It has been said by people wiser than I (I’ll admit that the bar is low) that the best available option for addressing “bad speech” isn’t to regulate it, but to allow for more free speech to challenge it.
Students at the University of Mississippi provided a pretty decent — though not perfect — example of that Thursday when largely peaceful counter-protesters shut down an anti-Israel protest on their campus.
Protesters representing “UMiss for Palestine” had gathered to demand that Ole Miss “divest from companies tied to Israel,” according to the left-leaning Mississippi Today.
Problem one with that demonstration: The university has said that it has no direct investment in companies based in Israel.
Problem two: Ole Miss students themselves.
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The demonstration lasted for less than an hour before police disbanded it.
According to Mississippi Today, the counter-protesters, seen in video below chanting as police led the Hamas supporters away, threw a “water bottle and other items at the protest, prompting the protesters to respond in kind with water.”
No injuries were reported, however, and no arrests made, according to numerous outlets.
The university itself apparently viewed the event as “mostly peaceful” on both sides.
Should U.S. universities be doing more to shut down these anti-Israel protests?
“As a public institution, the University of Mississippi is committed to supporting the rights of our students, faculty and employees to express their views in a respectful manner and to assemble peacefully as enshrined in the First Amendment,” Chancellor Glenn Boyce said in statement to students and faculty Thursday evening.
“While today’s demonstration was passionate and several protesters and counter-protesters received warnings from law enforcement over their actions, there were no arrests, no injuries reported, and the demonstration ended peacefully.”
The Daily Mississippian numbers the anti-Israel protesters at about 30 and the counter-protesters in the hundreds — numbers that several video posts on X, including one from Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, seemed to support.
Scenes from Ole Miss today: I think it’s fair to say this did not go the way pro-Palestinian protesters hoped. #FratBros pic.twitter.com/s4BLuGNTSR
— Russ Latino (@RussLatino) May 2, 2024
— @OLDROWVIRAL (@calicocutpant) May 2, 2024
Free Palestine activists just tried to pull off a protest on the Ole Miss campus. It didn’t go according to plan. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Lj3szEyzRe
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 2, 2024
The ‘protests’ at Ole Miss today. Watch with sound.
Warms my heart.
I love Mississippi!
— Governor Tate Reeves (@tatereeves) May 2, 2024
Reeves was on campus Thursday to give the welcome address at the Aerospace and Defence Alliance Symposium, The Daily Mississippian reported, though his office would not confirm that he was on campus at the time of the protests, citing security.
“I am aware of today’s scheduled protest on the campus of Ole Miss. Mississippi law enforcement is also aware,” he said in a statement later. “And they are prepared. Campus police, City, County, and State assets are being deployed and coordinated.
“We will offer a unified response with one mission: Peaceful protests are allowed and protected – no matter how outrageous those protesters views may seem to some of us,” he added. “But unlawful behavior will not be tolerated. It will be dealt with accordingly. Law and order will be maintained!”
