College protests

What’s Really Happening on College Campuses, According to Student Journalists

Free Press - Students participating in the Gaza Solidarity Encampments at universities across the country are being taught to become militants, according to nine manuals obtained by The Free Press. Many of the manuals, which are being shared via phone group chats with students across the country, encourage “militancy” and instruct protesters to break laws, seize buildings, vandalize them, and then use tactics to evade police detection and arrest. One guide, called “De-arrest Primer,” teaches protesters to physically resist arrest or, in some cases, assault police officers or throw projectiles at them to protect fellow “comrades” from arrest. “Each de-arrest,” the guide states, “is a micro-intifada which can spread and inspire others until we may finally shake off this noxious ruling order all together.”Another manual, called the “The Do-It-Yourself Occupation Guide,” contains detailed diagrams on how to break into buildings using tools like crowbars, clamps, metal cables, chains, bolt cutters, and a miniature saw known as an angle grinder.

Press Watch - The college campus protests against Israel’s destruction of Gaza have been overwhelmingly peaceful. But elite reporters– following the lead of politicians of both parties – continue to refer to them as violent and chaotic. With almost no exceptions, the only violence involved in these protests has been the violence perpetrated upon the protesters – either by police in riot gear, or by counter-protesters, or in some cases, like at UCLA, both.... Even the most extreme measures taken by protesters, the taking over of college buildings, have been nonviolent. Building takeovers have long been a staple of campus protests....Student journalists, who base their reporting on what they see with their own eyes, have done a vastly superior job of covering the protests...As I wrote two weeks ago, members of the mainstream media immediately adopted an overwhelmingly negative tone about a movement that deserved their admiration for its peacefulness and inclusivity. (Many of the protesters are Jewish.)