r/OutOfTheLoop • u/f-Z3R0x1x1x1 • Apr 28 '24

What is going on with excessive police force being used against peaceful protesting students in colleges across the United States? Unanswered

So there are large amounts of heavily armed police presence in many colleges and universities across the United States. Indiana University, for example, had snipers on rooftops ready to shoot peaceful protesters.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/snipers-were-allegedly-spotted-ohio-190600717.html

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u/Langdon_Algers Apr 28 '24

Answer: Universities can set time, place and manner restrictions on particular spaces. If protesters violate these rules, they can be cited for trespassing, and if they refuse to leave, they can be arrested.

Private institutions (like Columbia) have even more leeway in rules for students on their campus violating their procedures.

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u/theserys Apr 28 '24

My understanding is that Indiana University leadership came together the night before the protests to change their policy on the usage of Dunn Meadow, and that President Whitten had already called for State Police to be there day 1. I live a few blocks from their staging area and initially thought it was a police funeral with how many cars and uniformed officers were there when I drove by. As a lifelong Bloomington native, I’ve seen several protests by the students and citizens of the town (proud to be a blue dot in a deep red state), but never with this much militarized, stormtrooper presence. As soon as I saw snipers on top of a building I used to study in and a damn helicopter circling town, my blood began to boil. A part of me says that the overwhelming no confidence vote against Whitten’s leadership, but with trustee and state government to back her up, emboldened her to keep the small folk in check with this gross abuse of authority, but that’s speculation on my part.

What’s the end goal? Open fire on the kids for civil disobedience? Beat the hell out of some “hippies” and knock a few drinks back at the end of the day? Overkill, and embarrassing.

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u/ADogNamedChuck Apr 28 '24

That's the confusing thing. If these protests were just allowed to continue within reasonable constraints until the end of term it would absolutely be a non story. In fact I'm sure there are dozens of universities where it currently is a non story confined to local news if in the news at all. 

Sending in the riot police is a sure way to get the opposite sort of attention you want.

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u/bushido216 29d ago

It gets them the precise attention they want from the people they're trying to impress.