Protests and free speech on college campus - What's Your Point?
HOUSTON - "Free, free Palestine! Free free Palestine!"
Pro-Palestinian protesters on the campus of our state's flag-ship institution of higher education. The effort dubbed "occupy campus" - was labeled an unlawful assembly and met with a phalanx of law enforcement including more than 100 state troopers, complete with riot gear and heavy batons, dispatched by Governor Greg Abbott.
Approximately 50 arrests followed in what critics described as an overly aggressive use of force - which included a particularly disturbing incident involving a news photographer gathering images and sound for our sister station FOX 7 in Austin.
After the protest line was moved back, social media video shows the photographer being pulled backwards to the ground by Texas DPS troopers. He was then detained and taken to jail.
He was charged with criminal trespass, but those charges have been dismissed.
Governor Greg Abbott called the protest "antisemitic and hate-filled" adding students who participated should be "expelled.:
UT's President Jay Hartzell was unapologetic - saying "The University did what we said we would do in the face of prohibited action."
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Angry students called the policy a frightening new era of free speech suppression.
In 2019, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 18, which redesignated common outdoor areas on Texas public university campuses as traditional public forums for members of the public.
The law also allowed universities to continue regulating the "time, place and manner" of free speech activities, provided those rules were content-neutral and applied equally regardless of viewpoint.
Universities were also required to create disciplinary sanctions for students, student organizations and faculty members who interfere with other people's free speech activities. UT Austin's policy also includes discipline for staff.. Signing the bill on social media, Abbott said, " Some colleges are banning free speech on college campuses, well no more. Because I’m about to sign a law that protects free speech on college campuses in Texas ."
Do we have a contradiction here?