SWAT Goes to College

Published

4 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.

Sports

Phillies pound Mets, punch ticket to postseason

Published

3 hours ago

September 21, 2024

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Phillies pound Mets, punch ticket to postseason

ESPN News Services

Sep 20, 2024, 10:25 PM ET

NEW YORK — Bryce Harper and the Philadelphia Phillies clinched their third consecutive playoff appearance Friday night with a 12-2 victory over the New York Mets.

Assured at least a National League wild card, the Phillies can secure their first NL East title since 2011 with one more win this weekend against the second-place Mets at Citi Field.

With the division crown so close, Philadelphia planned a mellow celebration following Friday night’s game — hoping to let loose soon with a boozy clubhouse bash after locking up first place.

Seeking their third World Series championship, the Phillies overtook Atlanta for the division lead on May 3 and haven’t trailed since. Their victory coupled with the Braves’ 4-3 loss in Miami eliminated Atlanta from contention for the NL East crown — ending its six-year reign atop the division.

Alec Bohm had four hits and four RBIs, including a three-run homer, in Friday night’s blowout. Nick Castellanos had three hits and two RBIs, J.T. Realmuto added a two-run homer and the Phillies extended their NL East lead to seven games over the second-place Mets (85-69) with eight to play.

Philadelphia stole five bases — four in a six-run fourth inning capped by Bohm’s homer off reliever Adam Ottavino. Johan Rojas had a two-run double off starter David Peterson (9-3), who was pulled after just 64 pitches and 3 2/3 innings — his shortest start of the season.

Cristopher Sanchez (11-9) overcame a shaky start and five walks in five innings for the win. Philadelphia outhit the Mets 17-4.

Philadelphia (92-62) has the best record in the major leagues and is on track for a first-round bye in the playoffs. It’s the third time the Phillies have reached the postseason three years in a row (1976-78 and 2007-11).

Philadelphia won five straight NL East titles from 2007-11, then went 10 years without making the playoffs. A wild-card entry each of the past two postseasons, the Phillies put together consecutive October runs that ended in heartbreak.

They reached the 2022 World Series, losing to Houston in six games, and dropped a seven-game NL Championship Series to Arizona last year after leading the underdog Diamondbacks 2-0 and 3-2.

So this time, the Phillies are looking to go all the way and finally finish the job.

Philadelphia’s only World Series championships came in 1980 and 2008.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Sports

Soto scratched after reporting soreness in leg

Published

3 hours ago

September 21, 2024

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Soto scratched after reporting soreness in leg

Associated Press

Sep 20, 2024, 08:26 PM ET

OAKLAND, Calif. — New York Yankees star right fielder Juan Soto was scratched from the lineup a day after hurting his left leg sliding into a wall to make a catch.

Soto was originally in the lineup for Friday night’s series opener against the Oakland Athletics but was pulled out after reporting soreness and swelling in the leg. Manager Aaron Boone said X-rays were negative and Soto will not need additional testing.

Soto hurt the leg Thursday in Seattle when he slid into the short wall in foul territory down the right-field line while making a highlight-reel catch. He remained in the game.

Boone said Soto is day-to-day. The manager noted that he wasn’t “overly concerned” that the injury will linger into the postseason. The Yankees clinched a playoff berth Wednesday night and went into Friday holding a four-game lead in the AL East over Baltimore with nine games to play.

“Guys do a good job of knowing how to protect themselves and playing smart in certain situations,” Boone said. “I think him getting down the way he did protected him a little bit. Obviously, he bruised it and he’s out today. But I think the way he did it avoided something serious.”

Soto is batting .286 with 40 homers and 103 RBIs in his first season with the Yankees. He entered the day second in the majors with 125 walks, 284 times on base and a .418 on-base percentage, trailing only teammate Aaron Judge in all three categories. Soto is third in the majors with 120 runs scored.

Soto missed three games in June with left forearm inflammation.

Sports

A’s brace for emotions of final Coliseum ‘hurrah’

Published

3 hours ago

September 21, 2024

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A's brace for emotions of final Coliseum 'hurrah'

Tim Keown, ESPN Senior WriterSep 20, 2024, 09:28 PM ET
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- Senior Writer for ESPN The Magazine
- Columnist for ESPN.com
- Author of five books (3 NYT best-sellers)

OAKLAND, Calif. — The A’s began their final homestand of their final season in Oakland on Friday night, and nobody can predict what might take place over the next six games and seven days.

After 57 seasons in the Coliseum, there will be emotion, but how that emotion will manifest itself is the main question on everyone’s mind.

“We’ve heard some rumblings, and we’re going to have some more meetings about it,” said left fielder Seth Brown, who, in his sixth season, is the longest-tenured Athletic. “The fans have always supported us, and we just hope they support us in a positive manner. We want everyone to come out and enjoy the time and give it its last hurrah, and at the same time we’re hoping it’s done the right way.”

The A’s will play three games against the New York Yankees before finishing the home portion of their schedule with three games against the Texas Rangers. The final game, on Thursday afternoon, will be the final major professional game in Oakland, which has lost three major franchises — the Warriors, the Raiders and now the A’s — in five years.

Beginning next spring, the A’s will play a minimum of three seasons in a minor league ballpark in Sacramento before making a permanent move to Las Vegas.

The A’s have been forced to deal with one off-the-field distraction after another over the past two seasons, from the Las Vegas announcement last April to the Sacramento announcement this April.

“This isn’t really new for us,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “But the emotion last year was a lot greater in terms of the anger. This year has been really, really calm, and I don’t know if that’s because they’ve gotten the anger out. There’s still going to be that emotion as we near Thursday, but that’s part of whenever the healing process starts.”

Fans in Oakland have staged numerous protests aimed at owner John Fisher, who pulled out of a massive development deal in Oakland in April 2023 and announced the move to Las Vegas. There was a highly publicized “reverse boycott” last year and an Opening Day parking lot boycott — where fans congregated in the parking lot but refused to enter the stadium — this season.

Before Friday, the team had drawn 738,438 fans, the worst in Major League Baseball.

“The last three games are going to be pretty epic for us and the fan base,” outfielder JJ Bleday said. “I’m kind of looking forward to it, though. It’ll be exciting to play some games with a crowd. Obviously, I feel bad for the fan base, but we’ll be a part of history.”

The A’s have instituted some precautions for the final homestand, alerting the players to be aware of their surroundings in case fans decide to take the field. Players have also been told not to gather for photographs with family on the field after games.

“Just get on out of there,” Bleday said.

Before Friday’s series opener against the Yankees, fans taped the ubiquitous “SELL” signs to the railings in the right- and left-field bleachers. Another sign — “VIVEK REPENT” — was a reference to Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive, who also owns the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, who will share Sutter Health Park with the A’s.

Ranadive, a friend of A’s owner Fisher, engineered the deal to provide the A’s with a temporary home, rent-free.

“I wish we were staying here,” Bleday said, “but it’s not up to me. I do have a jar ready to fill up with some dirt, though.”