Maryam Alwan figured the worst was over after New York City police in riot gear arrested her and other protesters on the Columbia University campus, loaded them onto buses and held them in custody for hours.
But the next evening, the college junior received an email from the university. Alwan and other students were being suspended after their arrests at the “ Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” a tactic colleges across the country have deployed to calm growing campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war.
The students’ plight has become a central part of protests, with students and a growing number of faculty demanding their amnesty. At issue is whether universities and law enforcement will clear the charges and withhold other consequences, or whether the suspensions and legal records will follow students into their adult lives.
But I was assured they weren’t snipers! Even though we should “treat them like snipers”? Umm so should I bring them coffee or call an artillery mission? Nobody told me whether they were friendly or enemy Not Snipers!?!
I’ve seen a more close-up view of the Ohio one which suggest that might not be a gun, but that is so clearly a gun in the IU one that it’s pretty damn hard to deny.