A university abruptly has deleted its commitment, posted online, to constitutional free speech after some students insulted police officers filling out arrest paperwork, and the officers demanded they be cited for “interference.”
The situation developed at the University of Dayton, according to a report from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
The organization contacted the school about its online commitment that students enjoy “the full expression of their thoughts, positions, and opinions on all contemporary and intellectual issues,” because school officers “subjected students to interrogation in direct retaliation for the students’ criticism of police.”
That activity, of course, is protected by the First Amendment, FIRE reported.
“And when UD police officers engage in law enforcement, the First Amendment restricts their actions just like any other law enforcement official. What’s more, at the time of the incident, UD maintained clear speech promises – freely available to read on its website – that prohibited it from imposing punishment for protected speech,” the free speech organization documented.
But when contacted about the officers’ retaliation for protected speech the school repudiated its commitment to rights, calling the online posting an outdated policy that only remained on the site because of a “clerical error.”
The FIRE explained, “On Sept. 2, 2023, students in a house just off campus saw UD officers on their block filling out post–arrest paperwork and started shouting at the officers from their window with (admittedly crude) criticisms of the police. Rather than continue their work, two of the officers walked up to the house, knocked on the students’ door, and demanded the students in the house produce their identification, saying they would refer them for university discipline for ‘interference.'”
The fact that such criticism is constitutionally protected “did not matter to the officers…,” the report said.
The report noted that when confronted, one student pushed an officer, which is not acceptable.
“But the entire encounter never should have happened at all. First Amendment and free speech principles leave no room for police to originate a confrontation with students over wholly protected expression,” the group said.
The school ignored concerns about the officers’ retaliation to speech “and ignored that the First Amendment applies to all police officers acting under color of state law, even at private institutions.”
The report said students there should “beware” of the school’s anti-speech ideology.
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