This is not normal.
The anti-Israel uprisings at colleges across the country have featured violence (from both sides), vandalism, unlawful occupations known as “encampments,” and many other acts that go well beyond free speech. And now, at the University of Michigan, this radical protest movement just crossed the line into dangerous new territory.
This week, agitators reportedly showed up at the homes of University of Michigan Board of Regents members in the middle of the night, invading their private property. They chanted on their lawns and brought with them fake corpses, faux bloodied sheets, and lists of demands, including, bizarrely, completely unrelated desires such as “defunding the police.”
“As you have refused to come to the encampment, we are now bringing the encampment to you,” video shows protesters yelling with a loudspeaker on the property of one Board of Regents member’s home in the very early hours of the morning.
This was, understandably, frightening and intimidating for the targeted public officials.
“Around 4:40 A.M., a masked intruder came to the door of my family's home with a list of demands, including defunding the police,” Regent Jordan Acker recounted on X . “My three daughters were asleep in their beds, and thankfully unaware of what transpired.”
“This form of protest is not peaceful,” he concluded. “Public officials should not be subject to this sort of intimidating conduct, and this behavior is unacceptable from any Michigan community member.”
Acker is absolutely right.
No matter how one feels about the Israel-Palestinian conflict, no one should support this kind of extremist behavior. People’s homes should always be off-limits, but especially in the middle of the night and especially with such intimidating tactics and props used.
Unfortunately, while the protests were dispersed after law enforcement arrived at the scene, no one was arrested. This sends the message that trespassing and intimidation are actually fine, so don’t be surprised when campus extremists return to this tactic in the future.
But they really shouldn’t, even from the pro-Palestinian point of view.
At this point, these protests have become a clown show, distracting attention away from the war in Gaza and the plight of the Palestinian people. They’re also presenting an extremist face to the pro-Palestinian cause that is more likely to repel public support than compel it.
And their demands don’t even make sense. I mean, what the heck does defunding the police have to do with Gaza?
Even their Israel-related demands are incoherent. For example, these agitators keep demanding that the Board of Regents, which oversees the university’s endowment, “divest” from Israel.
But the university doesn’t even have any money directly invested in Israeli companies, according to Regent Michael Behm. A tiny fraction of 1% of the endowment is indirectly invested in Israeli companies, yet “divesting” from that likely isn’t feasible without eschewing index funds, a total nonstarter from an economic point of view.
So far, the university is rejecting these activists’ demands out of hand.
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"Our endowment supports numerous scholarships for needy students and drives groundbreaking research across the university and world," Board of Regents Chairwoman Sarah Hubbard said . “We will continue to shield the endowment from political pressures and base our investment decisions on financial factors such as risk and return.”
The University of Michigan should hold strong in this position. If colleges cave to the demands of radical students who engage in intimidation campaigns, things will only further spiral into chaos and disorder.
Brad Polumbo ( @Brad_Polumbo ) is an independent journalist, YouTuber, and co-founder of BASEDPolitics .
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