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Mizzou Professor Demands āMuscleā To Remove Student Journalists; Police Claim āHurtfulā Speech Can Be Punished
The eyes of the nation are on the University of Missouri today. resulted in the resignations of the university system president and the chancellor of the flagship Columbia campus yesterday afternoon. Then, yesterday evening, video surfaced on social media of a professorās demand that force be used against journalists trying to photograph student protesters against their will.
Today, a reaffirmed the mediaās First Amendment right to cover the story, hopefully allaying future First Amendment concerns where the rights of student journalists are concerned.
However, a from the University of Missouri Police Department sent this morning warned that Mizzou can punish students for āhurtfulā speech.
Accusations of Racism
Protests over race relations at Mizzou were when Missouri FIREAssociation President Payton Head posted on Facebook about being subjected to racial slurs on campus. Weeks later, the Legion of Black Collegians (Mizzouās Black Student Government) followed up with a sharing its membersā similar experiences with racism. In response to these and other accounts, Mizzou Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin for students, faculty, and staff.
The campus protest movement Concerned Student 1950 ( to the year black students were first admitted to the university) argued that Mizzouās administration was not adequately addressing racism on campus. The group , including more mandatory racial awareness training, to be overseen by āstudents, staff, and faculty of color,ā and the removal from office of University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe. Wolfe and claimed that he was "'not completely' aware of systemic racism, sexism, and patriarchy on campus." On November 2, Mizzou grad student Jonathan Butler announced that he would in protest, refusing to eat āuntil either Tim Wolfe is removed from office or my internal organs fail and my life is lost.ā
FIRE began protesting, camping in Mizzouās Carnahan Quadrangle, and boycotting the universityās services in support of Butler. Wolfe apologized, asking students to ārise to the challenge of combatting racism, injustice, and intolerance." Protests ensued, including one by members of Mizzouās football team, who that they would not play until Butler ended his hunger strike. This proved to be the final straw, resulting in the resignations of both Wolfe and Loftin yesterday. The offers a more complete analysis of the incidents leading up to Wolfeās resignation.
Protestersā Response to Wolfeās Resignation
Yesterday morning, thousands of protesters took to Carnahan Quadrangle to celebrate Wolfeās resignation. FIREtakes no stance on the content of the protests. We believe that studentsā ability to hold protests like these on campus without administrative or police interference is vitally importantāthatās why we worked with Missouriās legislature to pass the Campus Free Expression (CAFE) Act earlier this year. The new law prohibits public universities like Mizzou from silencing student voices by quarantining them into tiny or remote free speech zones.
In that spirit, FIREis troubled by the treatment of student journalists and , who attempted to film and photograph events on campus yesterday morning. that trouble at the protest began when reporters attempted to photograph the event and talk with students. Concerned Student 1950 protesters around the encampments in the center of the quad (where students had been living during their protest against Wolfe) and refused to allow non-protesters to pass. The protesters chanted āHey hey, ho ho, reporters have got to go,ā refused to allow members of the media past the chain, and posted āNo Media Safe Spaceā signs. describes how āhell broke looseā at the protest:
I got the call that all my other classes would be canceled but one. The announcement was made at about 10:20 that Wolfe was resigning. A large crowd immediately started growing on Carnahan Quad. A black student leader spoke for a bit for the group but because most of the other #ConcernedStudent1950 leaders were not there, they opted not to have any formal announcement. There were some group celebrations afterward with journalists hanging around the main group. The #ConcernedStudent1950 leaders then asked for media to leave so that the group leaders could strategize in the encampment. This is when hell broke loose as some 20 journalists were all turned away from the site and told to back away further than āpersonal spaceā requires. Some of the organizers threatened to call the police if they refused to step back. [. . .] The group set up a perimeter some 50 feet away from the camp. ConcernedStudent1950 had prepared signs that told the media to stay back. It was organized.
Via Twitter, Concerned Student 1950 to media coverage as a desire to have its, writing, āWe ask for no media in the parameters so the place where people live, fellowship, & sleep can be protected from twisted insincere narratives.ā As Tai and Schierbecker moved towards the crowd, they quickly learned what happened when they were too close to the protestersā āpersonal space.ā
A line of protesters met them, physically pushing them away and refusing to allow them to pass, blocking their cameras with their hands, and telling them āyou do not have the right to take our photo.ā Tai explained his First Amendment rights to the protesters, stating (correctly) that ā[t]he First Amendment protects your right to stand here, and mine.ā The protesters continued to push him away.
To be perfectly clear, student journalists and protesters do not have a right to push away journalists. FIREengaged in public protest, the very purpose of which is visibility, cannot credibly argue that they have any reasonable expectation of privacy.
You can see the entire interaction in Schierbeckerās recording:
Professorās Demand for āMuscleā
The most troubling incident in the recording, starting at the 7:12 mark, occurred when Schierbecker approached Assistant Professor of Communications inside the ring of protesters. He explained that he was a journalist and that he wished to speak with her. She immediately demanded he leave and appeared to grab his camera. (Speaking of things protesters do not have a right to do, that is one of them.)
Schierbecker, acting within his rights, refused to leave. Click alarmingly responded by yelling, āWho wants to help me get this reporter out of here? I need some muscle over here. Help me get him out.ā That Clickās demand for protesters to use force on a student journalist is fundamentally illiberal cannot be stated strongly enough. Itās one thing to incorrectly claim that journalists, often the greatest check against violence committed against protesters, cannot be in a public space. Itās another thing entirely for her to believe she has a right to use force to remove them.
As students surrounded him, Schierbecker again reiterated that protesters cannot force him to leave public space. Click mockingly replied, āYeah thatās a really good one, Iām a communications faculty and I really get that argument but you need to go. You need to go.ā Sheās right about one thing, at least: Schierbeckerās argument is a really good one. Itās an argument that one might expect a professor of communications to respect. Apparently, members of Mizzouās School of Journalism agree. The today that faculty began voting to remove Click from her courtesy appointment in the School of Journalism. She will in the universityās Department of Communication.
University of Missouri Police Department Responds (Badly)
As this controversy continued generating headlines, this morning Mizzouās Police Department asking students to report incidents of āhurtful speechā and warning the campus community that the universityās Office of Student Conduct can take ādisciplinary actionā against students for such expression. This is a blatant misstatement of the First Amendment. As a public university, Mizzou cannot punish speech simply because itās hurtful to others.
FIRE supports studentsā right to protest. Weāre encouraged to see that Mizzouās administration appears to have respected the protestersā rights thus far. Itās troubling to think what could have happened to protesters if they were not protected by the CAFE Act, which requires Mizzou to allow protest on campus public spaces. What FIREcannot support, however, is the use of force by protesters against student journalists and the police departmentās claims that a university can punish hurtful speech. Protest, counterprotest, and media coverage of both are protected by the First Amendment, and itās important that every member of the Mizzou campus community remembers that.
Fortunately, it appears that Concerned Student 1950 protesters have received that message. Today, a student representative that they are attempting to change their relationship with the press, saying "we're students, we're learning as we go along.ā Members also appear to be handing out flyers explaining that the incident with the press was a ā,ā and acknowledging that the press has a right to cover the protest. Assuming this apparent change of heart is reflected in the protestersā actions going forward, the next critical step is for the University of Missouri police and administration to disavow any intention to punish people for protected expression, as threatened in the police departmentās email. Free expression at Mizzou will not be safe until they do.
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