Not the Free Speech Movement

The San Francisco Chronicle yesterday published a sympathetic profile of Roberto Hernandez, the UC Berkeley miscreant who is facing university disciplinary charges over his violent behavior at a campus riot in support of Palestinian terrorism last April. Tanya Schevitz' 1,200 word profile should earn some sort of an award for salacious liberal bias in reporting. Among other things, she wrote that

Hernandez's strong feelings about the Israeli-Palestinian quagmire have gotten him in big trouble at his school, UC Berkeley

But it wasn't his "strong feelings" that got him in trouble, it was the allegation that he bit a policeman and used force to prevent other students from attending class. Schevitz describes Hernandez' case as

a battle that students characterize as a free speech issue but one that the university considers a simple matter of protecting other students' rights to an education.

One suspects that the only students who confuse "free speech" with "criminal behavior" are Hernandez and his co-conspirators. When asked about his chronic misbehavior on campus, Hernandez admitted

he is involved in a lot of campus political actions but says it is because he has been frustrated every time he has tried to work within the system. He served as a student senator on campus but found his agenda thwarted by politics and partisanship, he said.

May this great University teach Hernandez and those who would emulate him that a democratic process offers only the right to participate and speak out, not a guarantee of persuading others to adopt one's point of view.

It's not okay to commit violent temper tantrums at other students' expense. Hernandez deserves a long time-out. If the University doesn't expel him, it will only send the message that the reward for campus violence is a little inconvenience and a lot of heroic media exposure.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at November 19, 2002 06:15 AM