.
But calling this “crushing of dissent?” Please. There was no official sanction, no organization — and the University appears to have done a pretty good job of defusing things. This was a crowd of kids who did something stupid, nothing more.
Paul
“This was a crowd of kids who did something stupid, nothing more.”
Bullshit. This is typical of the left’s “tolerance”. They tolerate anyone who doesn’t stray from the leftist orthodoxy. Our universities are filled with these haters and the leftist professors who feed them agitprop in the same spirit that all fascists do.
M. Scott Eiland
Every student who was demonstrably involved in violence in this incident(including tearing up literature that wasn’t theirs to tear up) should be expelled at minimum and hopefully prosecuted. Rinse and repeat as needed if the little morons don’t get the message the first time.
Ricky
I guess you have to be an American contract worker in Iraq who gets beaten and burned alive in order to actually have legitimate scorn heaped upon you, eh?
Harlan Pepper
The recruiters are servicemen right? Were they armed? They should have been. At the least, they could’ve maced those freedom-hating lackwits.
I’d laugh.
sabinal
The students have no right to harrass the recruiter. that’s all
Ken
“This was a crowd of kids who did something stupid, nothing more”
Damnit, “kids” don’t go to college! Adults do. And they’re damn well old enough to know how to behave themselves.
Tom Scott
Let’s imagine for a moment that these were not military recruiters but were members of the NAACP in commemoration and educational outreach on MLK day. Would Kimmitt call thugs ripping up the brochures “a crowd of kids who did something stupid, nothing more.” I don’t think so and he would be correct.
We have to remember: it’s the priciple that matters, not the situation. Civil rights are commendable therefore freedom of speech must be protected. War is evil so it’s OK to trample on free speech rights.
tom scott
I just read this on Daniel Pipes’ blog and it seemed somehow appropo:
Stephen H. Balch, president of the National Association of Scholars: “Our colleges have become less marketplaces of ideas than churches in which you have to be a true believer to get a seat in the pews. We’ve drifted to a secular version of 19th-century denominational colleges, in which the university’s mission is to crusade against sin and make the country a morally better place.”
This did happen at a state supported community college didn’t it?
Kimmitt
I don’t necessarily think that expulsion is the best punishment for petty vandalism (i.e. tearing up the brochures), but anyone who laid a hand on the recruiters should be currently thinking about how they’re going to explain the gap in their academic record to the new colleges they’re applying to — in addition to facing charges.
The fact that it was a random stupidity doesn’t mean that those involved were not culpable. It just means that it was a random stupidity.
And yes, I would think differently if members of the NAACP were attacked, though I wouldn’t think much of it if (for example) random members of Amnesty International were attacked during a pro-war rally. People do dumbass things when they get riled up — it doesn’t necessarily point to anything deeper than that basic psychological truth.
Again, I am impressed that the recruiters and the college managed to keep the situation from turning really ugly.
Pat Curley
Puts the lie to the claim that “We support the troops”.
Kimmitt
How? Which prominent Democrats have even mentioned the event, except to state that it was wrong and that the students involved should be appropriately prosecuted?
Joe Schmoe
Take a look at the average age of the protesters in the photo. I wouldn’t call most of them “kids.”
“Greying hippies” is more like it. Looks like the Vietnam generation is just up to its usual tricks…
Joe Schmoe
Oops I stand corrected. I looked at the photo on Yahoo! and it looks like most of them are indeed kids.
Despicable. All of their asses should have been thrown in jail.
wild bird
A whole lot of brainless idiots so damn stupid to know to go to the toilet without some one showing them how to go potty again why dont they all go eat their old 70s peace symbol(the chicken footprint)
RW
I’ll say it: those punkss are a bunch of whining pussies.
Soon to be on the federal teat, voting Democrat.
russ
Well the Washington state leftie/lunatics now have something to cheer about…
The city of Spokane will soon be reanmed as TROUSER TROUT TROLLER MECCA…
Well if any state deserves the honor, Washington state does since its laced with lunatic lefties…
Kimmitt
Soon to be on the federal teat, voting Democrat.
I beg to differ; I’ve never known a farmer to vote Democratic in my life.
shark
Hey, how about a big FUCK YOU to the security guards who decidd the way to handle the situation was to evacuate him INSTEAD OF PROTECT HIM WHICH IS THEIR GODDAMN JOB IN THE FIRST PLACE?
neill
why weren’t these ‘protesters arrested?
Kimmitt
evacuate him INSTEAD OF PROTECT HIM WHICH IS THEIR GODDAMN JOB IN THE FIRST PLACE?
Um, their job was to protect both the students and the recruiters, and the best way to do that — by far — was to calm things down by separating them, then let cooler heads prevail.
RW
I beg to differ; I’ve never known a farmer to vote Democratic in my life.
Apparently, you’ve never learned about the frailty of anecdotal evidence, either.