Paul Davis: Radical student protestors from the 1960s to today (broadandliberty.com)
I’ve been following the campus unrest and street protests here in Philadelphia and across the nation, as pro-Hamas and anti-Israel protestors block traffic, occupy campus administration buildings and grounds, and fly Hamas flags and anti-Jew banners.
As usual, the clever and
satiric Babylon Bee has the best take on the events. The Bee reported
that student protestors reeled back in horror as the police charged them with
sticks – deodorant sticks.
Here in Philadelphia,
students at Temple University left their classes and marched with other protest
groups all across the city, meeting up at City Hall on April 25th. A hundred or
more pro-Hamas protestors marched through Center City, and they then marched to
West Philly to Drexel University and on to the University of Penn’s campus
where they finally set up an illegal encampment.
The protestors said the
encampment was a symbol of pro-Hamas solidarity. The protestors demanded that
the University of Penn disclose fully its investments as well as divest totally
from Israeli companies.
Jewish students in
Philadelphia and across the country are rightfully frightened, as some of the
pro-Hamas protestors have threatened them physically. Many people see the
pro-Hamas stance as a new burgeoning antisemitism in the United States.
I’m old enough to
remember the anti-Vietnam War protests in the 1960s, when college campuses and
city streets were filled with student protestors waving Viet Cong flags and
burning American flags. There were illegal takeovers of campus administration
buildings, vandalism, and clashes with police.
Films of the campus
riots alternated with films from the fighting in South Vietnam on local and
national TV news programs, and the newspapers carried these stories side by
side in print.
In 1968, when I was a
South Philadelphia High School (Southern) student, I skipped school on several
occasions and took the subway from Snyder Avenue and rode uptown to Temple
University. I stood on the sidelines behind the cops and watched the student radicals
protest the Vietnam War.
My late older brother
was then serving in the U.S. Army in Chu Lai in South Vietnam. According to his
letters, the Viet Cong were launching rocket and mortar fire on Chu Lai daily,
so seeing the student radicals waving Viet Cong flags angered me.
The worst anti-war riots
took place in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention in 1968. Nearly
the whole country watched the TV nightly news in horror and disgust as the
police and student protestors clashed.
President Nixon later
effectively ended the anti-Vietnam War movement simply by abolishing the draft.
The big anti-war protests ended immediately, leaving one to conclude that many
of the anti-war protestors were not so much against the war in Vietnam as they
were against personally being involved in the war.
I attended Penn State
University at State College, Pennsylvania in the summer of 1972 after I was
separated from the U.S. Navy, having served on an aircraft carrier off the
coast of North Vietnam in 1970-1971. Although the war was still going on in
1972, there were few anti-war protests worth noting.
Years later, in 2000, I
covered the Center City riots as a reporter during the Republican National
Convention that selected George W. Bush to be the Republican presidential
candidate.
On assignment for Counterterrorism magazine,
I covered the street protests and the clashes between the protestors and the
police. I recall standing five feet from several MOVE members who sat in the
street and blocked traffic around five o’clock in the evening when hot and
irate workers simply wanted to go home.
Even at the distance of
five feet, I was repulsed by the strong barnyard smell coming from the MOVE
people. I felt sorry for the poor cops who had to lift the MOVE people and
carry them to a parked bus where they housed the arrested protestors. Above and
beyond their call of duty, to be sure.
The protestors included
the Black Bloc, an anarchist group carrying black flags and dressed all in
black, with black bandannas covering their faces. There was also the Clown Bloc
anarchist group, along with other professional agitator groups. Local college
students also joined the street protests.
The protests became
violent with protesters overturning trash dumpsters, vandalizing parked cars
and buildings, and attacking the cops, including assaulting then-Police
Commissioner John Timoney. Timoney was on a bike with another bike cop when
they attempted to stop a small mob of protestors from trying to overturn a
police patrol car. I witnessed a fight that ensued with Timoney and the other
cop taking several blows, but they quickly dispersed the group and handcuffed
and arrested three or four protestors.
Timoney had previously
made the decision to not outfit the police in full riot gear, stating the riot
gear was provocative. Instead, he had the police wear standard bike helmets and
carry their Raleigh Mountain bikes sideways at chest level to barricade, ram,
prod and push back protestors.
So, to me and people of
my age, today’s radical students (and older non-student ringers) who support a
violent and murderous terrorist group like Hamas is nothing new, as the
students in the 1960s supported the Viet Cong, another violent, murderous terrorist
group. And the student rioters in Philadelphia in 2000 supported violent
anarchist groups.
It seems to me that the
student protestors then and now are pleased to have a cause in which they could
feel important, gather in like-minded groups, and avoid the drudgery of
attending class, studying, and writing papers. Marching, shouting slogans, and
waving enemy flags and hate banners is a grand social activity for these
misfits.
And getting arrested is
a badge of honor for them, although they would just cry if they were truly
treated as harshly as hardened criminals were. They would faint if they were
actually locked up with gangbangers, murderers and other career criminals.
With apologies to
Jonathan Swift, I have a modest proposal regarding the pro-Hamas protestors
causing havoc on university campuses in Philadelphia, New York, and the rest of
the country.
I propose that the
pro-Hamas, anti-Israel and anti-Jew student protestors be arrested and forced
to watch Hamas’s own videos of the horrific and brutal murders, rapes and
kidnappings of Israeli defenseless men, women, children, and the elderly on
October 7th.
Then the students should
be made to write a paper on why they support Hamas’s acts of brutality.
But that would be
unconstitutional, as being forced to watch the horrific deeds of Hamas, the
terrorist group they claim to support, would be cruel and unusual
punishment.
Paul Davis, a Philadelphia writer and frequent contributor to Broad + Liberty, also contributes to Counterterrorism magazine and writes the “On Crime” column for the Washington Times. He can be reached at pauldavisoncrime.com.
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