Scott Tibbs
Ohio State University must be punished!
By Scott Tibbs, February 26, 2020
It is long past time for the government to crack down on public "universities" that allow violent Leftist mobs to act with impunity. This means slashing funding or maybe even deploying the National Guard to restore order by force if the "universities" will not do their jobs and keep people physically safe. This kind of shameful behavior has been allowed to fester for too long, and universities must be held accountable. (See
here and
here.)
When conservative activist Kaitlin Bennett went to Ohio State University last week, she was greeted with a protest. That is fine. Bennett expected a protest and thrives on opposition. But the scene was shocking: A mob of deranged Leftists surrounded her vehicle and started throwing things at it and into the vehicle. A mob then surrounded Bennett and continued to throw things at her. Bennett
promised on Facebook that when she comes back she will "bring an army of gun owners for an open carry walk through campus."
This has to stop. The riot police should have been deployed to deal with these thugs. Indiana University was able to deal with angry protests against Doug Wilson and Charles Murray without allowing it to degenerate into the shameful fiasco that took place at Ohio State, or the full-blown riot that took place at the University of California at Berkeley. If IU can do it right - allowing people to protest while not allowing the protest to become a violent assault, intimidation or a full-blown riot - then UCal Berkeley and Ohio State can do it too.
Conservatives, meanwhile, have to stop tut-tutting activists like Bennett. Sure, she is not afraid of controversy. But when someone is surrounded and physically attacked by a group of thugs, that is not the time to be acting like the schoolmarm and scolding those conservatives. That is the time to make an uncompromising defense of free speech, an uncompromising defense of law and order, and an uncompromising call for both "university" officials and law enforcement to do whatever is necessary to stop a violent heckler's veto by radical Leftists. Tut-tutting people like Bennett does not make you the adult in the room. That makes you an elitist and a coward. Discussions about trolling and appropriate tactics or rhetoric need to happen, but not in the face of censorship by the mob.
The battle for free speech on college campuses is not censorship by the administration. The battle for free speech today is violent action by thugs and mobs, which so-called "universities" allow to happen to silence ideas the administration does not like. In many ways, that is actually worse than action against students by the university, because at least students have legal recourse and free-speech lawyers who will take their case for free. Against a violent mob, there is no legal recourse outside of the Second Amendment. Eventually, people are going to die as people like Bennett are forced to defend themselves. Is this really what "university" administrators want to see?
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