{"id":3160,"date":"2007-02-10T13:12:57","date_gmt":"2007-02-10T20:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/02\/10\/san-francisco-state-u-investigates-college-republicans-for-stepping-on-hezbollah-and-hamas-flags\/"},"modified":"2007-02-10T13:12:57","modified_gmt":"2007-02-10T20:12:57","slug":"san-francisco-state-u-investigates-college-republicans-for-stepping-on-hezbollah-and-hamas-flags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=3160","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco State U Investigates College Republicans For Stepping On Hezbollah And Hamas Flags"},"content":{"rendered":"

From FIRE<\/a>:<\/p>\n

San Francisco State University (SFSU) is investigating its College Republicans for hosting an anti-terrorism rally on campus in which participants stepped on makeshift Hezbollah and Hamas flags. After students filed a complaint claiming they were offended because the flags bore the word \u201cAllah,\u201d SFSU initiated an investigation into accusations of incitement, creation of a hostile environment, and incivility. […]<\/p>\n

“At a public university, stepping on a flag\u2014even burning an American flag\u2014is without question a constitutionally protected act of political protest,” FIRE Vice President Robert Shibley said. “The right to protest is at the very heart of the First Amendment, and means nothing if only inoffensive expression is permitted.”<\/p>\n

The College Republicans\u2019 \u201coffense\u201d took place on October 17, 2006, when they held an anti-terrorism protest in SFSU\u2019s Malcolm X Plaza. During the protest, several members of the group stepped on butcher paper they had painted to resemble the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah. Unbeknownst to the protestors, the flags they had copied contain the word \u201cAllah\u201d written in Arabic script.<\/p>\n

…Students report that OSPLD has the power to dismiss baseless charges after concluding an investigation. SFSU\u2019s student group misconduct procedures also give OSPLD Director Greenwell the option of settling the complaint with an \u201cinformal resolution of charges.\u201d Instead, Greenwell passed the case along for trial before SOHP. If SOHP finds the College Republicans guilty, punishment could range from a letter of warning to the revocation of recognition.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All of this seems deplorable to me. Do I like the College Republicans’ behavior? No. It’s a pattern I’ve seen before: Public behavior, calculated to offend and cause a stir, followed by pretend-shock when people are offended. ((Some folks are going to be tempted to accuse me of hypocrisy because I defended Amanda Marcotte earlier this week. But no one, least of all me, is saying that people have no right to be offended by what Amanda writes: I just don’t think Amanda should be fired for it. Just as I don’t think the College Republicans should be punished for their behavior.)) But they have a first amendment right to do that without <\/em>official harassment by the University or the student government.<\/p>\n

This is one of those times I’m embarrassed by lefty and liberal authorities on US campuses. Whether it’s a pro-choice professor leading students in knocking down a pro-life exhibit<\/a>, a pro-Israel professor being fired for his views<\/a>, or this case in San Francisco, I can’t help but expect better of campus lefties.<\/p>\n

Of course, campus left-wingers have been censored too: a professor being investigated by the university<\/a> for criticizing Israel, a student feminist group having their pro-reproductive rights signs torn down by the university<\/a>, and an accomplished lefty professor having his appointment to Yale scuttled by right-wing partisan activism<\/a> are three examples that leap to mind. Not to mention the ongoing use of ironically-named free speech zones<\/a> to censor mostly left-wing campus activists. Right and left, the pattern suggests that too many academic authorities have too little respect for free speech.<\/p>\n

Of course, many SFSU students found the Republican’s flag-stomping offensive while still respecting its right to exist. This isn’t at all surprising — most students are pretty sensible about this stuff, in my experience — but it is something that folks objecting to censorship on campus rarely acknowlege, so I wanted to highlight it. From The Golden Gate [X]Press<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess they have right to protest,\u201d said Blanco, a sophomore and music major. \u201cBut that shit means something to people, and stomping on it is disrespectful.\u201d […]<\/p>\n

Annette Heully, 21, said a group\u2019s right to protest is covered by the First Amendment, no matter the controversy of the group or its methods.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a First Amendment issue,\u201d Heully, a junior art major, said. \u201cI mean, chick flicks are offensive, but people are still allowed to make those.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Okay, I also had to quote that because the quote about chick flicks is super-cool.)<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

By the way, the president of the SFSU Republicans has a very one-sided notion of “free speech.” From an article <\/a>published shortly after the rally, in October:<\/p>\n

“This campus preaches free speech, but unless you are Republican,” Clark said. “We don\u2019t show up and protest their events.” ((Clark was also quoted, in the October article, claiming that he and other Republicans were physically threatened while on stage. If<\/em> physical threats were made, the threateners should be punished. But I haven’t seen any substantiation of “physical threats” against the Republicans; this claim has seemingly been dropped in the more recent articles, making me suspect Clark’s October claim was just hyperbole.))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Clark seems to believe that free speech is somehow impinged upon if his events are protested, which makes me wonder: Does Clark understand what free speech is? Of course Clark has a right to stomp on a flag and yell in the public square; but other students likewise have a right “to show up and protest [Republican] events.” Until the college administration and student governments stepped in and screwed things up, there was no free speech issue here.<\/p>\n

(This misunderstanding of free speech is, in my observation, pretty common<\/a> among right-wingers.)<\/p>\n

Hat tip: Dispatches From the Culture Wars<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From FIRE: San Francisco State University (SFSU) is investigating its College Republicans for hosting an anti-terrorism rally on campus in which participants stepped on makeshift Hezbollah and Hamas flags. After students filed a complaint claiming they were offended because the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-speech-censorship-copyright-law-etc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}