Eduardo Cuevas of USA Today reports the case of “Columbia University Professor of Japanese Cultural History, Gregory Pflugfelder. Residing in an apartment opposite the campus, he stepped out and decided to film the interaction of the NYPD with the student protesters without entering campus grounds or interfering. Nevertheless, he was arrested, zip tied and jailed fifteen minutes later.” It should be noted that Americans enjoy the First Amendment right to record police activity provided it does not obstruct their work. Read the article here: www.usatoday.com/...
Interestingly, one week before his arrest he had written to Columbia’s President, Shafik, regarding her decision to involve police when protests were peaceful. On April 23, he wrote, “I urge you not to compound the historic mistake you have made by repeating it.” Clearly, Shafik tossed the history professor’s advice in the dust bin and opted for a hard line approach instead of a conciliatory one.
As Cuevas points out in his article, “Professor Pflugfelder had just given his last lecture at the school, for he was retiring after 28 years of service.” What a wonderful retirement send off—straight to jail with other academics and students exercising their Constitutional rights.
Why is it lost on so many University administrators that dialogue is always more effective than discord to address the demands of its student body? The Guardian has an excellent piece about the few schools which chose the former. To wit, www.theguardian.com/...In schools such as Brown, Northwestern, University of Minnesota, Evergreen State and Rutgers, the administrators modeled the behavior that the students were taught—be a free thinker and be open to debate and negotiation. Police brutality and the suppression of Constitutional rights did not occur as a result.