Proactive Heckling: Ray Kelly Shouted Down at Brown University

[marmar]

(Truthout) New York City police Commissioner Ray Kelly received an unexpected greeting at Brown University. On October 29, 2013, Kelly was slated to give a public lecture at Brown about policing titled "Proactive Policing in America's Biggest City." A group of students and community members protested his speech, decrying his support for and implementation of stop-and-frisk policing in New York City. People read from statements and made demands of the university. Some heckled. The protest was so loud and strong that Kelly's lecture was canceled.

Brown University's Doreen St. Felix penned an op-ed in The Guardian explaining why she protested Kelly. St. Felix explained that after the lecture was announced and before it started, "organizers - including Brown students and members of the Providence grassroots organization Direct Action for Racial Equality (Dare), circulated a petition demanding that the university cancel the lecture. More than 500 professors, administrators, students, workers, activists, and Providence residents signed." They also "asked that the generous honorarium set aside for the talk be donated to local organizations, like Dare, working to end racial profiling."

The university refused and continued the lecture. St. Felix was unsurprised. She added, "Discourse facilitated, legitimized and moneyed by the few in power is not true 'discourse' at all. Those who asserted themselves in protest - an organized, deliberated and strategically executed protest, to be clear - exposed the falsity of these terms."

Responding to critics, St. Felix fired back, "When did naming injustice become uncouth? … As inspiring as it was to see many members come together, the space was an important reminder of how out of touch discourse on racial issues is at Brown and throughout America." ................................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/20009-proactive-heckling-ray-kelly-shouted-down-at-brown-university