When campus protesters turned threatening and violent in 1970, Ronald Reagan, who was then governor of California, called them “cowardly little fascist bands who are trying to prove that our system cannot work.” Reagan’s response was to use police to restore order. He was right.
College administrators and municipal and state officials should have the same answer today when confronted by Jew-baiting protests at Yale, Columbia, and other universities. The right to protest does not create a right to trespass, deliberately intimidate, threaten, block physical access, or commit violence.
At Columbia, where Jewish students were physically assaulted, school President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik originally had about 100 protesters arrested for criminal trespass, but her follow-up has been culpably weak. She let protesters defeat her by ordering that classes be held online instead of in person
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