Academia, Bizarre, Criminal law

University of California at Irvine Students Push For Ban On UC Police From Campus

xsouhlraThe University of California, Irvine Black Student Union is demanding a ban on the UC Irvine Police Department. The protest featured protesters with signs reading “Blue Lives Don’t Matter” and “F–k the Police.” It was an interesting protest after a professor at the University of Virginia was forced into a leave of absence after calling Black Lives Matter as racist organization akin to the KKK. In this case, however, equally caustic remarks against the police were not viewed as matters for discipline. I have favored free speech protections in all of these circumstances. My concern is that there is a double standard being applied based on the content of such speech.

The protest was triggered by the appearance of LAPD Chief Charlie Beck as part of UC Irvine’s “New Narratives” forum. Beck wanted to discuss police brutality and race in a program billed as an effort to “bring together leading scholars and innovative practitioners to define the problem, identify challenges, and discuss possible solutions to [police brutality.]” It would seem a rather odd choice for a BLM protest but protesters appeared with blood-spattered signs denouncing all police and chanting “Rise up, resist, put those killer cops in jail, the whole damn system is guilty as hell.”

A petition is circulating to ban the campus police department as well as a demand that LAPD Chief Beck be fired for the “police brutality” carried out by this department. Event organizers actually sold official Black Student Union “Fuck the Police” shirts and sweatshirts to wear to the protest.

There is no indication what would be done with criminal conduct in the absence of any campus police at Irvine. However, the more pressing question is whether the university would have responded in the same way if faculty or students protested that “Black Lives Do Not Matter” or the inverse of the profane posters used at the event. I would protect all such speech, but universities and colleges have imposed conflicting standards in these controversies.

What do you think?

53 thoughts on “University of California at Irvine Students Push For Ban On UC Police From Campus”

  3. How exactly does a very small percentage of society gain so much power? Are they accomplishing it through the use of the law of the land? Nope, they are modeling the very government that writes the laws. They are not going to be stopped until the majority rise up and say enough is enough.

    1. Did it ever dawn on you that what you think is the majority is not the majority? We shall see on Nov 8.

      1. Well that thought certainly has dawned on me. Personally, I think the idiots and schmucks way outnumber us smart people. Obama got elected to office twice. The first time, maybe. Particularly with the Wall Street crash. But the second time? Not unless there are a whole slew of idiots and schmucks in the country.

        Which, maybe “idiots” does not fully encompass the degree of stupidity. Because sheer mind-numbing obliviousness has to be worked into the equation. College educated white idiots and schmucks are largely insulated from the bad side of the economy. So there is maybe some justification for their inability to see what is happening. After all, the status quo is good for them, so they can ascend Maslow’s pyramid to the “Self-Aggrandizement” level, where playing a 1960s Freedom Rider or “Conrack” is their extant need.

        But even people, like blacks, who are directly and direly affected by the Democratic Party’s nefarious illegal alien ballot-box stuffing strategy, don’t get it. The black idiots and schmucks vote for the Democrats even though the illegal aliens directly compete with them for jobs, and depress the wages for the jobs that are available.

        So, yes, I think Trump is going to lose, because America is overrun with nincompoops who are as dumb as a bag of hammers. Like I have said many times, there is nothing that can stop our downward trajectory except a big meteor strike, or a super volcano eruption, or massive-prolonged financial depression. Our country needs a huge disaster of apocalyptic proportions.*

        Squeeky Fromm
        Girl Reporter

        *Which is why I think Zombie and Apocalypse movies and shows are sooo in vogue. Something in our collective unconscious knows our civilization needs to be shut down, and started over.

  5. For me, the issue is one of accountability. State and local police are accountable to elected officials who have to answer to the voters. Campus police are answer only to school administrators who are not elected. Some campus police are not even jubject to any FOIA laws.

    For this reason I believe that local police should establish campus precincts and thus be accountable.

    1. The UC Police Department is a state law enforcement agency and subject to the control of the state and California Public Records Act to the same extent as other state agencies.

      1. My comment was not specifically about the UC police. In many states the campus police have no accountability, including the school that I went to in PA.

  6. “My concern is that there is a double standard being applied based on the content of such speech.” – J Turley

    Ya think? Give me a break, Prof. Turley. This isn’t about a double standard so much as it is about sanctioned RACISM.

    Case in point – that backup QB with the BLM girlfriend who decided to protest “America the Unfair” on the largest watched stage in America. People can’t seem to line up fast enough to praise his bravery and to mimic his protest. Yet I BET the billion dollars I don’t have that if some WHITE supremacist group decided to show the same contempt for the national symbol claiming it means less to him than the banned Confederate flag – Whoopsie daisy! I think he’d be hauled off to prison before the ink was dry on his rescinded NFL contract.

    GIVE ME A BREAK! This isn’t about free speech! It’s about a DOUBLE STANDARD that is overtly pushing REVERSE RACISM to DIVIDE and CONQUER this nation. It is backed by the GLOBALISTS who support HIllary Clinton, that unindicted criminal who no one chooses to haul off the stage – not the Executive Branch, the Injustice Department, the FBI, the United States Congress who can IMPEACH Hillary Clinton for lying to them about Benghazi, and on and on. Have you taken a GLANCE at the Soros emails and the fact that he gave this DOMESTIC TERRORIST organization more than $600K to do precisely what they’re doing – stir up race wars.

    And before you decide I’m a white racist. I’m not. I’m actually what this country chooses to classify as black American though in truth I have more white, asian and east indian genetics than black genetics in my bloodline.

    1. Uh, if you have some Black DNA, and you say stuff like the above, then you will be classified as either an Uncle Tom or a coon. Plus, some white twerp on MSNBC will say that you are not black enough. Additionally, if you should win a seat in Congress, the Congressional Black Caucus will not let you join their group.

      My best wishes for you, because I bet you get a lot of disrespect from the Liberal Democrats.

      Squeeky Fromm
      Girl Reporter

  7. “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” George Orwell

  8. I think the P.D. should take a week off and enjoy themselves. Let BLM fend for themselves.

  11. There is a real opportunity here for “a meeting of the minds” involving BLM and the role of campus, or the Irvine PD, in law enforcement functions on the UC/Irvine campus.
    I think that a campus wide referendum should be held about banning campus, or municipal policing on campus.
    This could be a good test of the UC/Irvine’s overall commitment to a police-free utopia.
    BLM would be a likely supporter, and the rest of the students and faculty would have a chance to weigh in on the issue.
    BLM may even offer to “fill the void” left by the removal of traditional policing.
    Almost all of Muhammed Ali’s obituaries skip his 1975 meeting with the KKK to promote their mutual goals of racial segregation, and racial supremacy.
    Maybe that shared goal on such a large scale was just too damned ambitious.
    But at UV/Irvine, maybe police can be banned. And the police may not mind giving up any on-campus jurisdiction, lightening their workload, not needing to go where they’re not wanted, etc.

  12. We are presented over and over again with examples of double-standards in the treatment of whites and minorities. Of course there are double-standards, because despite the rhetoric and political correctness, we don’t really believe that different races are the same. That is why we can safely make “dumb blond” jokes, because nobody really believes that Germans and North Europeans are dumb, but we can’t make dumb Mexican or dumb African jokes because studies show a significant I.Q. difference between the races, and we’re not supposed to acknowledge that reality. And if we were to comment on the natural violence of Asians, we would get a quizzical look, but if we mentioned the violence of blacks, that would be condemned, because we’re not comfortable with the reality of how blacks behave. And let’s not forget that Muslims have displaced Quakers as the “religion of peace.” So yes, there will be double-standards so long as society persists in trying force us to deny reality. Remember the story about it taking a child to acknowledge that the emperor wasn’t wearing any clothes? The issue for then and now is why the adults were cowed into silence.

  13. There are many of these type of student protesters who serve only as Useful Idiots for those in positions of power within various disruptive organizations. Stupid and easily influenced, they make for cheap warm bodies with mouths to carry a particular objective to fruition. Most useful idiots are unaware of what they are actually conveying and are simply barking dogs of their handlers.

    As I mentioned before, it is entirely pointless to reason with fools such as these who go about demanding the disestablishment of the campus police.

    The irony of these snowflakes is that they want total control over every aspect of life and are truly afraid of their own shadows when they get out in the world, but they want to close down all police departments because to them the police are at war with the public. They essentially want a social police state that is against the police themselves.

    A good way to address these folks is to simply ignore them and go about your day. If they become involved in a business, stop patronizing the company.

    1. The problem is that they become social organizers, go into government, and go into politics.

      They become impossible to ignore and have a disproportionate impact in our lives.

      Unfortunately, we need to address the problem early.

    2. Good points, Darren. People like this want the government to serve primarily as an ATM. There would then be an army of social workers to deal with conflict. What the radicals don’t understand is that very few people–especially campus leftists–know how to deal with emergencies, especially those involving aggressive people.

      Having worked in the security field for some time, primarily in the healthcare sector, I see this phenomenon every day. Most people just want to get the hell out of dodge when rage boy explodes and starts making threats. Others escalate the situation and make it worse. This is why we need to have specialists (Security/Law Enforcement) to find a balance and stop violence/crime quickly. Radicals have a grudge against those of us who where uniforms because we remind them of reality: Humans are flawed and your utopia will not stop all criminality and/or violence. Non-radicals learn to deal with this reality and support changes to improve our response to these social problems.

  14. This protest is absurd, but allowing it is part of living in a free society, just like having to put up with certain people’s orange hair is part of having to live in a free society.

    Just like we have to put up with Squeeky’s overt racism. Hey Squeeky, did I ever tell you that I have CLOSE relatives who are Black? More than one! You and these UCI protestors deserve each other.

    I have no experience with the UCI Campus Police. I do have experience with the Irvine PD. Nothing but praise for them. Well….., I have one criticism. They have given out too many jaywalking tickets. Guess that is what happens when there isn’t that much crime in your city.

    2. Speaking of jaywalking, I was visiting my undergrad alma mater, feeling inspired to send a significant donation, following a group of students across an intersection diagonally, when a campus cop picked me out of the crowd and scolded me for jaywalking. Needless to say, the U did not get the donation.

    3. What overt racism? If what I say is true, then does “not being a racist” entail believing in fantasies???

      But, I am glad that you have black relatives. Perhaps you and they can move to some lower income black neighborhood and enjoy the hilarious antics of the hood for yourselves! Property is pretty cheap in those kind of neighborhoods, and you can use the savings to buy iron security bars for your doors and windows! You can send your kids to the neighborhood schools, which I am sure will be immensely entertaining! They will learn how to run, and hide, and eventually how to fight, and how to use a shiv!. Plus, they can learn a whole new language just by being there!

      And there is always something going on there, so you won’t have to sit around in all that stultifying quiet you find in white neighborhoods with their fine-trimmed lawns! You can go out and walk up and down the street and tell all the young men there how much you love young black men! And best of all, you and relatives will get to be around a whole slew of Democrats! Which has to be much better than being around a bunch of those low class right wing bitter clingers!

      Squeeky Fromm
      Girl Reporter

  15. “Have you noticed how some people’s speech is sh°t and some people’s sh°t is speech?”

    I reiterate my point that the good professor has some gall favoring “free speech protections in all of these circumstances” when he won’t even protect free speech (i.e. profanity) on this very blog!

    Sweep around your own front door, professor. That’s what I think.

    1. Freedom of speech is about protecting freedom of expression. We can have freedom of expression on this blog while still maintaining basic respect for one another. JT doesn’t need to protect profanity because the use of profanity is not necessary to the expression of ideas, and its use may serve to drive away readers and contributors.

    2. Professor Turley is not the government. This blog is akin to his house and he can make the rules in his house just like you can. Grown folks understand the difference between governments and bloggers.

  16. University police departments, to a large extent, became common after the sometimes excessive response of local and state police agencies to student protest in the 1960s. The theory, no doubt, was that a police force well versed in campus culture would be a better fit and less likely to overreact to student protest.

    So do these protesters want to bring the locals back onto campus? Of course not. This is just more abolitionist rhetoric from the Marxist/Anarchist fringe of BLM. Get rid of the police and then we’ll…oh, we don’t know what we’ll do, but it will be great. Just trust us or else you’re a racist oppressor and you’re hurting my feelings!

    Right. How is self-policing working in black communities right now? With the strained relationships between police and citizens in these neighborhoods, that is basically what is occurring. And that is what we had in southern cities back in the day when police basically ignored black neighborhoods. The result: Astronomical homicide rates and more opportunities for anti-social predators to play king of the neighborhood. Who’s the most prolific killer of black men? Other black men of course. BLM can’t come to grips with this, so they just yell about police a little louder to distract you.

    This radical BS is a distraction. There are practical steps we can take right now to improve police. End the damn drug war! Encourage citizen involvement in the operations of PD’s and real accountability measures. Take a hard look at what the police do and determine if some tasks, like traffic enforcement, have become more about revenue generation than public safety.

    BLM is not akin to the KKK, but some of those who associate with it are becoming like radical cartoon characters. And sooner or later they will lose support and no one will listen when they say that its because we’re all racist.

    1. End the damn drug war!

      Yeah, free trade in ecstasy will do wonders to improve public order.

      1. Prohibition encourages black market activity and open air drug markets, but probably not in your neighborhood. Strangely, pharmacy and liquor store owners rarely get into running gun battles in the street. Are you really interested in public order or do you just like to see people with different lifestyles thrown in cages?

        1. I’m interested in public order. You’re interested in flashing your big swinging dick. You have open air drug markets only in slums which law enforcement has conceded to hoodlums. When you have your drug cornucopia, the rest of us will be left to try out various strategies to clean up the mess. You, without a doubt, will continue to strike attitudes.

  17. It is clear that only certain opinions are considered protected speach. reult: Free Speach doesn’t exist.

  18. Of course there is a double standard. These codes wouldn’t last a nanosecond if applied in a viewpoint neutral manner.

  19. It seems it’s getting more and more difficult to find a college and or university to send your kid for a quality education and avoid this kind of s*%#. Do they understand the word respect and understand that people will have differing view points and that it’s OK?

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