by RAY LEWIS | The National Desk
Wed, May 1st 2024 at 2:02 PM
FILE – In this Oct. 28, 2020, file photo, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey appears on a screen as he speaks remotely during a hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee on Capitol Hill, in Washington. (Michael Reynolds/Pool Photo via AP, File)
WASHINGTON (TND) — Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey appeared to throw his support behind student protesters this week as anti-Israel demonstrations take place on college campuses nationwide.
Dorsey backed posts on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Tuesday as protesters demanded universities divest from companies perceived as profiting off Israel’s war against Hamas. One user, Luke Rudkowski, posted a video showing the New York City Police Department (NYPD) entering a demonstration with a large armored vehicle.
“The level of military equipment local police have is kinda alarming,” Rudkowski captioned the post.
“This has been all over the country for over a decade,” Dorsey wrote in response.NYPD arrested more than 280 protesters at New York colleges Tuesday night, including Columbia University, where demonstrators broke into and barricaded themselves in the Hamilton Hall academic building. Dorsey also reposted several criticisms of police intervention in the protests.
One post shared by Dorsey came from journalist Dan Cohen, who said NYPD was dismantling a “righteous” demonstration against Israel.
“Billionaire Michael Bloomberg once boasted that the NYPD was his private army,” Cohen stated. “Tonight, it’s the NetanYahu PD – dedicated to stamping out a righteous student protest against the worst war criminal of this century and his genocidal regime.”
READ MORE | Columbia facilities worker tried to block student mob during break-in, photos show
An X account for talk show host Kyle Kulinski likened college student protests to Iraq and Vietnam war opposition, which he argued was justifiable despite public disapproval.
“Iraq war protesters were smeared & hated in the moment. Same with Vietnam war protesters. Today anybody with a functioning brain realizes they were 100% correct & the conventional wisdom was dead wrong,” Kulinski said. “The fact that people don’t see this is exactly what’s happening now is astonishing.”Dorsey responded, “yes.”
Dorsey also shared a post from user Caitlin Johnstone which mocked President Joe Biden’s leadership as “fascistic.”
“So glad Trump lost in 2020 otherwise we’d be seeing fascistic crackdowns on political dissent, police brutalizing protesters, tyrannical suppression of free speech, and the facilitation of racist and Islamophobic agendas,” Johnstone wrote. “That psycho would probably be committing genocide by now.”
Biden has condemned the Columbia protesters’ occupation of Hamilton Hall, with White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates telling NPR Tuesday demonstrations must be peaceful and lawful.
“Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful – it is wrong,” Bates said. “Hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America.”
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