I really do love living in Florida, and how we have handled these antisemitic whackjobs openly proclaiming their love of Hamas on college campuses just further demonstrates why. Down at the University of South Florida in Tampa, police arrested several pro-Hamas demonstrators after dispersing them with tear gas.
According to Fox News, many had been saying on social media that they intended to bring weapons to fight off university security and staff, raising red flags. One of the ten protestors arrested was a 39-year-old man named Atah Othman, who was caught with a gun on his person during the protest. Given what we have seen as these college kids grow more unhinged in their protests, it was quite likely Othman would have opened fire at some point had police not intervened when they did.
Naturally, the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) Tampa chapter that organized the protest, which could easily have become a riot, threw a hissy fit about it. The group posted on social media, “SHAME ON USF! USF administration allowed for the brutalization of students and community members utilizing their rights to free speech and assembly. We will not be silenced. We call upon students, faculty, and the community to attend an emergency rally in solidarity with students and Palestine!”
I’m sorry, but when your little minions are openly talking about bringing weapons to the protest, it’s not a protest anymore. Besides, what was a 39-year-old man doing at this protest anyway? Even more worrying, he got out on bond.
Granted, it is still too early to jump to conclusions about who Othman is. But the fact that he was armed and other people were talking about bringing weapons means that what I said yesterday about flat-out pogroms occurring right here in America could very well happen.
Related: Pro-Hamas Wisconsin Students Heil Hitler During Protests
Don’t believe me? Fox 7 reported that after Travis County police cleared out the University of Texas in Austin and arrested 80 people, they uncovered stashes of guns (yes, guns), chains, mallets, and bricks around the encampment. Furthermore, 45 of those arrested were not in any way affiliated with the Longhorns, either as students, faculty, or staff.
“This is calculated, intentional, and, we believe, orchestrated and led by those outside our university community,” the university said. That much is starting to become obvious, which is why Congress is looking to investigate these protests.
The question, then, is who is behind this frenzy of antisemitism we’ve seen on college campuses these past couple of weeks?
While I am not discounting these protests being the end result of colleges breeding indoctrinated leftist morons who come back to bite them in their collective hindquarters, nothing about them seems to have formed organically. Someone has to be buying and setting up these fancy tents (North Face ain’t cheap, you know) and providing these weapons.
Related: Will the Students Globalize the Intifada?
By the way, did you also see that one of the people at the Columbia protest was Nahla Al-Arian, wife of Sami Al-Arian, who was busted way back in 2005 for raising money for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad?
Things that make you wonder.