The "UGA 6"

First, it was the “Irvine 11″, referring to the 11 members of the Muslim Student Union who disrupted a talk by then-Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren at UC Irvine in 2010. They were charged and convicted of misdemeanors in state court and promptly took on the mantle of victim.

Now it’s the “UGA 6″, referring to 6 members of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) who were arrested and suspended at the University of Georgia earlier this year for refusing to disperse from their encampment during the post-October 7 pro-Hamas protests. As with the “Irvine 11″, the local chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has rushed to the defense of the “UGA 6″ demanding that charges be dropped. Here is how the conservative blog, Legal Insurrection, is reporting the matter.

Here is how the UGA campus newspaper, Red and Black, is reporting the story.

And yes, there is an op-ed in this edition of the Red and Black by two faculty members who are calling predictably for the charges to be dropped. As their “template”, they proudly point to their own student disruptions at the University of North Carolina during the 1980s, when they were protesting apartheid in South Africa.

“Life’s hard.’

Naturally, CAIR is right in the middle of this. At the same time that all this SJP activity is leading to increased anti-Semitism on campuses, CAIR is making its own contribution to the problem nationwide, both on campuses and on the street.

In my view, without commenting on the guilt or innocence of the specific acts these 6 SJP members are accused of, it seems appropriate that the case go to court. When you occupy public space and create disruptions, disobey police orders to disperse, and interfere with the operation of the school, there have to be consequences. Sorry, little snowflakes, but suspension and prosecution are two possible consequences. 

Back in the 1960s when I was in high school, these disruptions would never have been tolerated. Why should it be any different in a university? Just what is it about a university that means you can engage in all this disruptive activity that a high school would not tolerate? Of course, things have changed in high schools too since when I was a kid.