Virginia Is Not California. Or New York.
By pro-Hamas standards, the protests at the University of Virginia were anemic.
Estimates placed the size of the “crowds” that began gathering on grounds - as they say in Charlottesville - last week from about 12 to perhaps as many as 50.
The Hamas fan club was clustered near the chapel and engaged in mostly peaceful demonstrations. According to news reports the demonstrators respected the orders of Gov. Glenn Youngkin who warned last week that Virginia would not tolerate tents or “encampments” on any campuses.
When the weather turned wet on Friday, these delicate revolutionaries defied no-tent orders and began unpacking their nylon shelters, pointing to an old UVA guideline that seemed to exempt recreational tents from the no-tent rule.
As if this were an outdoor club on a nature retreat.
Please.
According to The Washington Post, the Hamas cheerleaders in the tents were warned Saturday morning to pack up or face the consequences.
At the encampment site Saturday morning, the head of the university police department Tim Longo approached demonstrators with a bullhorn to tell them to take down their tents. “You are free to stay on the site, but the tents must come down,” he said, according to a video posted on X by an editor at the student newspaper, the Cavalier Daily.
They refused.
The state police arrived with pepper spray and suddenly the peaceful protest turned violent as the protesters clashed with law enforcement.
There was, of course, a simple way to avoid the confrontation: to dismantle the unlawful tent city. But the protesters wanted the optics. And they got them.
According to news reports around 25 protesters were arrested. The police did not yet release a count on how many of those were unaffiliated with the university. At other pro-Hamas demonstrations large numbers of outsiders wound up in zip ties. Count on it here, too. These weird demonstrations - in support of a culture that calls for the destruction of Israel, death to all Jews and treats women and gays like animals - are not organic, they’re orchestrated and funded.
And has anyone else noticed the remarkable similarities between the 2017 Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville (“Jews will not replace us!”) and the pro-Hamas protests? Same sentiments. Different headgear.
Naturally, far-left faculty members howled that the police had roughed up the students. In response, University President Jim Ryan issued a letter, calling the protests upsetting, frightening and sad.
A small group today made a choice to willingly break the rules after being given many opportunities to comply, and they then refused to leave the site voluntarily. I sincerely wish it were otherwise, but this repeated and intentional refusal to comply with reasonable rules intended to secure the safety, operations, and rights of the entire university community left us with no other choice than to uphold the neutral application and enforcement of those rules.
I recognize and respect that some will disagree with our decisions. This entire episode was upsetting, frightening, and sad. It was also an aberration.
Brian Coy, a spokesman for the university, was more direct in the aftermath, according to The Richmond Times-Dispatch:
“Anyone who has been involved in this encampment or any other demonstration has been advised of our policy,” said Coy, pointing out that shortly after the encampment began, tents were raised but then disassembled by the protesters. “They put (them) up then took them down because they were made aware that (tents) were outside of our policy. They then made the decision to violate that policy.”
No doubt there will be seething outrage from newspaper editorialists and academics: How dare a university refuse to allow demonstrators to defy orders to abandon an unlawful gathering!
Calling in the state troopers armed with pepper spray and zip ties was unimaginable brutality, they will say.
Hilarious.
On Saturday Virginia demonstrated that it really is not New York or California.
As the saying goes, play stupid games, win stupid prizes. In Virginia, anyway.
UPDATE: Students who participated in the illegal assembly on Saturday have received letters from the University that there will be academic repercussions for their actions. They will have to appear before the University Judiciary Committee for hearings.
Excellent. And good job to the outside agitators who convinced the students to defy the authorities.
