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.
