SWAT Goes to College

Published

12 months ago

June 2, 2024

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A gray-haired Dartmouth professor was tackled, zip-tied, and detained on May 1 along with about 90 other protesters. “I’ve been teaching here for 34 years,” Annelise Orleck toldThe New York Timesafter video of the arrest went viral. “There have been many protests, but I’ve never, ever seen riot police called to the green.”

Much of the debate about the campus protests sparked by the Israel-Hamas war has centeredquite reasonablyon?questions around free speech, civil disobedience, and violence. When do chants become threats? When does blocking access to a building become the use of force? Less attention has been paid to the role of policing. But even as Americans have become numb to the militarization of police in other contexts, there’s something shocking about the sight of cops in riot gear on college campuses.

About 2,700 protesters have been arrested or detained at dozens of schools this spring. At UCLA, nearly 200 arrests recently occurred, with police stepping in many hours after counterprotesters attacked the encampment. At the ?University of Virginia, students (and oneReasonreporter) were hit with pepper spray and then hauled off the lawn along with their tents; 25 students were arrested or detained.

While clearing an encampment at Columbia, the New York Police Department (NYPD) used a specialized vehicle with a ramp, nicknamed “the bear,” to access the second story of a building occupied by a few dozen students. Police stormed the building and the encampment outside it wearing helmets and wielding ballistic shields. They used flash-bang grenades. One New York Police officer discharged a weapon in the university’s Hamilton Hall. (An NYPD spokesman later told a local publication,The City, that the officer had been using a firearm “equipped with a flashlight” to see around an area barricaded by students when he fired the gun “accidentally.”)

Witnesses initially posted on X that they thought the vehicle was an MRAP, or mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle, which became popular with police departments in the wake of the 1033 Program, a 1990s George H.W. Bushera* initiative to hand off Department of Defense surplus to local law enforcement. That program has been somewhat curtailed, but the taste for such vehicles has not. “The bear” turned out to be a BearCat, a tactical vehicle now popular with police and available from a private supplier. The NYPD has several; a batch acquired in 2005 cost $225,000 apiece.

In the decade since formerReasonreporter Radley Balko wroteRise of the Warrior Cop, most major citiesand plenty of college townshave seen a normalization of the paramilitary mindset for policing, as well as the use of SWAT teams in routine police action.

But the use of these tactics on college campuses in the context of political protest should be an occasion to examine the tools and powers given to policeand the difficulty of the task assigned to them.

In summer 2020, aggressive policing was both under debate and on display, as protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police flooded the streets. The urban crime spike that followed those protests was blamed, in part, on the possibility that cops might have become overly cautious or disaffected in light of national scrutiny. But in most cities, the crime wave has receded, calling that explanation into question. (Washington is an exception, for reasons that resist simple explanation, as one D.C. neighborhood commissioner, Joe Bishop-Henchman, explains.) Around the same time, homeless tent camps began to multiply in cities, raising difficult questions about the policing of camping in public and semi-public spacesquestions that have been reraised by the tent camps of college kids. (Reason’s C.J. Ciaramella looks to Miami for answers to the homelessness problem.)

Universities tend to lack the wherewithal to clear encampments themselves, even if rules about the time, place, and manner of protests are clear, content-neutral, and unambiguously constitutional. In the case of the Dartmouth arrests, the police swooped in mere hours after the first sign of an encampment, at the request of the university president. But as national attention to that decision and the disasters at Columbia, UCLA, and elsewhere make clear, many universities were right to be cautious when calling in off-campus law enforcement.

The mindset and training of law enforcement is unlikely to be suited to the delicacy of the situation. Nor are local police likely to be up to date on the subtleties of First Amendmentprotected conduct. For now, college presidents (and the U.S. president) seem to have internalized the lessons of Kent State and have resisted the temptation to involve the actual military. The arrests at Dartmouth took place on the 54th anniversary of the Ohio National Guard’s shooting of four students on that campus over anti-war protests, but enforcement has been strictly civilian so far.

But this leaves colleges and cops in a difficult position, and not one of their own making. Though the protesters often have demands for campus administrators, typically about divestment and diversity, those asks tend to be minor and mostly beside the point. They are angry about U.S. involvement in an overseas conflict, something the victims and targets of their ?protests have very little power to change. But with obsessive national political attention on college campuses already, the temptation to make a fuss on campus is too strong to ignore.

Likewise, by equipping themselves to be as large and terrifying as possible, police have paradoxically limited their ability to deal with the kind of human-scale problems that actually arise in 2024, whether it’s crime, homelessness, or protest.

Elsewhere in this issue, Editor at Large Matt Welch analyzes the distortions in U.S. foreign policy caused by the massive buildup of American armed forces, as epitomized by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s famous 1993 query: “What’s the point of having this superb military you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?”

The same mindset has taken hold domestically. Both abroad and at home, the American way is now to send ?expensively overequipped cops barging into situations that desperately need de-escalation instead.

*CORRECTION: The original version of this article misstated which presidential administration was responsible for the 1033 program.

UK

Premier League clubs at risk of legal action over unlicensed casino sponsors

Published

59 seconds ago

May 25, 2025

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Premier League clubs at risk of legal action over unlicensed casino sponsors

Casinos sponsoring two Premier League clubs are accepting UK customers without a licence, putting club officers at risk of prosecution, Sky News has learned.

The gambling websites, BC.Game and DEBET, are the matchday shirt sponsors of Leicester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers, respectively.

But an investigation by anti-gambling advert campaigners, shared with Sky News, suggests the casinos have continued to accept UK customers – despite this becoming unlawful after they lost their licences to operate in the UK.

DEBET lost its licence on 15 May, while BC.Game lost its licence in December 2024.

Neither club has indicated that they intend to end the sponsorships, despite criticism from campaigners and warnings from the Gambling Commission.

With the end of the 2024/25 season this weekend, both clubs are now half-way through two-year sponsorship deals with the casinos – putting them in a difficult position for next season.

The campaign group Coalition to End Gambling Ads (CEGA) told Sky News it was able to make deposits on both gambling websites, despite the sites having no licence to accept UK customers.

CEGA also successfully deposited cash on Burnley FC sponsor 96.com. Burnley are due to be promoted to the Premier League next season.

The findings come one week after the Gambling Commission warned five football clubs, including Wolverhampton and Burnley, that their officers “may be liable to prosecution and, if convicted, face a fine, imprisonment or both if they promote unlicensed gambling businesses that transact with consumers in Great Britain”.

The Commission had issued a similar warning to Leicester City in February.

It made clear then that the clubs must either cut ties with the casinos or ensure they are not accessible to UK customers “by any means” – including virtual private networks (VPNs) – software used to hide a user’s real location.

Other than the need to use a VPN, CEGA director Will Prochaska says it “really wasn’t very difficult” to access the sites.

The Gambling Commission declined to be interviewed by Sky News, but said that “where we have evidence that meets the standard for criminal prosecution we will take appropriate action”.

Head of enforcement at the Commission John Pierce previously said the body would “conduct ongoing spot checks as necessary to ensure they are not accessible to consumers in Great Britain by any means”.

Mr Prochaska, however, said the Commission was taking “far too long” to take action.

“Far too many children, far too many football fans, are seeing these adverts every day,” he said. “It’s got to stop.”

Leicester City’s sponsor has had no UK licence for almost six months

The three sites that appear on the matchday shirts of Leicester, Wolves and Burnley were previously licensed by TGP Europe, a company based on the Isle of Man.

On 15 May, TGP Europe surrendered its UK gambling licence to avoid a £3.3m fine, leaving DEBET and 96.com unable to legally accept UK customers.

Leicester City sponsor BC.Game has been unlicensed in the UK since it parted ways with TGP Europe in December 2024 – almost six months ago.

Mr Prochaska said he contacted Leicester City on 13 March to alert them that BC.Game was still accepting UK customers.

“In fact, it was one of the easiest for me to gamble on – there were very few checks whatsoever,” he says. “But Leicester don’t seem to have done anything about it, and it’s still on the front of their shirts.”

Leicester City FC did not respond to a request for comment.

Sky News was able to sign up to every single site

Bournemouth, Fulham and Newcastle United are also sponsored by casinos that were formerly licensed by TGP Europe, but have been unlicensed since 15 May.

These casinos (bj88, SBOTOP and FUN88) are no longer able to legally accept UK customers.

However, Sky News was able to use a VPN to sign up to all three casinos, as well as those sponsoring Leicester City, Wolverhampton and Burnley.

On all six websites, Sky was able to access QR codes for making cryptocurrency deposits. Sky News did not attempt to make any deposits.

All six casinos are forbidden by law from accepting UK customers.

Yet Burnley sponsor 96.com allowed Sky News to sign up using a Telegram account registered to a UK phone number.

The other websites all required phone numbers to be entered upon registration, which could be used as an additional layer of security to filter out UK customers.

However, most of the websites did not check whether the phone number provided was genuine.

Only one website, Leicester City sponsor BC.Game, did check.

However, after confirming the phone number’s authenticity, BC.Game allowed registration to proceed – even though Sky News had provided a UK phone number.

Sky News presented these findings to the football clubs concerned, to TGP Europe and to the Gambling Commission, but did not receive any comment.

Anyone concerned about their gambling, or that of a loved one, can visit BeGambleAware.org for free, confidential advice and support, or The National Gambling Helpline is available on 0808 8020 133 and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

UK

Former BBC executive and presenter Alan Yentob dies

Published

1 min ago

May 25, 2025

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Former BBC executive and presenter Alan Yentob dies

Alan Yentob, the former BBC presenter and executive, has died aged 78.

A statement from his family, shared by the BBC, said Yentob died on Saturday.

His wife Philippa Walker said: “For Jacob, Bella and I, every day with Alan held the promise of something unexpected. Our life was exciting, he was exciting.

“He was curious, funny, annoying, late, and creative in every cell of his body. But more than that, he was the kindest of men and a profoundly moral man. He leaves in his wake a trail of love a mile wide.”

Yentob joined the BBC as a trainee in 1968 and held a number of positions – including controller of BBC One and BBC Two, director of television, and head of music and art.

He was also the director of BBC drama, entertainment, and children’s TV.

Yentob launched CBBC and CBeebies, and his drama commissions included Pride And Prejudice and Middlemarch.

The TV executive was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by the King in 2024 for services to the arts and media.

In a tribute, the BBC’s director-general Tim Davie said: “Alan Yentob was a towering figure in British broadcasting and the arts. A creative force and a cultural visionary, he shaped decades of programming at the BBC and beyond, with a passion for storytelling and public service that leave a lasting legacy.

“Above all, Alan was a true original. His passion wasn’t performative – it was personal. He believed in the power of culture to enrich, challenge and connect us.”

BBC Radio 4 presenter Amol Rajan described him on Instagram as “such a unique and kind man: an improbable impresario from unlikely origins who became a towering figure in the culture of post-war Britain.

“I commend his spirit to the living.”

UK

Mother and three children who died in house fire in London named by police

Published

48 mins ago

May 25, 2025

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Mother and three children who died in house fire in London named by police

A mother and three of her children who died in a house fire in northwest London have been named by police.

Warning: This article contains pictures of a fire in which people died

Detectives say Nusrat Usman, 43, Maryam Mikaiel, 15, Musa Usman, eight, and Raees Usman, four, died following the fire in Stonebridge, near Wembley, in the early hours of Saturday.

A woman in her 70s was taken to hospital but has since been released. A 13-year-old girl remains in hospital in a critical condition.

A 41-year-old man was arrested at the scene and has since been bailed. He was subsequently detained under the Mental Health Act.

Flowers and a blue teddy bear have been left near the scene, where crews wearing helmets and respiratory equipment were seen building scaffolding against the burnt-out buildings.

Neighbour Cecilia Marquis, 60, said she was “stunned by the devastation”.

“This will leave a devastating impact,” Ms Marquis, who witnessed the fire, said.

Witness Mohamed Labidi, 38, said he “can’t even look at the house right now”.

“We used to socialise together.

“They’re very good people, no problems on their side at all. It’s really shocking. It’s a really strong community here, we look after each other.”

A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: “It’s horrible, we saw people running outside.

“It’s hard to process. I only just moved in, so it’s hard to think about it.”

Eight fire engines and around 60 firefighters responded to the blaze, London Fire Brigade (LFB) said.

Two terrace houses, each with three floors, were severely damaged in the fire, which was under control by around 3.25am, the fire service added.

Superintendent Steve Allen, from the Met’s local policing team in northwest London, said: “Our thoughts go out to all those impacted by what has happened.

“Specialist officers are continuing to support the wider family who have asked for privacy at this deeply upsetting time.

“Local officers are working closely with officers from the Specialist Crime Command on what continues to be a very complex investigation.”

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said in a post on X: “This is devastating news and my thoughts are with the family, friends and wider community of the four people who sadly have lost their lives.

“I remain in close contact with the London Fire Brigade and Metropolitan Police as they work to establish the cause of the fire and offer support to all those impacted.”

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