Univeristy of Texas at Austin 6 months ago:
Video: “Why can members of the public come to campus at any time and engage in demonstrations and speeches?”
Why can members of the public come to campus at any time and engage in demonstrations and speeches? So state law in Texas actually allows uh members of the public just like our university community to come onto campus and use our common outdoor areas for speech activity. I think that surprises a lot of students they show up here and they think who is this random stranger setting up a table talking about a thing I find upsetting but it’s protected by state law and members of the public just like university community can use our common outdoor areas. Now it isn’t a free-for-all. So when you say they can why can they come at any time there’s there’s some Nuance there. It’s subject to our University rules that are permitted under the law so we can put in place time place and manner restrictions that are really all about uh making sure those are content neutral.
So we can’t have rules that say well you can’t come to campus and talk about this or that subject or express this or that view. But we can have rules about where you can set up tables for example or um you know that during the hours of 8 to 5 we don’t have amplified sound in areas outside of designated amplified sound areas. People can’t congregate in front of openings to buildings you know we have a safety concern we have an interest in what our mission is in making sure our students and our faculty and staff can get into buildings can attend classes and do the work of the University. So all those kinds of restrictions those time and place and manner restrictions are permissible and that’s what keeps it from being a free-for-all but it is open and it’s open to everyone.
Univeristy of Texas at Austin yesterday:
The Texas Conference of the American Association of University Professors issued a statement condemning UT Austin President Jay Hartzell and other UT leaders.
“There was no threat of violence, no plan to disrupt classes, no intimidation of the campus community,” the statement reads.
Fifty-seven people had been booked into the Travis County Jail in connection to the protest, Travis County sheriff’s office spokesperson Kristen Dark said Thursday morning
All have had their charges disposed, Dark said, but it was unclear how many people had been released from the jail as of Thursday morning
They just arrest people and let them go… just for a photo op I would guess.
If you’re arresting people and letting them go without charges, you shouldn’t be arresting them in the first place.
In North Korea, the state security forces can just grab you and lock you up for no reason, beating you up, taking your wallet as civil forfeiture, making you lose your job, and dropping you off miles from home with no transportation.
Good thing that could never happen in the US!
I don’t think that’s the kind of thing people talk about when they say North Korea is oppressive
Do you know what happens to you in North Korea the day after you attend a protest against the government’s policies? Because it definitely isn’t getting dropped off and having to find your own way back home.
I think you missed the point. Yeah, North Korea is significantly worse.
But that’s not the point, the point is that emulating any part of their police state behavior is unacceptable.
If the comment had said “In North Korea, the state security force can just puts you in a prison camp for years for way way less than these protestors did, and it’s a bad thing that we’re emulating 5% of their police state behavior, because that’s still too much,” then sure. I would have written a different thing in reply, if they had said that.
That was more less the implicit part, through their sacrasm.
Good thing that could never happen in the US!
It’s not about arrests. It’s about sending a message.
They dont care about convictions. They just want the kids to fuck off so that they can go back to their daily routine of donut eating and spousal abuse.
Do these arrests without further charges show up on these people’s criminal records? I sure hope not.
I think you need to be convicted of a crime… though it’s possible the arrest record is searchable.
Does anyone know if searching arrest records is possible? I feel for these people if they are as I have read many USA employers check this sort of thing. Would be a shame to not get your career started as you got basically illegally arrested for peaceful protest. That just feels all kinds of wrong.
It depends. If you want a security clearance you’re probably fucked. But then I guess if you’re protesting a war you probably don’t care to have the type of job that requires a security clearance.
Also since a lot of arrest records are easily found online, for free, with no login (some states more than others), employers are bound to find it even if it’s unethical (or illegal) to search that way.
Wow. That is insane that an arrest record is searchable as there are so many false arrests. Feels all kinds of wrong. The USA really surprises me.
Agreed
I’ve seen arrest (booking) records going back 20 years or more online - on the police department’s own website. Mostly in Florida because their laws are way more lax than other states.
who is this random stranger setting up a table talking about a thing I find upsetting but it’s protected by state law
“Well, we didn’t mean these kinds of things I find upsetting.”
“What kinds of things in terms of upsetting speech were you planning on protecting vigorously?”
“Oh… well, you know…”
(I also like the little construction where they imply Texas invented the first amendment)
“Everything is bigger in Texas” - especially the lies
Seriously, what even is the basis for this interview? They’re acting like it’s surprising to allow political speech on campus or for tax payers to be able to use the public university they fund
They were trying to justify why it’s okay for conservatives to come and set up a table and hand out cryptofascist literature. Giving the interview was lecturing any left wing students that they need to get used to that because it’s not stopping. Like a lot of their principles, they were only meaning for it to be applied in one direction.
I do think they were surprised that they’d even need to deal with refusing to apply it in the opposite direction against such a vocal opposition, because I think there is a general assumption in the minds of modern conservatives that all the “normal people” agree with them, and so it’s always a little bit of a shock if a big bunch of people are unanimously against them (even if, in a logical sense, it shouldn’t be surprising).
Grab a friend in Texas and vote these fools out.
What an awful school
If the University is state funded or on state-owned land, that’s probably why.
Can’t keep citizens from legally using state property. It’s not “rules” as she put it, it’s civics 101.
I don’t know what’s going on in this picture, I can only feel sadness and empathy for this poor, deluded kid.
The reason people are bringing this up now, is because they have been arresting people protesting the Isreal Palestine war. So it seems this video was a lie.
