Scenes from Delaney Hall (2)
The next time you see a headline talking about “another night of violent protests,” consider what it does: it primes you to think, in the absence of any evidence or argument, that the protesters were responsible for whatever violence took place, even if law enforcement happened to be responsible for all of it. The phrase “violent protest” implies not that the protests involved violence by unspecified parties, but that the protesters themselves were the main source of the violence.
Tag Archives: crime
Arrest Michael Kotlikoff
On April 30th of this year, a debate over Israel/Palestine took place at Cornell University, introduced and attended by Michael Kotlikoff, the President of the University. After the debate, Kotlikoff was followed from the venue to his car by students who asked him questions while filming him. Kotlikoff clearly didn’t want to talk to them, so he hurried to his car, and got in, closing the door. The students then surrounded the car on all three sides–the driver’s and passenger’s side as well as the rear of the vehicle–crowding fairly close to it, pressing their questions. Kotlikoff then backed up, hitting two students, and drove away. Neither student was seriously injured. Video of the event is widely available online, showing the event from various angles.
Continue readingGuns and Poses
For weeks now, the papers in Princeton have been full of news items about anti-Semitic graffiti discovered around town. In virtually every case, the reports have been vague to the point of deliberate concealment about what the messages have actually said. Here’s a typical example, from the April 29 issue of Town Topics:
On April 21 at 1:05 pm, officers responded to headquarters for a report of a threatening letter received at a religious organization on Cherry Hill Road. The letter, which was intended for a separate Jewish group that uses the location for gatherings, contained anti-semitic threats of violence. Investigation revealed similar letters had recently been sent to multiple Jewish organizations throughout Mercer County and Bucks County, Pa. The incident remains under investigation (p. 13).
The Trenton Campaign: No Collaboration with ICE
Statement of Farahnaz Shemeem to Trenton City Council
319 E. State St.
Trenton, New Jersey
October 21, 2025
Hello, good evening, Council; my name is Farahnaz, [Trenton address]. I’m a Rapid Responder with Resistencia en Acción, an organization that supports families impacted by ICE operations. I’m here today to share what I’ve personally witnessed and to call your attention to what is happening in our city.
As someone who has grown up in Trenton, it is deeply painful to see the Trenton Police assisting ICE agents–agents who are breaking our laws, violating their own policies, and lying to families to get them out of their homes and cars. Instead of protecting the community, our officers are enabling ICE to terrorize our neighborhoods and enter spaces where they have no legal authority to be. The Trenton Police has been assisting ICE agents in creating intimidation which prevents people from exercising their constitutional rights, the right to remain in their private spaces, to record ICE, and to inform others of their rights. Continue reading
The Lesson of LA
A typical discussion of what’s happening right now in LA:
It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the Trump administration is spoiling for a fight on America’s streets. On Saturday, after a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests degenerated into violence, the administration reacted as if the country were on the brink of war.
The violence was unacceptable. Civil disobedience is honorable; violence is beyond the pale.
You want to know what’s “unacceptable”? It’s bullshit writing of this sort. Continue reading
Walzer on Rules, Crime, and War
In an argument on the (supposed) logical distinction between jus ad bellum and jus in bello, Michael Walzer argues that war is different from criminality because while war is an activity governed by rules and conventions, criminality is not:
The crucial point is that there are rules of war, though there are no rules of robbery (or rape or murder). The moral equality of the battlefield distinguishes combat from domestic crime (Just and Unjust Wars, p. 128).
Even apart from questions about the logic of this argument–whether Walzer’s intended conclusion follows from the premises–his main premise strikes me as obviously false. There certainly are “rules of robbery.” The basic rule of a robbery is: if you hand over your valuables, you’ll be allowed to live; if not, not. This is an unjust rule, but it’s certainly a rule. The rule can of course be violated; it would be naive in a given case to expect strict adherence to it. But I think it’s unquestionably “the rule of robbery.” Continue reading
Naftali Bennett at Princeton
What follows are screenshots of a long message from the Instagram page of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) of Princeton University (with the Princeton/Palestine Liberation Coalition and SJP’s national and state affiliates), regarding the forthcoming visit to campus on April 7th of Naftali Bennett. I’ll write up a longer comment this weekend, but for now, suffice it to say that I agree with SJP, and wanted to amplify its message. If you click the first thumbnail to enlarge, you should be able to click directly through the whole series. Otherwise, click each thumbnail to enlarge, reading them left to right across the page.
In Defense of Mahmoud Khalil
Letter from a Palestinian Political Prisoner in Louisiana March 18, 2025
My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner. I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law. Continue reading
Engels on Social Murder
“Social murder” is a form of homicide that takes place through relatively invisible social processes involving collective rather than individual responsibility. The concept is controversial because it attributes murder to “society” while relying on an unconventional conception of murder: society intends murder, and society kills, where society is identified with a ruling class that controls the political system. What’s controversial here is that social murder kills mostly by omission rather than commission, and is perpetrated by a class rather than by individuals. Both assumptions flout the conventional understanding of the intentionality and causality of murder. Continue reading
Secure Your Own Homeland
ICE showed up at my workplace today–or rather, ICE in the guise of DHS, “The Department of Homeland Security.” The agent flashed a badge and started asking about some people with Spanish names. Did I know anything about them? I had nothing to say.
The only thing I have for ICE or DHS–the only product I can promise–is wholehearted, undying hostility. I doubt they want to hear me talk about that. So there’s nothing to say. In any case, the Homeland they’re securing isn’t mine to worry about, and the land that I live in isn’t theirs to secure. Not a promising basis for a meeting of minds–the only kind that interests me.
I opened the door this time because I didn’t know who was ringing. Next time, as far as I’m concerned, they can stand there for as long as it takes to induce someone else to open the door. I’m not the doorman. So it won’t be me.
Policy of Truth 