OOPS! Crucial correction to this morning’s post, plus Ben Garrison cartoon and comment

April 29, 2024

 

I’ve now read more local stories, these from today’s Herald-Times, and I realize that I got one thing wrong, which created a context that I also need to reconfigure.

My mistake was this: I thought the Wednesday night dictum from on high at IU said that encampments were not allowed. But what it actually said was, without prior authorization. And of course, those who attended the protest the next day mostly didn’t know, or were confused by the new rule, since it went against what has been in place since 1969, re: Dunn Meadow and protests, some of them with encampments. So, since there was no prior authorization — and how long would that take, not at all clear — the encampment was declared illegal, and state police then did their dirty work with, I read, much more force than necessary, since no one at the protest was violent.

The wordy address that President Whitten put out yesterday, within which I featured one paragraph —

— was an instantiation of the policy that the admin had just changed, on Wednesday evening; yes, an “existing policy,” but extremely recent.

Given what I now have learned, the mayor’s remarks on “unauthorized” encampments need to be seen in this light. That was the whole point: to make a distinction between authorized and unauthorized encampments, a new distinction, apparently, that was first made the night before the protest began, and basically ensured that Thursday’s protest anyway, would be pronounced illegal.

Now, on to what Ben Garrison thinks about this entire situation that has college students nationwide so riled up. It echoes my own view, frankly, except that I do appreciate that at least they are, at least for the moment, being with one another, rather than just solipsistic on phones. Plus, I totally appreciate their demand, their impossible dream, that rather than “expand their partnership,” the university split ways with Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center.

 

 

 

Hmmm . . . are IU Protest Encampments now allowed?

April 29, 2024

See this, first, last Friday’s post:

https://annkreilkamp.net/college-protest-psy-op-kent-state-here-we-come-then-what/

 

Once again, this morning 17-year-old “puppy” Shadow and I walked 1.5 miles to Dunn Meadow on the IU campus to see what was going on. Our first visit was on Friday, after getting the news that an overnight encampment had been set up (and then forcibly dismantled) on Thursday. But Friday morning? Guess what! TENTS. I wondered: Did university president Pamela Whitten change her mind, and will now allow encampments? Oops! Nope. That afternoon, the encampment was again forcibly dismantled. The first dismantlement included 33 arrests, the second one 22.

Okay, that brings us to this morning. And wow, there they were again, tents and other temporary structures, with young people milling around them, in Dunn Meadow, which has, since 1969, been the allowed place for protests, including encampments (I think; though Whitten, see below, says not), until, that is, on Wednesday evening — the night before this year’s first encampment — when Whitten decided ad hoc that encampments are not? no longer? allowed. What?

So I was not surprised, this Monday morning, to see one chalked message, over and over again, on sidewalks as we headed into campus: “WHITTEN RESIGN!”

And then, thanks to the bloomingtonian, one of several alternative sources of news in bloomington, I get this, for Jeremy Hogan’s patreon subscribers: A new and remarkably long-winded communique from Whitten, who, it appears to me, is feeling the forces of revolt breathing down her neck, and so trots out her undeniably excellent word-smithing capacity.

An Update for the IU/Bloomington Community

Her “update” did contain this one crucial paragraph:

In other words, Whitten appears to have given in to the protesters’ demands.

Meanwhile, I have been asking myself all along. Why state police? Why not local police? Well, it turns out that the new Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson refused to let local police get involved.

And might it be that only state police have snipers?

This story, from another wonderful local news source, B Square Bulletin.

Bloomington mayor after state police remove Gaza protest tents on IU campus: ‘I’m not supportive of unauthorized encampments, nor of violence.’

In her message, the mayor called the encampments “unauthorized,” twice. And she also included a passage that made me sit up and listen: the possibility of outside influence at the IU protest. (Because you know damn well, that these protests, nationwide, were scheduled to “organically” arise just in time for another election, reminding us of the many riots of the summer of 2020, following the incident where a police officer put his knee on George Floyd’s neck. Yep, both election years, both leading to fraudulent “mail in ballots” — assuming this country lasts long enough to actually have another election!

Wow. I was a bit proud of the mayor, for noting the possibility of outside influence. But then, yesterday, she walked it back.

I get the sense that both mayor and IU president are needing to talk again, to clarify the linguistic mess they’ve gotten into, trying to soothe protest anger with mere words.

And I’m struck, by the resemblance between them.

BTW: just to clarify, once again, my own “position.” I’m for all the “little” people of this world, who, when left alone, can usually manage to work through their differences. Unfortunately, the millions of voices and bots on social media do not just broadcast but incite and magnify messages of all kinds — often in what seems to be a “desired direction.” Palestine vs Israel, Ukraine vs. Russia, the U.S. vs Russia, U.S. vs China, on and on, nation states at loggerheads, for all sorts of reasons. Usually it’s for territory: to get it, or to keep it. And, at least with the U.S., it’s to ensure continuous war, for the MIC and big banks.

These days, rather than talking with each other, people pass each other by holding their damn screens in front of their faces.

I didn’t see anyone staring at his or her phone screen at the encampment today.