Lopez, 27, is shown on camera standing near the table, taunting the students and saying, “Well, you know, Jesus did it, so you know I gotta do it, right?” He then tosses the table and says, “Thanks, guys, have a great day.” He is then shown tearing down a flyer on a nearby bulletin board.
Lopez was presumably referring to Matthew 21:12 where Jesus turns over the tables of the money lenders in the Temple. In the passage, Jesus says “It is written. My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.”
It is a telling choice. For years, conservative values on campus have been viewed as virtually sacrilegious in a culture of increasing academic orthodoxy. This week we discussed how a leading academic journal ran a long column against intellectual diversity.
Lopez brings a new menacing meaning to the school slogan “gladly we learn and teach.” We have seen faculty engage in such violence and property destruction for years, particularly targeting TPUSA and other conservative groups.
Years ago, many of us were shocked by the conduct of University of Missouri communications professor Melissa Click, who directed a mob against a student journalist covering a Black Lives Matter event. Yet, Click was hired by Gonzaga University. Since that time, we have seen a steady stream of professors joining students in shouting down, committing property damage, participating in riots, verbally attacking students, or even taking violent action in protests.
At the University of California, Santa Barbara, professors actually rallied around feminist studies associate professor Mireille Miller-Young, who physically assaulted pro-life advocates and tore down their display. Despite pleading guilty to criminal assault, she was not fired and received overwhelming support from the students and faculty. She was later honored as a model for women advocates.
At Hunter College in New York, Professor Shellyne Rodríguez was shown trashing a pro-life display of students.
She was captured on a videotape telling the students that “you’re not educating s–t […] This is f–king propaganda. What are you going to do, like, anti-trans next? This is bulls–t. This is violent. You’re triggering my students.”
Unlike the professor, the students remained calm and respectful. One even said “sorry” to the accusation that being pro-life was triggering for her students.
Rodríguez continued to rave, stating, “No you’re not — because you can’t even have a f–king baby. So you don’t even know what that is. Get this s–t the f–k out of here.” In an Instagram post, she is then shown trashing the table.
Hunter College, however, did not consider this unhinged attack to be sufficient to terminate Rodríguez.
It was only after she later chased reporters with a machete that the college fired Rodríguez. Another college then hired her.
Another example comes from the State University of New York at Albany, where sociology professor Renee Overdyke shut down a pro-life display and then resisted arrest. One student is heard screaming, “She’s a [expletive] professor.” That, of course, is the point.
In Wisconsin, a department chair was shown destroying a table of conservative students.
Once again, what is most striking about these individuals is the sense of license to engage in such violence conduct. Higher education has long created a sense of orthodoxy and intolerance on campuses.
The good news is that this individual was reportedly arrested. Presumably, Illinois State University will terminate his teaching position and expel him. There must be clear rules about such conduct in higher education. This type of political violence is anathema to an institution of higher learning.
It is sad that Lopez never embraced the diversity of thought and values that is so essential to a university. However, make no mistake about it, his warped concept of free speech is neither unique nor universally condemned on our campuses.
The problem, however, is not these attacks on displays, but the systemic purging of conservative and libertarian faculty from campuses where departments now largely run from the left to the far left. This academic echo chamber fuels even greater intolerance and the sense of license shown by individuals like Lopez.