Your rights are subject to police discretion
The day after Banksy’s protest art was scrubbed from London’s Royal Courts of Justice, we received Cornell’s official answer as to why Cornell Police shut down our graduation protests on May 24: According to CUPD, punishments are issued at the “discretion” of police, unburdened by reference to policy and unconstrained by rights to free speech. We disclose our institutional correspondence with CUPD and offer conclusions about Cornell’s revealed free speech policy.
Post 12/6: AD White weighs in on the expressive policy
Andrew Dickson White has weighed in on the Cornell Committee on Expressive Activity Draft Report Policy. Although hardly known as a man of principle (he was zealously involved in Indigenous dispossession), even he is perturbed by the administration’s silence and silencing in the face of an existential crisis. It is remarkable for one so long dead to send a message, but send a message he does: “The science is clear. Don’t look away. Don’t muzzle protesters. Declare a Climate Emergency.”