During the fall of 2023, in the aftermath of the Hamas-led terror attacks on Israel, racist and anti-Semitic graffiti started showing up on the Columbia University campus.
Lester Wilson, a Black man who works as a Columbia janitor, was deeply disturbed by what those images and reported them to his supervisors. Wilson and other janitors were ordered to clean the graffiti and they did. But it kept reappearing. Wilson's colleague, Mario Torres, estimates janitors cleaned dozens of these hate-symbols off school property.
Then on April 29, 2024, a mob of masked pro-Hamas protesters took over Hamilton Hall. Both Wilson and Torres were working that night, and I'll let The New York Post tell you what happened to the two men:
Rioters had moved vending machines and zip-tied doors to barricade the exits and entrances. After deciding he was out of options, Torres decided to battle his way through the mob.
'I’m going to get twenty guys up here to f— you up,' one masked rioter who had 'violently' shoved Torres threatened, per the complaint. 'Mr. Torres pulled a fire extinguisher, which was within arm’s reach, off the wall to defend himself and replied, ‘I’ll be right here.''
During that confrontation, Torres was repeatedly struck on his back by other rioters. After repeatedly navigating to blocked-off exits, he eventually found a way out that had been blocked by zip ties and a bike lock. Following his pleas, one of the rioters cut the zip ties and let him out.
Wilson had been separated from Torres during the havoc and had quickly tried to escape after determining the rioters were taking over. During his scramble to get out, rioters smashed furniture into him and pushed him repeatedly, per the complaint.
One of the ringleaders behind this night of terror was Mahmoud Khalil, the Green card holder and the Left's latest terrorist-supporting, civil-rights violating darling.
The Left have framed Khalil's arrest and detention as an egregious violation of his First Amendment rights.
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As Salon does here:
Here's what they wrote in the opening paragraphs (emphasis added):
Advocates warn that the U.S. government's deportation case against a pro-Palestinian activist at Columbia University, and the subsequent arrest of others, is based solely on their protected political speech — a fact that other students at Columbia say has contributed to a climate of fear at the school.
Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student and activist, was arrested earlier this month at this apartment in New York City, with the Trump administration claiming that his criticism of Israel undermined American foreign policy. If successful, legal experts warn that the government could use this framework to deport people for a broad variety of protected speech.
Mahmoud Khalil is not being deported because of his political speech.
He is being deported because he -- and a plethora of other Leftists -- engaged in actual criminal, terrorist behavior. The vandalization, occupation, and property damage committed before, on, and after April 29 is not protected speech.
And their harassment of Jewish students violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in education.
There is ample evidence that Khalil -- and countless others -- deserve every consequence they've got coming to them.
After President Trump cut off $400 million in grants and contracts with Columbia, the university itself finally expelled or suspended students who participated in the violence and temporarily suspended the degrees of those who already graduated.
These thugs led the university to cancel commencement last spring, depriving other students of a milestone, but that's small potatoes.
They spent weeks terrorizing Jewish students, calling for an intifada and the annihilation of Israel.
Around the country colleges like UCLA saw Jewish students barred from attending classes, libraries, and other parts of campus. All by pro-Hamas goons.
At Cooper Union, Jewish students were forced to barricade themselves in a library to avoid a mob of violent pro-Hamas supporters. A library helpfully told those students to hide in the attic and if the irony of that doesn't smack you across the face like a frozen lead pipe, I don't know what will.
Jewish students at Cornell faced death threats that led to the lockdown of the kosher dining hall and left Jewish students afraid to leave their rooms.
In Wisconsin, Jewish students on the UW-Madison campus needed an escort into Hillel because -- you guessed it -- pro-Hamas protesters were mobbing the outside of the building, threatening Jews.
All of that fear was caused by Leftists. The same Leftists who -- just a few years ago -- were telling us to 'punch Nazis' (read: Republicans) as if they were members of the Allied forces.
As always, that was pure projection.
What Salon, and Leftist students at Columbia (and elsewhere) are afraid of isn't the silencing of their free speech. It's that Donald Trump is finally holding these universities and bad actors accountable for their lawless, violent, and illegal behaviors.
It's long past the time Leftists feared facing consequences for their actions.
If that creates a 'climate of fear' on campus, I say: GOOD.
