I recently spoke on Rage and the Republic at Cornell University and posted about the beauty of the school with the return of flowers and birds in the Spring. What I fortunately missed was the seasonal return of harassing protesters. That experience was reserved this week for Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff, who is now embroiled in controversy over a parking-lot confrontation.
Kotlikoff was followed to his car on April 30 after Kotlikoff introduced an Israel-Palestine debate hosted by the Cornell Political Union and co-sponsored by Cornellians for Israel, Cornell Progressives and Students for Justice in Palestine. A small number of protesters, however, were unhappy with the civil dialogue over Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.
According to Kotlikoff, the President was “accosted by a group of several individuals,” including non-students who were known to Cornell for past conduct involving “ongoing verbal and online abuse” of administrators and staff. He alleged that two of the individuals had previously been banned from campus following a “disruptive protest.”
As Kotlikoff walked to his car, he answered some of the protesters’ questions, then asked them to stop filming and leave him alone. When they reached his car, they then surrounded the vehicle to keep him from leaving. He backed up slowly, with students intentionally standing in the car’s path.
Kotlikoff stated, “I waited until I saw space behind the car and then, using my car’s rear pedestrian alert and automatic braking system, was able to slowly maneuver my car from the parking space and exit the parking lot.”
The students, however, remained standing in his path. One person can be heard yelling, “He just ran over my f—— foot!” There is no report of an actual injury.
Students for a Democratic Cornell (SDC) posted a video showing an individual being nudged by the vehicle while standing behind it.
The coverage has been sensation and arguably misleading with such headlines of “Cornell President Runs Into Protesters With Car” (Inside Higher Education) and “Kotlikoff Drives Into Student and Recent Grad Following ‘Harassment” (Cornell Daily Sun).
The student newspaper wrote an editorial titled “President Kotlikoff, It’s Time To Hit the Brakes,” that seemed almost delusional for those of us who watched the video. The student editors objected that:
“This incident is emblematic of a deeper problem at Cornell: an administration that protects itself, not its students. An administration that has consistently moved to protect itself before it moves to understand, or even to check on, the students in its care.”
The newspaper objected to how Kotlikoff “used his power as president of the University to set a narrative on his terms.” Yet, if Kotlikoff had not responded, there would have been complaints that he was bunkered and unresponsive. He did not “set a narrative,” but rather shared his view of what occurred in the incident. He was, after all, one of the key figures involved.
I am surprised that the President did not have a campus police escort, who could have handled this confrontation. This situation could have easily and dangerously escalated for the President, given the rising violence on our campuses. Just this week, a Jewish student was reportedly injured by an alleged chemical agent at a pro-Israel event at George Washington University.
The Cornell protesters were clearly harassing Kotlikoff and eventually trapped him in the parking lot. He was trying to avoid any injury by backing out slowly. I do not fault Kotlikoff, who wanted to extricate himself from an angry group of radicals. Being trapped and surrounded at night is a frightening prospect for anyone.
The incident shows how a relatively small number of students can undermine the culture of dialogue and civility on our campuses. This was an important effort to allow people to engage in a reasoned discussion of these issues rather than screaming at each other across protest lines. However, for some, the screaming and conflict are precisely what they want to achieve.
This is not the exercise of free speech, but disorderly and unlawful conduct. You are not allowed to trap people in their vehicles or prevent their movement on campus. The college should seek a restraining order to prevent the non-students from returning to campus and should take disciplinary measures against any students who sought to trap the President in his car.
Despite the suggestions online, I do not see the basis for a charge against Kotlikoff in this video. The video shows the driver trying to slowly leave the parking lot as the protesters put themselves into his path. His alternative was to remain trapped and surrounded by this group of radical protesters.
Given the relatively small number of individuals, Kotlikoff clearly believed that he could move back without contact with the students. There are six visible protesters as Kotlikoff puts his car into reverse. One remains on the sidewalk and four are clearly visible on the right side of the car as Kotlikoff moved back to the left. Only one student can be seen near the back of the vehicle. He was moving back with the car and before coming into contact with the vehicle, was moving at less than five miles an hour.
If the crowd were larger, I do not believe it would have been reasonable to attempt to back out of the parking lot. In such a case, it would have been advisable to call the campus police to seek assistance. In this incident, it was only one student standing behind the car and that student was obviously fully aware that the vehicle was slowing moving backward.
For these students, the greatest lesson may be the meaning of consequences from their own choices. You cannot throw yourself around moving vehicles and then claim to be a victim as a result.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
Car-blocking fascists; lunatic communists; criminals awaiting incarceration.
There is actually a law on the books in CA making obstructing a vehicle a crime. Not that Leftist-dominated power structure would ever enforce it properly. That’s why 4WD pickups are important, they can climb over a pretty big pile of zombies.
Not sure about NY
The boy was showing off for his girlfriend standing nearby.
these protesters, who are anti-Free speech rioters, we clearly leftists. conservatives, and those on the right do not object to free speech
Ithaca has only two seasons, winter and July.
Looks like false imprisonment to me.
More like obstructing traffic.
I hope these idiot protesters know about FAFO. They are messing with a very primal force in every human. It’s called self-preservation and these dopes were playing hooky for that lesson. Many people, when in fear for their lives, will not be thinking about your life at all and gas pedals are instinctual at that point. Don’t corner the most dangerous animal on earth. This is not about morality.
Enough! No more Mr. Nice Guy USA!
Capital punishment for all communist provocateurs.
Ahhhh, yes! One of the things these radical loons do, is make one rethink the 2ndA and gun ownership. Likely rethink de-fund the police too.
The downside is this kind of act will only embolden other radicals to do the same and possibly even up the violence.
Upstate, right.
Make that 10 protesters with guns vs one guy in the confines of a car dodging 100 rounds a minute. This violent streak of yours is not matched by any consideration for how reality works.
Reality is leftists are anti-gun rights. Like the 1stA, they hate the 2ndA. And the Constitution too. That is the reality. They want to violate everyone’s rights. More of us conservatives have guns and know how to shoot them.
I like the juxtaposition of these two stories today. I’ve spent some time in Ithaca, and soon came to understand that the whole town is the east-coast branch office of Berkeley, California. In Ithaca, if you’re Marxist/Leninist, you’re considered middle of the road. Some locals refer to the town as either the People’s Republic of Ithaca, or “ten square miles surrounded by reality.”
OTOH, the summers are absolutely gorgeous (or gorges), as is the Cornell campus.
I see little way that a claim against Kotlikoff could stand. For the sake of the good professor’s students who follow this blog, I am surprised that he did not mention the “Aggressor Doctrine” as well as “volenti non fit injuria.”
Professor Turley notes, “The college should seek a restraining order to prevent the non-students from returning to campus and should take disciplinary measures against any students who sought to trap the President in his car.”
I agree.
(also, unfortunately, I do not believe NY law recognizes, per se, an independent defamation “false light’ claim against “such headlines of ‘Cornell President Runs Into Protesters With Car’ (Inside Higher Education) and ‘Kotlikoff Drives Into Student and Recent Grad Following ‘Harassment’ (Cornell Daily Sun) and [t]he student newspaper[‘s] editorial titled ‘President Kotlikoff, It’s Time To Hit the Brakes.’”
Lin
Derick Chauvin and the other officers with him are in jail for a very very long time for following Mineapolis procedure and for being present as a pathetic loser ate his own stash and likely his dealers after being arrested for passing a really really bad conterfeit $20.
Kotlikoff is at risk because the left does not care about the facts and the law.
The mere fact that Turley misframed this incident in his title should be evidence enough that Kotlikoff should be concerned.
I am honestly shocked that posters like X are not demanding Kotlikoff’s prosecution and are mostly ceding that the students detaining Kotlikoff committed a crime – even if X is fighting over meaningless details – and still wrong about them.
Hey John Say, about to sign out but saw this ^ not sure if this is really from you as the logo and writing style are somewhat different, but yes, the selective manipulation of law, fact, and PUBLISHED NARRATIONS are somewhat ankle-biters, -as you point out.
Also, you did a good job today in several of your posts (although, -and I do not/did not practice in the criminal law arena), I think distinction between unlawful detention/false imprisonment and kidnapping might hinge on an additional element of abduction, but you were CORRECT that false imprisonment could be elevated to felony level.
Despite your good intent, I generally just bypass X’s silly attestations of law and fact-unless others might take them at face value. As X likes to point out, he has every right to make known his misunderstanding of both, (even though another hater sometimes “likes” his comment-not as an affirmative approval, but as retaliation against Turley or another commenter. It’s pretty funny to watch).
Thanks for taking the time to read my comment.
(p.s. I humorously used the word “attestation” because X presents his “opinion” with declarative and authoritative finality, ha ha!)
Chauvin failed to give aid, CPR.
It might have been a better argument had Chauvin not been laughing while bystanders pointed out that his victim was dying.
Lin, thank you for aggressor do trine and volenti injuria. Common people don’t know these ideas and don’t readily move to the logic. 👍
^^^doctrine
Thanks again, some gold in today’s offerings.
He did a terrific job of getting out of a dicey situation without harming anyone, if I was him, I would have been concerned about my safety. A+++ for doing a great job.
Floor it!
If you are afraid for your life, you have no other option but to Floor it!
The car was surrounded without a safe directional means of escape. Kotlikof was unlawfully arrested by six unauthorized people.
^^^ A commenter brought up Reginald Denny and the LA riots, 63 people died and 2000 injuries. Dennys suffered a cracked skull, loss of speech and could not walk. Lawsuit yield was nothing. Denny was dragged from his truck and beaten. Another commenter brought up shot in the face/presumed Minneapolis woman.
Compare and contrast
No wonder OJ Simpson case was thrown.
^^^ Chauvin also
This event seems different to this writer. Faculty leadership actually facilitated a classic sit down and discussion of competing ideas at the table. Juxtaposed to a follow on organized menace by attempted intimidation. It made me think about the value of mentoring and Johnathon’s torts classes. The diffusion of knowledge of the general duty of care we owe each other. The duty of proper lookout to not make a rear end collision. The duty not to batter. The duty not to commit fraud. Tort law is an important part of the glue that holds us together as a people. And it includes consequences for conduct below the standards of those duties. For me it helps explain his frustration when a faculty leadership forsakes its campus conduct standards by not enforcing consequences for below par conduct. I would offer that Michael Kotlkoff’s work to make the Israel-Palestine debate happen is mentoring in its best iteration. That brings us to what l think is Johnathan’s constant point: meting out consequences for violating student conduct rules is itself indispensable mentoring.
@Mike Gilmore: Intentionally or not, this was a classic rhetorical obfuscation of the issue at hand.
By completely realigning the issue to be addressed as “Kotlkoff’s mentoring best iteration” rather than the fact that he was constrained and threatened with violence is hidden by divertive smoke screen.
Kotlikoff as mentor and Kotlikoff as victim. One does not preclude the other. I have no quarrel with your take on kotlikoff as victim. I looked at how your issue informs best university practices on mentoring, long an issue on Res Ipsa. Both issues are squarely presented by the facts.
PP
Two things can be true at once.
Kotlikoff deserves and must receive credit for pulling this off.
While that should not have been difficult – all of us KNOW that it was.
Those who entrapped Kotlikoff should also be punished for their criminal actions.
It was outrageous conduct. Conduct that could have resulted in harm. What have the parents of these young people done about it?
The post debate harrassment of Kotlikoff is also an effort to prevent future events such as these.
While as X claims the left does NOT deserve some credit for the fact that the event in the auditorium went off without a hitch. you are correct that Kotlikoff does deserve credit for pulling this off.
This is exactly what Universities should be behind.
Those entrapping Kotlikoff must face some consequences – otherwise the message to Kotlikoff is “no not try this again”
It i not only important that real debate happens, but that those who fascilitate it are not intemidated into giving up.
And Kotlikoff;s harrassment was directed at preventing future debate, and must be punished.
John Say,
Yes, Kotlikoff does deserve credit for the the event taking place with no issues.
And that is exactly the kind of thing should be happening on all university campuses.
And Kotlikoff should not say, “no not try this again” but double down and have more successful debates.
And he should get his CCW permit.
Has there always been a rattlesnake in your avatar, John Say?
Good post
Do you think Koltioff might have launched the auto’s alarm system and called 911 speed dial before backing up? That would be natural if available.
Agree, Gilmore.
I would plead, if I were this person, “honest Officer, I didn’t know anyone was there in all the confusion caused by these antisemites in another one of their ungodly rage protests.
Bang! Bang! I was afraid for my life and safety!
Wahhh! we can’t harrass him if this guy will run us over! How come he can run us over just because we were violating his rights?
We went from go woke go broke, to go woke get run over (politically too)
Well, these people aren’t up for debate, only coercion, harrassment and yelling.
All humans have the ability to defend themselves against such aggression. That’s why it’s a natural right, it’s inherent, built-in.
Corner someone, harass, and block their freedom and find out about natural law. It is impossible to separate humans from their natural, instinctual right.
You can always expect humans to righteously fight back against such personal transgressions. Better to respect their natural right and not find out.
Come On Man! The Gen Z Half-Wit Gang rides again! Who would possibly be concerned with young and dumb gangs of angry people surrounding you in the evening yelling various hateful things? Isn’t that normal everyday behavior in our Post Saint George Floyd society? How else can they express their frustration with their pathetic lackadaisical life except through awkward hateful outbursts directed at productive citizens, right? And with Stormy Daniel type lawyers everywhere ready to sue on behalf of the mentally incompetent thugs things can only get better for our civilization.
“You cannot throw yourself around moving vehicles and then claim to be a victim as a result.”
Unless, of course, you live in Minneapolis or just about anywhere in Minnesota (or any other “sanctuary”).
You have already been praised and encouraged, and the after the next election evolves us to a dual state tyranny of judicial power, the “honorable” Brownshirts who are vandalizing and propagandizing hatred, bigotry and violence. Basically assaulting, kidnapping and retaining those they believe should be on the train to Dachau will be promoted to the positions of honored elite after the next election.
And today, those they attack will be demeaned, debased, prosecuted and punished for not prostrating themselves in self degradation in order to reduce the wear and tear of the boots, whips, and lead used to properly educate them thereby reducing the victimization of those using by making those weapons more endurable and sustainable.
Haven’t we be listening to the Progressive Leadership that has overtaken the culture and message of our society? You will be praised and extolled as martyrs – without penalty for your “saintly” actions. https://townhall.com/tipsheet/amy-curtis/2025/09/26/alvin-bragg-tosses-charges-against-woman-who-assaulted-nyc-pro-life-activist-n2663998
“Maximum Warfare, Everywhere, All the Time” https://static.politifact.com/CACHE/images/politifact/photos/Hakeem_Jeffries_maximum_warfare_sign_4-22-26_AP/9c9260571e8c09520b781cb072c52aef.jpg
The events included the youngsters walking with Koltikoff and he answered questions. The youngsters used words. This hinges upon surrounding the car and preventing exit. It remains nonviolent. It then hinges upon risky behavior knowingly. They knew the car could hit them. It’s an act of aggression.
Does koltikoff take precaution also knowingly ? No alarm launch nor 911 speed dial before backing out?
What else do you see?
Surrounding the car and preventing him from leaving is a violent act. These people need some jail time.
Prof. Turley – while I too am surprised that the president had no escort under the circumstances,
at the same time your remark sounds too much like blaming he victim.
We are all free to provide for own security to the extent we beleive necescary.
But we are not obligated to have additional security because some people behave as criminals.
Please do not blame the victim.
Kotlikoff was being unlawfully detained. Those blocking his car were criminals.
If you are harmed in the course of committing a crime – YOU are responsible.
I beleive in some juridictions you can actually be charged with assault for harm to yourself that results from the commission of crimes. You can absolutely be charged with harm to third parties that were not your intended victims.
you can even be charged for harm to unintended victims that were harmed by the party you were assaulting.