Stephen Shepard

On the broader point of the situation at Columbia. It's important to know who's doing what. Students vs hangers-on, activists from off campus etc. But let's not kid ourselves. Think abt this situation from the perspective of a minority group you actually care about. Students can't and shouldn't be expected to know that the person who just told them to go back to Poland or that the next Oct 7th will get them wasn't a student. And does it matter that much whether it's just inside or outside the gate? Columbia merges into the rest of the neighborhood. And really who cares if it's a student? We're talking about a climate of harassment where there are clearly a substantial number of people making wildly antisemitic and menacing comments, especially to students who are identifiably Jewish or ones who express opinions which don't cut it with the protestors. (Which seems, in many case, like basically anything short of Jewish Israelis evacuating to their non-existent "other countries".) I completely buy that there are many pro-Palestinian protestors who aren't saying any of these things and are engaged in legitimate protest. Probably most. But that's not really a rebuttal. How many Charlottesville tiki torch dudes wilding around campus is too many. Just a few are too many, I'd say. If just a few of your fellow protestors are running after black folks and calling them the n-word. Too many. And something like that is clearly happening. Just with different costumes and arriving at the same place on a different ideological path.