Letter to the Editor: English professor says ‘thanks to the protestors’

Editor’s note: This letter remains in the condition in which it was sent. 

Dear Spectrum: Thanks to the Spectrum for its report on the police assault on the peaceful encampment of antiwar students outside Hochstetter Hall. Armed to the teeth but still terrified, the UB Police brought along reinforcements from the Erie County Sheriff’s Office, the New York State Police, and the police departments of Amherst, Kenmore, the Town of Tonawanda, and the City of Tonawanda. They proceeded to assault the non-violent protestors, and even cursed a Spectrum reporter. No doubt we will be hearing some of the usual excuses soon—the teenagers in keffiyehs were threatening the cops’ fists with their faces, etc. 

But the Spectrum also reports that one officer “ripped a protester’s hijab” off. There’s a name for this. That name is “hate crime.” And there were quite a few police officers there who saw the crime and did nothing at all about it. This action demands an immediate investigation by the police department involved, the University at Buffalo, and the person who enabled this ill-considered assault in the first place: UB President Satish K. Tripathi. President Tripathi has not yet seen fit even to acknowledge the hate crime and the other assaults he enabled. One good faith step toward rectifying this oversight would be dropping all charges against the fifteen persons detained. 

But let's not forget the most important thing: all thanks to the protestors, who used their precious late-semester time and put themselves in physical danger for the sake of drawing attention to the ongoing Gaza Genocide. Not for the first time, the students are teaching the teachers. 

Jim Holstun

Professor of English 

University at Buffalo