W.J. Astore
Meandering Thoughts on Campus Protests against Genocide and Police Responses
College and university campuses across the USA are increasingly the sites of violence, but that violence is largely being committed by police units called in to disperse and arrest protesters. The police, I assume, are, as they say, just following orders. The question is: Who’s giving those orders? And the answer most often seems to be senior administrators at those colleges and universities. Welcome to your education in liberal values!
Police do what they’re trained to do, just as soldiers do what they’re trained to do. Soldiers aren’t freedom-bringers and diplomats: they are trained in the use of deadly force under the most violent of conditions. Police aren’t educators and negotiators: they are also trained in the use of suppressive force under violent conditions.
On campuses across America, police have done what police are armed and trained to do here. They break out their riot gear, their sniper rifles, their armored cars, their tools of behavior modification (e.g. cuffs, Tasers, truncheons, rubber bullets, tear gas and pepper spray), and they go to work. They literally kick ass and take names (and mug shots, fingerprints, and so on).
Police are here to protect and to serve, so we’re told. But to protect and to serve whom? And for what cause? Ultimately, police protect the powerful, those with property and money, because those are the ones giving them their orders. If and when police begin to refuse orders from above, that’s when the powerful will truly begin to worry.
It’s interesting that some student protesters, as at Columbia, are now being compared (as by MSNBC) to the January 6th protesters and rioters for Trump. It’s a sign of desperation by the establishment to equate anti-genocide protesters with pro-Trump rioters, but there you have it. Recall on January 6th that the police largely stepped aside and allowed protesters for Trump into the Capitol. I don’t see the police stepping aside on campuses or taking selfies with protesters, or even removing barriers, as some police did on January 6th.
The overly violent and repressive responses we’re witnessing across America to largely peaceful protests reveals the imperative at the heart of America’s political system. Recalling the movie “Rollerball,” the one thing you’re never supposed to do as a corporate-citizen is to question management decisions. America’s managers have decided to support Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and YOU ARE NOT TO INTERFERE WITH THAT. If you do, your protest will be suppressed, often quickly and violently.
There’s a reason America’s managers “invest” so much in the “thin blue line” of the police. They believe in violence as the way to uphold their power and privilege. It doesn’t matter that violence hasn’t always worked, especially in foreign wars (Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.). They’ll continue to use violence as long as it remains profitable to do so, whether economically or politically.
How long before people are killed or seriously injured in these police actions? How long before those who are killed or wounded are denounced as “bums,” as President Richard Nixon called the dead students of Kent State? How long before we hear that the “silent majority” supports Trump and/or Biden in their call for “law and order”?
How long before Israel renders Gaza Palestinian-free, as various U.S. police forces mobilize to render college campuses protester-free?
And how long before we’re told once again that America is the greatest, most exceptional, nation on earth because of all our freedoms?
Bracing Views 
And how long before we’re told once again that America is the greatest, most exceptional, nation on earth because of all our freedoms?
The presumption of innocence and the fiction of freedoms is an old story in America. It is a fabricated way of coercive consent to the horrific bombing of Gaza, a small enclave made to suffer for the purpose of weakening the resolve of all Palestinians. The motive is dispossession and a forcing of the population to depart for other lands.
At the same time what is taking place on university campuses is the suppression of dissent by militarized police forces as at Columbia Univ. Why do university administrators go against the recommendations of senior faculty and invite in brutalist police forces or national guard units? It is because administrators are subject, not to faculty pressure, but to governing boards, made up of businessmen and wealthy donors. They set policy and faculty are advisors only insofar as they reflect the wishes of governing boards.
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The presumption of innocence and the fiction of freedoms is an old story in America. It is a fabricated way of coercive consent to the horrific bombing of Gaza, a small enclave made to suffer for the purpose of weakening the resolve of all Palestinians. The motive is dispossession and a forcing of the population to depart for other lands.
At the same time what is taking place on university campuses is the suppression of dissent by militarized police forces as at Columbia Univ. Why do university administrators go against the recommendations of senior faculty and invite in brutalist police forces or national guard units? It is because administrators are subject, not to faculty pressure, but to governing boards, made up of businessmen and wealthy donors. They set policy and faculty are advisors only insofar as they reflect the wishes of governing boards.
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Yes, that’s true. One thing I liked about my former college was its transparency. It openly admitted it served the needs of business and industry. Other colleges and universities like to sell the idea they support liberal values and serve students, who are now often referred to as “customers.” But it’s the corporate board that ultimately sets priorities. And those boards are often doing the business of the imperial state.
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Sorry for the delay in posting. The system marked it wrongly as “spam.”
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As always, you provide thought-provoking insights.
Not exactly on point, but allow me to ramble briefly:
When Arab nations call for the elimination of Israel and Jews more broadly, that’s not considered genocide. Why not?
When Trump-haters speak of January 6, 2021, they all too easily refer to what went on that day as an insurrection. Why has Trump or any of his supporters been legally accused and indicted for insurrection.
Words like genocide and insurrection have become too loosely used, much as the term racism and racist, and even white-supremicist have become too easily and loosely used.
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I suppose I could call for the elimination of all Italians, but if I have no real capacity to do that, my threat is an empty one, even if morally reprehensible. (I use “Italians” since that’s my family heritage, i.e. I’m offending myself in a hypothetical that’s not meant to be serious.)
Arabs who call for the elimination of Israel and the people living there: It’s morally reprehensible to call for eliminating any group of people, but Arab nations and peoples have no capacity to follow through on their eliminationist rhetoric, since Israel is militarily strong, has a monopoly on nuclear weapons in the region, and is protected by the USA.
Now, let’s look at Gaza. Israel and the IDF has already killed or wounded more than 100,000 Palestinians there while displacing roughly 2 million and creating conditions for widespread disease and famine. Israel is conducting a genocide, not just calling for one with empty words.
I think you’ll agree there’s a HUGE difference between talking about eliminating a group and actually doing it with the most murderous weapons, such as 2000-pound bombs (provided by the USA, of course).
I’m not sure what your point is with Trump and insurrection?
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My point was more toward the casual way some individuals and organizations drift from
alleged to guilty — genocide has been one of those words after Oct. 7th…and to your point about Israel is too strong for Arab nations to ‘wipe out the nation and its Jewish inhabitants’ you’re right — but when Iran has nukes — which Obama and Biden are comfortable with and Israel isn’t — a genocide could then be attempted by a nuclear Islamic Republic of Iran…..
As for my Trump comment, ‘insurrection’ is another of those words that is not well-understood by the masses that utter it so easily — I recall in February of 2021, insurrection was uttered not frequently. By late 2022 and early 2023, it was on a large number of Democrat lips — and no one felt they had to justify using it — it spoke for itself…
1861, South Carolina, THAT was the beginning of an insurrection.
.Jan.6, 2021 — when one digs deep enough into what really went on that day, the only shot that was fired killled a woman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time
p.s. I adore everything Italian, especially the old world culture and cuisine —
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Whatever else Jan. 6th was, it wasn’t an insurrection. It was a pro-Trump demonstration with riotous elements. And the police, at least initially, largely stood aside or even took selfies with the MAGA crowd that was there.
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You wrote: “— genocide has been one of those words after Oct. 7th…and to your point about Israel is too strong for Arab nations to ‘wipe out the nation and its Jewish inhabitants’ you’re right — but when Iran has nukes — …a genocide could then be attempted by a nuclear Islamic Republic of Iran…..”
“Genocide” is not just a word, whether referred to as a “plausible genocide” by the ICJ or as an “ethnic cleansing” genocide, it is more than plausible and reflects the reality of massive bombing campaigns that is destroying the infrastructure that 2 million people depend upon to survive.
Re: your statement: “Israel is too strong for Arab nations”. this is belied by a couple of former intelligence officers who have been interviewed several time by Judge Napolitano.The real danger is that Israel, facing the anger and resentment of Arab nations at the “genocide” taking place in Gaza, will resort to using their “nukes”. Given their unhinged leadership this is a far greater danger….
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