On May 4, 1970, National Guard troops at Kent State shot at 300 student protestors, killing 4. The students were protesting the Southeast Asia war expanding into Cambodia. CSNY memorialized the killings in the song, Ohio.
Fifty-four years later, on May 4, 2024, 27 people were arrested at the University of Virginia to break up a protest near the Rotunda and Chapel. They were doing a peaceful antiwar protest over the Gaza conflict. From my reading, they were not doing an anti-Semitic protest.
Municipalities have ordinances on the books that are seldom enforced. For example, being on the Canal Path in Fredericksburg between 10 pm and 5 am is not lawful. The police do not patrol the path at night, looking for offenders. However, they can use the ordinance to arrest and detain when needed.
Similarly, the University has ordinances about pitching tents overnight on grounds.
The protestors erected tents overnight on May 3 to shelter from the rain and were warned to remove them the next morning.
Kent State had 300 students protesting. Of the 27 arrests in Charlottesville, 12 were students, 5 were faculty or staff, and ten were unaffiliated with the University. You can put the latter group into the paid protestor contingent.
Facial recognition software detected the outsiders arriving on Friday and Saturday. The outsiders were known agitators, so the University found an ordinance to enforce and did so. I don’t know if they remembered the Tiki Torch rally of 2018. It wasn’t going to happen again. At least the Tiki Torch guy was a former student.
Students should have the right to protest, even pitch tents. It’s their grounds and experience. But, if they miss a final or fail to study, sorry, no make-up. Let the 12 go without any repercussions. If they block other students from their studies, that’s a different story.
It’s misdemeanor time for faculty and staff and felonies for the unaffiliated.
Does this mean Cameron Crazies won’t be able to pitch tents in freezing conditions to wait for basketball seats?