Thanks for this reporting, Eric. I've not been able to gather much from the MSM about what the students themselves are doing or thinking. That led me to write about how I hope they will dream bigger than just divestment, which I think is an impossible red herring. We need to imagine the world we DO want, not just push against the frustrating and unsatisfactory world that is. https://jenniferbrowdyphd.substack.com/p/what-phoenix-will-be-born-from-these
JUST SPOKE TO ERIC ON THE PHONE (9:45PM 5/2/24 US PACIFIC TIME, 12:45AM EDT ON 5/3/24)
The encampment on the Quad at SUNY-New Paltz has just been busted, 60-80 cops in full riot gear, including county and state police, the 150 protesters arrested, people arrested away from the Quad too. This was a Columbia U style bust. Orders must have come from the governor, forcing campus president Wheeler to do this.
Thank you Jeff, I am safe at home. My car was parked in a staging area and blocked in by sheriff's vans etc. Some ladies associated with the court rescue operation helped out, I charged my phone, went to New Paltz town court where about six students were released. Students were taken all over the county for processing and there was an organized system of rides to get them. About 50 arrests, state police helicopter, at least three drones...totally disproportionate response to a peaceful sit-in. No serious injuries reported. This was designed to send a message. I reckon that Wheeler will be thrown under the bus for allowing this.
GREAT to hear you're home safe. So only 50 out of 150 arrested? And helicopter plus drones? You'd think they were operating in Gaza, or Lebanon.
You stated this must have come from the governor. I thought about this, i think it may be from further up. Biden earlier today, calling for a crackdown on the protests, see right below. This may be in prep for an Israeli assault on Rafah, which Biden has insisted should not be attacked, but will now approve an attack of, since Hamas is refusing his (and Bibi's) "very generous offer," an "offer that you can't refuse" for a garbage short term cease fire and prisoner exchange, after which operations to exterminate Hamas can resume.
"President Joe Biden says “order must prevail” on university campuses in the United States, just hours after police raided and dismantled another protest encampment [UCLA]in support of Palestinians.
In a brief news conference on Thursday, Biden said both the right to free speech and the rule of law “must be upheld” but stressed that “violent protest is not protected”
“Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation — none of this is a peaceful protest. Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not a peaceful protest,” he said.
“Dissent is essential to democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the rights of others so students can finish the semester and their college education,” Biden continued. “There’s a right to protest but not the right to cause chaos.”"
Thanks for covering the student protests. I was a student at SUNY Buffalo during the Vietnam War protests. That campus was occupied for THREE MONTHS by the National Guard in 1970. The atmosphere was very tense by May 1970--violence would have erupted in Buffalo had it not occurred at Kent State 54 years ago today, after which the armed presence was removed from SUNY Buffalo. So glad that we finally have a generation of students willing to stand up for the people suffering in Gaza.
Are you related to the great Dorothy Haas? The Norton Union director? I keep a 1970 yearbook on the bookshelf next to my bed (gifted to me because I was the founding editor of Generation, a magazine in the lineage of what you would remember as Ethos). I graduated in 1986, but spiritually, 1970 was my year.
Hi Eric. No, I'm not related to Dorothy. I am a long-time reader of Planet Waves and agree that your thinking is quite aligned with our generation. Your coverage in the early days of the COVID epidemic was especially valuable to me as I tried to get solid info on what was happening. While I didn't relate to Uri Berliner's criticisms of NPR's supposed liberal bias, I was happy he called them out on their long delay in having any curiousity about the lab leak possibility for COVID origin. Real journalists don't just rubber-stamp the conventional; they have insatiable thirst for truth and investigate the possibilities.
There is no "COVID," no "SARS-CoV-2," thus no lab leak, there was no "Pandemic," the whole thing was a fraud. What has never been proven to even exist can't leak out of anything. Eric and a bunch of us have shown that.
They are also standing up for themselves, tired of being ignored and not being listened to. And consciously or not, also tired of being treated like digital representations who are supposed to limit themselves to one form of commodity consumption or another. That's why i joined the mass rebellion, a few months after Kent State happened.
This all takes me back to ’68 at Columbia U, ’69, in City University of New York, where i was a student, both of those experienced as an unfriendly observer. Then in Berkeley ’70 (hostile at first, then ambivalent, after having gone a pre-induction physical, the first step before being drafted into the military. And then as participant ’71, a total participant ’72 (anti war and People's Park phase 2), ’74 (Criminology School was getting eliminated due to too many “radicals” in the faculty, the one time i got arrested), and after a long gap ’85 (South Africa divestment). All those in Berkeley, where i've lived since 1970.
My sense of it is that the students are incredibly sincere and also savvy in that internet way. The few I've run across in protests are wonderful kids. I'm surprised in a good way about these protests. As to them spreading so fast--I think that's how movements happen. I do remember the anti-apartheid movements of the late 80's and how suddenly the performing arts people I knew were refusing to perform in South Africa, or even audition for anything that was SA based. It seemed to happen fast, but, like the pro-Palestinian movement, it had been building for a while.
SUNY NP students were the epitome of peaceful protest. One student was kicked in the face by the police. Shame on Wheeler and Hochul. Let’s hope that pitching a tent is the worse offense humanity will ever commit.
Here is our report on the New Paltz arrests.
https://planetwaves.substack.com/p/and-the-whole-wide-world-is-watchin
Thanks for this reporting, Eric. I've not been able to gather much from the MSM about what the students themselves are doing or thinking. That led me to write about how I hope they will dream bigger than just divestment, which I think is an impossible red herring. We need to imagine the world we DO want, not just push against the frustrating and unsatisfactory world that is. https://jenniferbrowdyphd.substack.com/p/what-phoenix-will-be-born-from-these
JUST SPOKE TO ERIC ON THE PHONE (9:45PM 5/2/24 US PACIFIC TIME, 12:45AM EDT ON 5/3/24)
The encampment on the Quad at SUNY-New Paltz has just been busted, 60-80 cops in full riot gear, including county and state police, the 150 protesters arrested, people arrested away from the Quad too. This was a Columbia U style bust. Orders must have come from the governor, forcing campus president Wheeler to do this.
Thank you Jeff, I am safe at home. My car was parked in a staging area and blocked in by sheriff's vans etc. Some ladies associated with the court rescue operation helped out, I charged my phone, went to New Paltz town court where about six students were released. Students were taken all over the county for processing and there was an organized system of rides to get them. About 50 arrests, state police helicopter, at least three drones...totally disproportionate response to a peaceful sit-in. No serious injuries reported. This was designed to send a message. I reckon that Wheeler will be thrown under the bus for allowing this.
GREAT to hear you're home safe. So only 50 out of 150 arrested? And helicopter plus drones? You'd think they were operating in Gaza, or Lebanon.
You stated this must have come from the governor. I thought about this, i think it may be from further up. Biden earlier today, calling for a crackdown on the protests, see right below. This may be in prep for an Israeli assault on Rafah, which Biden has insisted should not be attacked, but will now approve an attack of, since Hamas is refusing his (and Bibi's) "very generous offer," an "offer that you can't refuse" for a garbage short term cease fire and prisoner exchange, after which operations to exterminate Hamas can resume.
"President Joe Biden says “order must prevail” on university campuses in the United States, just hours after police raided and dismantled another protest encampment [UCLA]in support of Palestinians.
In a brief news conference on Thursday, Biden said both the right to free speech and the rule of law “must be upheld” but stressed that “violent protest is not protected”
“Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation — none of this is a peaceful protest. Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not a peaceful protest,” he said.
“Dissent is essential to democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the rights of others so students can finish the semester and their college education,” Biden continued. “There’s a right to protest but not the right to cause chaos.”"
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/2/no-surprise-us-students-slam-bidens-comments-on-gaza-encampments
Thanks for covering the student protests. I was a student at SUNY Buffalo during the Vietnam War protests. That campus was occupied for THREE MONTHS by the National Guard in 1970. The atmosphere was very tense by May 1970--violence would have erupted in Buffalo had it not occurred at Kent State 54 years ago today, after which the armed presence was removed from SUNY Buffalo. So glad that we finally have a generation of students willing to stand up for the people suffering in Gaza.
also today is the anniversary of Kent State -- coverage here
https://planetwaves.fm/new-program-tonight-by-8-pm-interview-with-laurel-krause-on-kent-state-shootings-suny-new-paltz-arrests-133-are-you-your-lover-2/
Are you related to the great Dorothy Haas? The Norton Union director? I keep a 1970 yearbook on the bookshelf next to my bed (gifted to me because I was the founding editor of Generation, a magazine in the lineage of what you would remember as Ethos). I graduated in 1986, but spiritually, 1970 was my year.
Hi Eric. No, I'm not related to Dorothy. I am a long-time reader of Planet Waves and agree that your thinking is quite aligned with our generation. Your coverage in the early days of the COVID epidemic was especially valuable to me as I tried to get solid info on what was happening. While I didn't relate to Uri Berliner's criticisms of NPR's supposed liberal bias, I was happy he called them out on their long delay in having any curiousity about the lab leak possibility for COVID origin. Real journalists don't just rubber-stamp the conventional; they have insatiable thirst for truth and investigate the possibilities.
There is no "COVID," no "SARS-CoV-2," thus no lab leak, there was no "Pandemic," the whole thing was a fraud. What has never been proven to even exist can't leak out of anything. Eric and a bunch of us have shown that.
They are also standing up for themselves, tired of being ignored and not being listened to. And consciously or not, also tired of being treated like digital representations who are supposed to limit themselves to one form of commodity consumption or another. That's why i joined the mass rebellion, a few months after Kent State happened.
This all takes me back to ’68 at Columbia U, ’69, in City University of New York, where i was a student, both of those experienced as an unfriendly observer. Then in Berkeley ’70 (hostile at first, then ambivalent, after having gone a pre-induction physical, the first step before being drafted into the military. And then as participant ’71, a total participant ’72 (anti war and People's Park phase 2), ’74 (Criminology School was getting eliminated due to too many “radicals” in the faculty, the one time i got arrested), and after a long gap ’85 (South Africa divestment). All those in Berkeley, where i've lived since 1970.
My sense of it is that the students are incredibly sincere and also savvy in that internet way. The few I've run across in protests are wonderful kids. I'm surprised in a good way about these protests. As to them spreading so fast--I think that's how movements happen. I do remember the anti-apartheid movements of the late 80's and how suddenly the performing arts people I knew were refusing to perform in South Africa, or even audition for anything that was SA based. It seemed to happen fast, but, like the pro-Palestinian movement, it had been building for a while.
SUNY NP students were the epitome of peaceful protest. One student was kicked in the face by the police. Shame on Wheeler and Hochul. Let’s hope that pitching a tent is the worse offense humanity will ever commit.