In a way, the black-and-white Palestinian scarf draped over Hannah Sattler’s shoulders this week and the tie-dyed T-shirts of 1968 are woven from a common thread. Like so many college students across the country protesting the Israel-Hamas war, Sattler feels the historic weight of the anti-Vietnam war demonstrations of the 1960s and 70s. “They always talked about the ’68 protest as sort of a North Star,” Sattler, 27, a graduate student of international human rights policy at Columbia University, said of the campus organizers there.
The protests are abnormal. That’s why there’s an abnormal presence. Seriously. Those guys aren’t going to hurt anyone unless someone brings a gun, in which case they’re almost certainly only going to hurt that person with the gun. They’re fine and expected.
Yes, and none of the ones acting violently have rifles, at least not what we usually call rifles. The paintball guns may be rifled. Idk. The ones being violent mostly all have riot shields. They’re the ones who are there to be violent. They’re the ones people need to pay attention to.
Again, it’s abnormal to see snipers at the campus but it is perfectly normal to see them at a large gathering of people, especially one that’s politically and emotionally charged. You want those cops there because they will only protect people against a shooter. The guys with shields, pepper spray, and the paintball guns should fuck off, or stand between protesters and counter-protesters at most.
Campus protests are in no way abnormal. Again, I showed a photo to prove that this is different from how they have treated protesters in the past.