The Irvine 11: Freedom of Speech and Double Standards - updated 9/23/11

Sheila Musaji

Posted Sep 23, 2011      •Permalink      • Printer-Friendly Version
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The Irvine 11: Freedom of Speech and Double Standards

by Sheila Musaji

The Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, attempted to give a lecture February 8, 2010 to students at the University of California at Irvine, but was continually interrupted. The students shouted, “killer” and “how many Palestinians did you kill?” at Oren, who was born in New York but gave up his American citizenship to become the ambassador. He has served multiple tours in the Israeli Army, including in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.    11 students were arrested for interrupting Oren’s speech. Alex Kane

The 11 students individually stood at various times during Oren’s speech, made a short statement of protest, walked outside and were arrested.  They were not violent and did not resist arrest.  The University suspended the students for a period of time, and that normally would have been the end of an unremarkable non-violent student protest on a campus.  It was not.  The District Attorney then filed criminal charges against the 11 students.  If convicted, the students face up to six months in prison.

One hundred faculty members at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) have called on Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas to drop criminal charges against 11 current and former students arrested in February 2010 for disrupting a public speech by Michael Oren, Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S. on the UCI campus.  ...  The faculty signatories, who included several chancellor’s professors and seven professors of law, said they were “deeply distressed” by the district attorney’s decision to file criminal charges against the students. 

“The students were wrong to prevent a speaker invited to the campus from speaking and being heard,” the letter states.  “And the Muslim Student Union acted inappropriately in coordinating this and in misrepresenting its involvement to University officials.  But the individual students and the Muslim Student Union were disciplined for this conduct by the University, including the MSU being suspended from being a student organization for a quarter.  This is sufficient punishment.” 

...  UCI School of Law Founding Dean Erwin Chemerinksy questioned the wisdom of the district attorney’s prosecutorial discretion in this case.

“Criminal prosecution is unnecessary and undesirable.  It sets a dangerous precedent for the unnecessary use of criminal prosecution against student demonstrators,” Chemerinsky said.

On Feb. 9, Oakland-based Jewish Voice for Peace, whose website says it works to achieve a lasting peace that recognizes the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians for security and self-determination and that supports the boycott, divest and sanction movement against Israel,  delivered a petition with more than 5,000 signatures denouncing the charges.  The group said members had similarly interrupted a speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Jewish Federations General Assembly in November without being arrested or criminally charged. 

“The targeting of a group of Muslim American students, who were already sanctioned and whose organization was already suspended by their university as punishment, is unacceptable and will only strengthen Islamophobia and attempts to stifle political speech in this country,” Jewish Voice for Peace said in a statement.]

Susan Kang Schroeder, chief of staff for the Orange County District Attorney, said her office would not be swayed by public opinion or special interest groups.

“The law against the disruption of a meeting has been on books for 100 years and was litigated at the California Supreme Court and it is constitutional,” Schroeder said.  “We’re sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution. You don’t have a First Amendment right to shut down other people’s right to speak and other people’s right to hear.”  Lisa Armony

And, here is what another D.A. said

District Attorney Tony Rackauckas defended his decision Friday, saying the protest was a pre-meditated attempt to quash the speaker and prevent the 500 to 700 people gathered there from hearing his remarks.

That made the incident about more than free speech, he said.

“This is a clear violation of the law, and failing to bring charges against this conduct would amount to failure to uphold the Constitution,” he said in a statement. “We must decide whether we are a country of laws or a country of anarchy. We cannot tolerate a pre-planned violation of the law, even if the crime takes place on a school campus and even if the defendants are college students.” Gillian Flaccus

It is very curious that the Orange County District Attorney’s feel so strongly about attempts to prevent people from hearing a speakers remarks - but they have done nothing at all to counter what seems to be a violation of the same law by a group of anti-Muslim protestors at a Muslim charity event in Orange County.  This protest was widely seen as hateful. 

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California said that it was “deeply troubled” by the District Attorney’s decision:

“We are unaware of any case where a district attorney pressed criminal charges over this type of non violent student protest,” said Hector Villagra, incoming director of the ACLU of Southern California, in a statement. “The District Attorney’s action will undoubtedly intimidate students in Orange County and across the state and discourage them from engaging in any controversial speech or protest for fear of criminal charges.”

A coalition of students, professors and civic leaders hosted a community town hall and news conference March 5 to protest the criminal charges recently filed against the 11 students who disrupted a public event at UC Irvine last year.  Organizers said the coalition supporting the “Irvine 11” has representation from a number of civic and religious leaders including more than 100 UC Irvine professors, the Orange County ACLU, the Los Angeles National Lawyers Guild and prominent rabbis, preachers and imams.

Pamela Geller called the MSA suspension for disrupting the ambassador’s talk “a giant stop sign to the Islamic supremacism and jackbootery increasingly found on college campuses. America is waking up to the enemy in our midst.”   She is truly hypocritical when it comes to freedom of speech. 


UPDATE 3/11/2011

Mother Jones has just posted this update

UPDATE 1, Friday, March 11, 3:06 p.m. PST: Reem Salahi, an attorney on the Irvine 11’s legal defense team, tells me that the team has filed a motion to move the case to the California Attorney General’s jurisdiction. “We do not feel confident in the ability of the Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) to prosecute this case,” Salahi said. “They have engaged in prosecutorial misconduct.”

She claims that OCDA illegally used subpoenas reserved for felony cases to obtain confidential client-attorney emails as the basis for the Irvine 11’s misdemeanor case. In addition, Salahi alleges there is discrimination involved; she cites an internal OCDA email with the subject heading, “UCI Muslim case,” even though the OCDA’s charges do not involve religion. “It raises the question of whether this is truly a case about the First Amendment,” Salahi said.

Orange County Assistant District Attorney Wagner told the Orange County Register that his office had used the “UCI Muslim case” subject line as “shorthand” for Muslim Student Union. He also insisted that the defense has not stated “any grounds at all that would lead to the suppression of the evidence [obtained].”


UPDATE 4/15/2011

Mother Jones has posted another example of double standards with a video Earlier this month, Jewish students at Brandeis University disrupted a Q&A session following Israeli parliamentarian Avi Dichter’s speech at the university. Students stood up one by one, accusing Dichter of war crimes, then left the room. Below is a video of the incident. Although the incident at UC Irvine was very similar in execution, the Brandeis students have not been prosecuted.  Haaretz also discussed this incident. 

 

UPDATE 5/28/2011

Irvine 11 due back in court for ruling on grand jury transcripts release **



UPDATE 6/17/2011

John Esposito has just published an article about this case, and refers to another case which shows the double standards involved here

UCI, like other university campuses, has had speakers and programs on controversial political topics disrupted by students. Would a case involving the disruption of a Palestinian spokesperson or point of view result in a similar UCI administration’s punitive response and civil prosecution? We already have an answer; the answer is no. When College Republicans interrupted Muslim speaker Amir Abdel Malik at UCI, the protest was so overwhelming, UCI’s College Republicans literally shut the speaker down, as similar protestors have done to other Muslim speakers at UCI. The difference was this one was caught on video and put up on the popular website, YouTube.

Free speech means the right to speak and dissent, but does not mean the right to prevent others from speaking. In contrast to the Irvine 11, who responsibly exercised their right of free speech, College Republicans planned and deliberately denied the speaker’s right to speak and shut down the event. They had large, premade signs, went on stage, surrounded the speaker, took the speaker’s microphone and shut down the meeting. Did the UCI administration in this case and others move quickly to punish these disruptors, as they have in the Irvine 11 case? Were they accused of a conspiracy to disrupt? On the contrary, no one was prosecuted for this far more offensive conduct.


UPDATE 9/15/2011

The case is now in court, and the discussion taking place in the courtroom is about freedom of speech (or lack of it).  The Los Angeles Times reports that UC Irvine professor Rei Terada, an expert on the history and guidelines of free speech, told the Superior Court jury that fellow professor Mark Petracca, the event’s emcee, had no authority to set stringent ground rules.


UPDATE 9/23/2011

The Irvine 11 have been found guilty on both counts.  The UC Irvine law school dean calls convictions ‘harsh’ **

 

SEE ALSO:

100 UC Irvine faculty protest criminal charges against Muslim Students, Lisa Armony http://www.jewishjournal.com/community/article/100_uc_irvine_faculty_protest_criminal_charges_against_muslim_students_2011/
 
Conspiracy charges filed against Muslim students, Gillian Flaccus http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20110204/us-university-tension/ 

Ground rules went too far, free speech expert says at Irvine 11 trial, Mona Shadia http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-irvine-eleven-20110915,0,5421091.story

Irvine 11’s trial begins with both sides citing 1st Amendment, Lauren Williams http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/08/local/la-me-irvine-eleven-20110908

‘Irvine 11’ students rightly exercised their free speech, Ryan Kindel http://dailytrojan.com/2011/09/14/%E2%80%98irvine-11%E2%80%99-students-rightly-exercised-their-free-speech/

Irvine 11 Trial: UCI Professor Says Protests Like These Are Normal, Michelle Woo http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2011/09/irvine_11_trial_uci_professor.php

Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren’s Speech Disrupted at University of California, Irvine, Alex Kane http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/israeli-ambassador-michael-orens-speech-disrupted-at-university-of-california-irvine.html

Orange County DA files charges against 11 Muslim-American students who interrupted Michael Oren; JVP says ‘charge us too’, Adam Horowitz http://mondoweiss.net/2011/02/orange-county-da-files-charges-against-11-muslim-american-students-who-interrupted-michael-oren-jvp-says-charge-us-too.html

Student Freedom of Speech and Dissent Under Siege: The Irvine 11, John L. Esposito http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-l-esposito/student-freedom-of-speech-irvine-11_b_877025.html

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