http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/11/10/missouri-u-police-call-us-about-harmful-or-hurtful-speech/

The Volokh ConspiracyOpinion

Missouri U. Police: Call us about ‘harmful’ or ‘hurtful speech’

By Eugene Volokh November 10 at 1:56 PM

Prof. Thom Lambert (Truth on the Market) passes along the following Missouri-University-wide e-mail:

From: MU POLICE
Date: November 10, 2015 at 9:52:16 AM CST
To: MU POLICE

Subject: Reporting Hateful and/or Hurtful Speech

To continue to ensure that the University of Missouri campus remains safe, the (MUPD) is asking individuals who witness incidents of hateful and/or hurtful speech or actions to:

Call the police immediately at 573- ******* (If you are in an emergency situation, dial 911.)
Give the communications operator a summary of the incident, including location.
Provide a detailed description of the individual(s) involved.
Provide a license plate and vehicle descriptions (if appropriate).
If possible and if it can be done safely, take a photo of the individual(s) with your cell phone.
Delays, including posting information to social media, can often reduce the chances of identifying the responsible parties. While cases of hateful and hurtful speech are not crimes, if the individual(s) identified are students, MU’s Office of Student Conduct can take disciplinary action.

Wow. Note the pattern, so familiar now — things start with extremely offensive speech that might actually be punishable (e.g., racial epithets addressed in person to a Missouri student, which apparently is part of what triggered the protests). Add other speech that seems similar but is potentially much broader, and vaguely defined, such as “hateful” speech. Then add other speech that’s even broader, such as “hurtful” speech. Now you’ve covered a vast range of speech on controversial topics.

And of course note the veneer of generality with which this is covered, a veneer that strikes me as especially out of place in universities, which are supposed to be devoted to truth as well as to debate. Is the police department really going to take seriously all your complaints of “hurtful” speech? If you think that people’s sharp criticisms of Republicans or conservatives or “privileged” white males are “hurtful” to you, and you call the police immediately about this, what do you think the police — or “MU’s Office of Student Conduct” — is likely to do?

Now I agree that the police can reasonably ask people to call about things that are less than proof beyond a reasonable doubt of a crime. If the government wants you to let it know about suspicious behavior that is evidence of, say, a possible planned bombing or shooting (or even theft), it can well cast the net wide, so the police get lots of information and then figure out if a crime (including the conspiracy to commit a crime) has indeed happened. And if the university wants information about speech simply in order to know what’s up and to express its own views about such speech, there is room for that, too (though at some point such reactions by the university might themselves start to unduly deter public debate).

But here there’s not even any claim that they’re just trying to find evidence of crimes, or trying to answer speech with more speech. Here a university is urging students to call the police whenever they hear “hurtful speech,” precisely so the university “can take disciplinary action” against the speakers. This is the new face of the modern university.


Eugene Volokh teaches free speech law, religious freedom law, church-state relations law, a First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic, and for UCLA
School of Law, where he has also often taught copyright law, criminal law, and a seminar on firearms regulation policy.


MISSOURI Again

It sounds like the normal sort of poorly expressed message I would expect authorities to issue, in response to concern about violent acts.

Many of the mass shootings of late have been preceded by the shooter "shooting off his mouth." Hence, that's seen as a warning signal.

And there is another sort of "political" element to recognize in this: just as our NATIONAL politicians wanted to be seen as protecting us from Terrorists after 9/11, and so we started seeing flashing road signs urging us to report all "suspicious activity," the police are trying to give the appearance to the community that they are working to get ahead of the danger of psychotic people shooting up the place.

Any situation such as we are going through is going to have "solutions" proposed which make some of us feel uncomfortable, and we do have to watch carefully that we don't enable tyrants of any kind to gain too much power.

But this isn't a threat to freedom of speech, unless every report results in arrests.

The balance between enabling our protectors to do their jobs well for us, and turning them into our overlords, is always a tricky balancing act. It is the nature of the kind of government we have, that we will alternate between too much freedom and too much safety, and that we will never be able to relax about either.

that was my take too,, is this CAMPUS police? or police police,, it does seem like there is a distinction between 911(actual emergency) and the 7 digit phone number

it seems taking the reports is not indicative of a promise to act upon every one either, but just to document it

I think, in a university environment (on CAMPUS) where there is a certain expectation of safety and security, its a good measure to set some type of expectations on how to treat others

what those EXACT expectations will be, are not quite detailed enough in this piece, but its the 'right' thing,, not that that's popular anymore

ACLU Statement on MU Law Enforcement's Attempt to Police Free Speech

http://www.aclu-mo.org/newsviews/2015/11/10/aclu-statement-mu-law-enforcements-attempt-police-free-speec/[/html/

MU Law Enforcement's Attempt to Police Free Speech
November 10, 2015

The following may be attributed to Jeffrey Mittman, Executive Director of the ACLU of Missouri:

“The ACLU of Missouri is disappointed with the recent request by the University of Missouri Police to report ‘hurtful speech,’ which simultaneously does too much and too little.

Racial epithets addressed to a specific person in a threatening or intimidating manner can be illegal, and may require action by police and/or university administrators.   But, no governmental entity has the authority to broadly prohibit ‘hurtful’ speech – or even undefined ‘hateful’ speech, or to discipline against it. 

Conversely, institutional racism and a history of turning a blind-eye to systemic inequities does require action.  But mistakenly addressing symptoms – instead of causes – and doing it in a way that runs counter to the First Amendment is not the wise or appropriate response.

Missourians can rightfully expect our public university to establish policies and practices that proactively educate administrators, faculty, staff and students about the causes of, and solutions to, systemic racism and inequality, and that comports with the right to free speech and expression.”

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/higher_education/mu-police-department-asks-students-faculty-to-report-hateful-speech/article_036779a6-87de-11e5-a1fd-7b09bf4bf1f1.html/

Categories: Student & Youth RIghts, Free Speech & Expression
Tags: Harmful Law Enforcement, Police, police accountability, First Amendment, First Amendment Rights, Freedom of Expression, freedom of speech, Free Speech and Expression
« ACLU Statement on Missouri Supreme Court Ruling in Strake v. Robinwood

"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."

[Special Message to the Congress on the Internal Security of the United States, August 8, 1950]
Harry S. Truman

"My own opinion is enough for me, and I claim the right to have it defended against any consensus, any majority, anywhere, any place, any time. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line, and kiss my ***."
Christopher Hitchens

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
James Madison

"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."
Benjamin Franklin,

"Free speech means the right to shout 'theatre' in a crowded fire."
Abbie Hoffman

"It was a shocking thing to say and I knew it was a shocking thing to say. But no one has the right to live without being shocked. No one has the right to spend their life without being offended. Nobody has to read this book. Nobody has to pick it up. Nobody has to open it. And if you open it and read it, you don't have to like it. And if you read it and you dislike it, you don't have to remain silent about it. You can write to me, you can complain about it, you can write to the publisher, you can write to the papers, you can write your own book. You can do all those things, but there your rights stop. No one has the right to stop me writing this book. No one has the right to stop it being published, or sold, or bought, or read."
Philip Pullman




1. Everyone is entitled to their opinion about the things they read (or watch, or listen to, or taste, or whatever). They’re also entitled to express them online.

2. Sometimes those opinions will be ones you don’t like.

3. Sometimes those opinions won’t be very nice.

4. The people expressing those may be (but are not always) ********.

5. However, if your solution to this “problem” is to vex, annoy, threaten or harrass them, you are almost certainly a bigger *******.

6. You may also be twelve.

7. You are not responsible for anyone else’s actions or karma, but you are responsible for your own.

8. So leave them alone and go about your own life."

[Bad Reviews: I Can Handle Them, and So Should You (Blog post, July 17, 2012)]
John Scalzi

Apparently many or most newspapers in Missouri FLAGED the copy of the email that the police sent out to students themselves.

But of course it got out & Europe now has articles on this also.
F@c@Book & Tw@tter has been buzzing about it, most are outraged. The students have also been complaining that they need a 'media free zone'.. (Can't say I blame them).

Some of university staff is siding with police. And steps have already been made/taken to STOP federal/state funding if the university does not stop trying to control free speech.

http://dailycaller.com/2015/11/10/the-9-most-preposterous-parts-of-melissa-clicks-absurd-resume/

Friggen Mob-Rule!

wtf is with her!
15 pages on canning vs capitalism?
A Twilight convention?
Thomas The Train ..bashing?

What next? Book burnings?

the Sixties-Chicken are coming home to roost!

And I was worried about that entitlement generation.
And apparently there are Woodstock burn outs, who dropped too much acid, influencing them.

November 11, 2015

Mizzou campus

An assistant communications professor at the Missouri School of Journalism resigned from her courtesy appointment Tuesday after she was caught on video confronting a student journalist and attempting to block him from shooting photos on a public quad.

The video, showing University of Missouri protesters and Assistant Professor Melissa Click, was posted on Youtube shortly after University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe resigned following a week of protests after his perceived lack of response to a series of racially-charged incidents.

Click’s courtesy appointment allowed her to serve on graduate panels for students from other academic units, according to the Columbia Missourian. Her position as mass media professor in the Communication Department remains unclear.

Dean of the Missouri School of Journalism David Kurpius announced Click's resignation on his Twitter account late Tuesday.

Starnes: Univ. of MO overrun by army of academic fascists
Embattle University of Missouri president resigns
While the J-School faculty were meeting, Dr. Melissa Click resigned her courtesy appointment with the School. #Mizzou @mojonews
— Kurp (@Kurp) November 11, 2015
Click issued an apology after reviewing the video, saying she “reached out to the journalists involved to offer my sincere apologies and to express regret over my actions.”

“I regret the language and strategies I used, and sincerely apologize to the MU campus community, and journalists at large, for my behavior, and also for the way my actions have shifted attention away from the students’ campaign for justice,” she wrote in her statement.

“From this experience I have learned about humanity and humility. When I apologized to one of the reporters in a phone call this afternoon, he accepted my apology,” Click said. “I believe he is doing a difficult job, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to speak with him.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Kurpius lambasted Click while lauding the photojournalist.

"The Missouri School of Journalism is proud of photojournalism senior Tim Tai for how he handled himself during a protest on Carnahan Quad on the University of Missouri campus," Kurpius said in Tuesday's statement.

"The news media have First Amendment rights to cover public events," Kurpius said. "Tai handled himself professionally and with poise."

Tom Warhover, the executive editor of the Columbia Missourian, a university newspaper, told the Times he was "pretty incensed" about Tai's treatment.

"I find it ironic that particularly faculty members would resort to those kinds of things for no good reason. I understand students who are protesting and want privacy. But they are not allowed to push and assault our photographers -- our student photographers."

Tai told the Los Angeles Times the situation resembled last year's protests in Ferguson, Mo., which he also covered. The only difference, he said, was "it was the police doing it then."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/11/11/missouri-protesters-try-to-block-student-reporter-from-taking-photos/* short video *

She suddenly decided to "resign"...

"" After a University of Missouri
professor was seen on video calling
for “some muscle” to remove a
journalist from a public
demonstration, the professor cut
her ties to the university’s
journalism school on Tuesday as
protest organizers — and the
professor herself — joined college
officials in stating that journalists
had a right to be present.
The professor, Melissa Click, an
assistant professor in the
department of communication had
what was described as a “courtesy
appointment” at the School of
Journalism, meaning that she could
serve on student thesis review
panels. “Journalism school faculty
members are taking immediate
action to review that appointment,”
David Kurpius, the dean of the
school, said in a statement released
Tuesday, stressing that Ms. Click did
not teach at the school."'
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/11/11/us/university-of-missouri-names-law-professor-to-diversity-post.html?referer=

The inmates are apparently running the asylum at Mizzou U.

http://www.bizpacreview.com/2015/11/11/mizzou-student-body-president-admits-to-spreading-false-rumor-kkk-was-on-campus-272739

Mizzou student body president admits to spreading false rumor KKK was on campus

Much like the lie known as “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot,” rumors and unsubstantiated allegations continue to flow freely on the University of Missouri campus, with some of the worst of it coming from student body president Payton Head.

Head, who had previously claimed he was called the “n-word” from a passing pickup truck — one of the actions that led to the school’s president, Tim Wolfe, resigning on Monday — was at it again on Tuesday.

This time, he took to social media to warn students about the KKK being on campus, according to Twitchy.com:

Facebook from Payton Head (@MSAPresident): pic.twitter.com/GcYsd3Klb6

— Alec Lewis (@alec_lewis) November 11, 2015

There’s only one small problem — it wasn’t true … never mind that this came from the president of the student body!

Head would eventually delete the false claim and post an apology:

Student body president apologizes for spreading the ‘KKK at Mizzou’ rumor pic.twitter.com/A55Ap713o6

— Brandon Wall (@Walldo) November 11, 2015

Is there any wonder students have been whipped up into a lather at the school?

Ironically, after the school’s online emergency information center posted a comment on Twitter about not spreading rumors, Head joined in to instruct students not to do what he was guilty of doing:

There is no immediate threat to campus. Please do not spread rumors and follow @MUAlert at https://t.co/6BXzIBsDxU for updates.

— MU Alert (@MUalert) November 11, 2015

.@MUalert is the ONLY account with confirmed information. Please do not share or engage with any rumors. https://t.co/c8zsJWO3o4

— Payton Head (@MSAPresident) November 11, 2015

The reaction on social media to Head’s irresponsible actions included calls for HIS resignation — an unlikely occurrence being that he’s a member of a protected class — AND his arrest.

Here’s a sampling of other responses to the circus environment that now defines the University of Missouri:

#PrayForMizzou These stupid kids have never been told they were wrong ever in life! Pray!

— KEEMSTAR (@KEEMSTARx) November 11, 2015

@MSAPresident @MUalert you started some of the rumors. You should be prosecuted.

— Totes McGotes (@TotesMcGotes) November 11, 2015

@MSAPresident @MUalert – You just said the KKK is confirmed on campus. You need to resign.

— Chris Starks (@chris_starks) November 11, 2015

@MSAPresident your Facebook post with a rumor in it was shared over 500 times.

— Kevin Reape (@KevinReape) November 11, 2015

Missouri student body President Payton Head posted that the KKK was on campus, then later said it was all a lie. This is getting so weird.

— Mike Foster (@michaelsfoster) November 11, 2015

@michaelsfoster @ravenwings0205 he meant to say the Black Panthers,honest mistake

— notpeterose (@silentgeorge25) November 11, 2015

@silentgeorge25 @michaelsfoster Nothing about what happened was honest! Another #BlackLiesMatter

— Cynthia RavenWings (@ravenwings0205) November 11, 2015

@michaelsfoster Payton Head needs to be under arrest. I’m done with all of this.

— Pattypan (@Pattypan) November 11, 2015

@michaelsfoster @mikesmith8026 Just a community organizer in training. Could be our future president.

— Patrick Wemitt (@WemittPatrick) November 11, 2015

http://thefederalist.com/2015/11/09/mizzou-and-yale-show-why-its-time-to-burn-the-universities-to-the-ground/

This, is the type of garbage, that the dirty hippies have been foisting upon the country, for fifty years.

Turning the youth of America, into a bunch of soft, whiny, tards.

Yes, students of MU, you're all being turned into a bunch of sissies.

Now, call campus police on me.

seems like a mirror of real life to me

many communities have 'community watch',, where they 'report' anything suspicious

,,only impacts people if they ACT upon the reports,,,

and


much of the media we watch and read nowadays is also RECYCLED from other sources, with not nearly the concern for validity that media once had,,,,



so campus is now just like the many communities outside of campus that are 'proactive' and campus media and social networks reflect the same reliability as mainstream,,,,,