Two days ago we covered the latest temper tantrum by law students, Yale Law Students Disrupt, Try To Intimidate Conservative Speaker:
We have been here before, intolerant students trying to purge and punish people with whom they disagree. It’s not just an undergraduate problem, it’s happening in law schools also, with faculty and administrators condoning or even encouraging this cancel culture.The most recent example was the shout-down of Ilya Shapiro at UC-Hastings Law School, which involved a student getting within inches of Shapiro as he tried to speak in a clear attempt at physical intimidation….Now something similar has happened at Yale Law School. The Free Beacon broke the story ….
Only a short amount of video was available, but as I wrote, based on the Free Beacon reporting “a lot of the physical intimidation took place outside the room….”
That off-camera part of the story was confirmed by Kristen Waggoner, the highly-successful and accomplished lawyer at Alliance Defending Freedom, who was the targeted speaker. Fox News reports on her appearance on Fox and Friends:
About 120 student protesters showed up with signs attacking the ADF to shout down the speakers, with one reportedly recorded on audio telling a member of the conservative group that she would “literally fight you, b—-.”Waggoner told host Steve Doocy that the situation was very volatile and she was disappointed there was only one video circulating of the chaotic event.”These students were not only physically intimidating the other students and the speakers, they were pounding on the walls, blocking the exits, and disrupting the event throughout. … It shouldn’t take place on a law student campus in the law school classroom,” Waggoner said.
Physical intimidation is one of the things that distinguishes criticism from cancel culture. There’s a line between vigorous protest and physical intimidation, a line that long ago disappeared at the undergraduate level, and is vanishing fast in law schools when a school like Yale focused its ire on campus police for protecting the speaker under attack:
The law school released a statement claiming police officers were not needed to quell the crowd, as Fox News further reported:
“Yale Law School follows the University’s free speech policy, which includes a three-warning protocol… YLS staff spoke to Yale Police officers who were already on hand about whether assistance might be needed in the event the students did not follow those instructions. Fortunately, that assistance was not needed and the event went forward until its conclusion. Members of the administration are nonetheless in serious conversation with students about our free speech policies, expectations, and norms.”Waggoner, however, pushed back saying Yale “blatantly misrepresented” what took place and that she needed a police escort to leave the event because of physical threats.”This wasn’t a protest. This was physical intimidation and bullying that took place in the presence of Yale administration. … I just want to underscore the importance that Yale administrators shouldn’t be cowering to mobs. They should be insisting on embracing a culture of free speech.”
I know I sound dramatic when in my many speeches and appearances I warn that higher ed is gone and cannot be reformed from within. Dramatic maybe, but correct, as the Yale student and administrative reaction shows.
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