All Episodes
Previous Next
Feb. 10, 2016 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
15:21
The Sad End of the #Mizzou Student Protests
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Hi Media, can I talk to you?
No, you need to get out!
You need to get out!
No, I don't.
You need to get out!
I actually don't.
Alright!
Hey, who wants to help me get this reporter out of here?
I need some bustle over here!
He won't help me get him out!
Who's gonna help me?
Are you documenting what he's saying?
Okay, well, you need to get out!
You need to get out!
This is public property.
Yeah, I know, that's a really good one.
I'm a communication faculty, and I really get that argument.
But you need to go!
You need to go!
You need to go!
Please respect this people.
I didn't see you respecting that reporter.
Well, they very politely asked you to leave, and I'm happy to walk out with you.
No, no, I mean, they're very politely.
Come on, man, just go.
You can go.
You're looking at the colours.
Can you leave?
Coffee!
Coffee!
You can go.
You can go.
You need to go now.
We are asking you.
Get in here.
Get in here.
This dude where he is trying to record.
I'm allowed to do that.
Where's the police?
The police cannot do anything about that.
Well, you have to leave.
Everybody else is going to go.
Oh, my God.
You're not getting anything out of being here, bro.
But you really aren't getting anything out of being here.
Come on now.
Let's go home with everyone else.
Everyone else is there with you.
And don't let him.
Personal property.
What am I in trouble about?
We're in between.
We gotta let this guy out.
You guys need to make room for this guy to come through.
He shouldn't be in here.
And don't let him back in.
That extended intro was to remind you who Melissa Click is, the apparently self-appointed Gestapo officer during the 2015 student uprising in Mizzou.
I thought I'd do a final video about this anti-free speech activist to really just tie a little bow on the whole thing and show you exactly how it all played out.
So after calling in some muscle and forcing student reporter Mark Schreibecker off of the campus, Click has been charged with a criminal offence, specifically third-degree assault, and faces up to 15 days in jail.
Click pleaded guilty to assault and has now been suspended from her position at the University of Missouri.
Mark Scheibecker, the man recording the video featuring Click, said, Although my video might seem to pin free speech issues on an individual, Click's actions reflect a broader problem that students and journalists are facing on college campuses.
I don't want anyone to assume that because the city is dealing with her criminal behavior, that this problem goes away.
And I'll show you exactly what he means.
Anyway, Melissa Click was sentenced to a whole 20 hours of community service and promised to stay out of trouble for a year in return for deferred prosecution on the misdemeanor third degree assault charge.
Because for some reason the patriarchy is prepared to go easy on her.
But the thing is you have to understand, we've got it all wrong.
According to student activist group ConcernedStudent1950, they issued a statement in support of Click, of course, calling her a victim of social and political violence.
You need to get out.
I actually don't.
Alright.
Hey, you want to help me get this reporter out of here?
I need some bustle over here.
He won't help me get him out.
No.
And don't let him back in.
Yeah, that was very convincing.
I don't think you're full of shit at all concerned student 1950.
I don't think there is in any way any kind of bullshit coming out of your mouth there.
That's completely true.
She is a victim.
A victim who's busy organizing a squad of muscle to muscle ounce a student reporter for daring to film what was going on.
A poor, poor victim.
Don't forget the white knights that wormed their way out of the woodwork as well.
Missouri Prof went too far.
The prosecutor has to.
Oh god, won't somebody think of the victim?
The behavior of University of Missouri Assistant Professor Melissa Click on November the 9th was disgraceful.
But as uncomfortable as I am with the idea of a communications department assistant professor creating controversy by displaying an arrogant disregard for the freedom of the press, which you would think is something that would make you massively uncomfortable, in fact, so uncomfortable that maybe you would support prosecuting that person since they have actually broken a law.
But instead he's even less comfortable with the idea of the prosecutor using the cold letter of the law to play a role in resolving that controversy.
Fire Melissa Click, okay, but charge her never.
Why?
Don't you want to prevent people from doing this again in the future?
She should be charged.
But the thing is, this has all turned Click into a civil rights martyr, according to student activists who have absolutely no idea what their civil rights are.
This is the Concerned Student 1950 statement in full, and I'm going to read it out to you because it's just fucking batty.
White supremacy is on the hunt for social degradation once again.
It's unfortunate that Melissa Click has become the victim of social and political violence.
Click is a white woman, professor and ally, who supported historically marginalized students at the University of Missouri during a time when students were exposing the institution for preserving racism.
The University of Missouri system is devoting time to tarnishing Click's career instead of dismantling the oppressive, racist social system it perpetuates.
The University of Missouri system refuses to include all students, faculty and staff in the what should be election process of our new system president.
The problem in this situation is not what Click did in November the 9th, 2015.
The problem is what she and who she stood for.
Marginalized students, specifically black students.
Historically white allies who supported the civil rights movement often experienced violence or the threat of violence.
For example, in 1965, Jonathan Daniels, a white male and civil rights ally, was murdered by a white supremacist while protesting Ruby Sales, an African-American civil rights activist.
In that same year, Viola Greg Luzio, a white woman and civil rights ally, was murdered by members of an American terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan.
One would think that society had learned from its evil past.
However, those who wish to perpetuate oppression would rather utilize power and influence to label Klick as a criminal, instead of dismantling the white supremacist patriarchal capitalism within the University of Missouri system.
Fucking what?
The University of Missouri system has yet to announce a plan to dismantle institutional racism.
The University of Missouri-Columbia has not illustrated any urgency to address Concerned Student 1950 list of demands.
The board of curators has consistently ignored the analysis of shared governance and the importance of including students on the presidential search committee.
If the University of Missouri system wishes to become an anti-racist institution, it must establish a critical racial justice campaign and begin a new tradition of shared governance, increasing the number of black faculty, increase the number of black health professionals, and develop a comprehensive plan to recruit and retain black students.
We will remain committed to ensuring our demands are met by any means necessary.
So well done, Concerned Student 1950.
I think this is actually you declaring yourselves to be a terrorist organization.
These are the people that Melissa Click was supporting.
These are the people who actually think they are experiencing state oppression at the moment.
I mean, they honestly think that this is what the state will do because they are so fucking coddled that they don't understand that if they were experiencing state oppression, they would probably all be dead or in jail.
You know, I think we should meet some of the hysterical anti-racists from the Concerned Student 1950 group and see them supporting Melissa Click because I mean they have a hashtag.
They have a really, really unpopular hashtag.
Hashtag stand with Melissa Click.
Because if the curators can suspend one professor without due process, they can suspend any professor.
Oh, so now you care about people's rights.
Now you're interested in things like due process.
I mean it sounded to me like she got due process when she was in the court being judged based on her actions that there is video evidence of.
But now it's a really important thing and you know we can't just have them suspending any professor.
Like we can't just have them exiling any journalist from a public space can we?
Don't forget to grab one of the I Stand with Melissa Click badges to show your support as you go through this person's office.
I mean there are loads of them left so don't don't be shy.
Take two.
Remember to sign the petition as well.
You know the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy is oppressing Melissa Click and we need as many signatures as possible to make sure that everyone knows we're against it.
I mean we're almost at a thousand.
Almost at a thousand.
What happened to Melissa Click was such an injustice.
We are going to burst into faculty meetings and obstruct them and interrupt them and really do proper activism.
Concerned student 1950 activists staged protests around the University of Missouri campus on Thursday in support of Melissa Click, even interrupting a meeting of the UM System Board of Curators.
The protesters shouted their demands at the meeting, which include programs to increase retention rates for marginalized students and to increase the amount of black faculty on the Mizzou campus to 10% by the 2017-2018 school year.
Afterward, they began chanting, if we don't get it, shut it down.
One student said, I stand with Melissa Click because she stood by her morals, which apparently involve infringing on the rights of others.
While another asked rhetorically, how would you feel if you went somewhere and nobody looked like you?
I don't know.
I'm not like a giant racist.
I don't think I'd care all that much.
Why do you care so much?
When reporters were abusing us and overstepping, Melissa was there to protect us.
Okay.
Okay, so video evidence I think is the best evidence because it shows you exactly what happened at the time.
There's no room for misinterpretation with it.
It's not one person's memory against another person's, which in this case is clearly, clearly not accurate.
So let's have a look at the video footage of our student activists and see exactly how oppressed they look.
I stand with Melissa Click because she found the protection of the students more important than a paycheck.
You see, I'm skeptical of Melissa Click because I think she thought she wasn't going to be punished for this.
I think if she thought she was going to be punished for this, she would have probably acted a little less tyrannical on camera.
I shout with Melissa Click because she knows that just because the media has to make a deadline doesn't mean that they can disrespect stories, narratives, and communities.
Holy fuck, what is with this entitled expression?
And the one next to you, look at that entitled face.
I am entitled to my story and my narrative and my community being respected.
But what if your narrative is false?
What if you have made it up?
Why should the media respect that?
Why should anyone respect that?
False narratives are lies, darling.
You can sit there and give me the, I expect you to cater exactly to my feelings because I'm an entitled woman and I deserve that.
But unfortunately, not everyone's going to do that.
I'm especially not going to do that.
A human being.
You.
Consider yourselves judged.
How dare you not live up to our expectations?
I stand with Melissa Click because she tried to give us our human right to privacy when it was violated.
What kind of retard thinks they have a right to privacy in a public space?
Just out of interest.
I mean, I'm not saying you're a retard.
You might be.
I mean, you're standing here complaining about your lack of a right to privacy in a public space, and you think Melissa Click infringing on someone else's rights to apparently enforce this is a good thing, but that doesn't necessarily make you a retard.
I stand with Melissa Click because she understands how the First Amendment works.
If that's true, doesn't that make her actions of handing out student journalists from recording in a public space worse than if she didn't know that what she was doing was wrong?
Ignorance is no defense, but surely it would be better for her to have not known that what she was doing is wrong rather than just making the willful act of deciding to choose an illegal and wrong act.
Just some food for thought pudding.
I stand with Melissa Click because, unlike that reporter, she has respect for us.
Does she though?
Because it kind of seemed like she was ordering you guys around to do her bidding.
It kind of looked like this was, I don't know, almost like a power play for her, and you people are useful idiots, you know?
I mean, maybe I'm misreading the situation.
Maybe, maybe I don't really understand what's going on, but really, it looks like you're a bunch of entitled whiny children who haven't yet grown up, and you've been brainwashed by some woman who thinks that she's going to receive some sort of honours from, I guess, you guys for ordering you around and telling you, teaching you, that the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy is holding you down, even though you're out of the university.
Even though you are so entitled, you think, to go and storm a board meeting of the university, because your issues are more important than anyone else's issues.
No one else on this university has a bigger issue than you guys.
Which, to me, really that sounds like privilege to me, to think that if I would think I was more important than other people, I would think I was a privileged person.
You know, and I'm just saying it just really seems that they, you know, the white professors are teaching black kids how to be unhappy and miserable and to be prisoners in their own minds.
I mean, look how unhappy these people seem to be.
And what are they doing?
They're rallying for the person who put these ideas in their fucking heads.
I'm pretty sure that this is the end of the Mizzou saga, and it's just sad.
It's just really sad.
A bunch of whiny children who really have got these ridiculously grandiose ideas in their heads, not realizing that it's the free society that they live in that allows them to act this way, that supports this going on.
In 10 years' time, they're probably going to look back on this footage and cringe.
▲
Export Selection