Chuck Those Indictments

A lively debate at "LiberalOC" between a former GOP assemblyman from California, Chuck DeVore, and blogger Chris Prevatt over whether DeVore should have been prosecuted for conspiring to disrupt a Muslim Student Union event at UC Irvine on 2007.

Prevatt argues that DeVore's plan to provoke sponsors by videotaping the event against their wishes was as egregious as the disruption of the Israeli ambassador's speech that was allegedly planned by 11 UCI students in February 2010. Thanks to Orange County DA Tony Rackauckas, the students are now under indictment and facing up to six months in jail.

The DeVore-Prevatt exchange about the technicalities of the law against disturbing or breaking up public assemblies doesn't convince me that DeVore should have gone to jail. It does makes it all the more clear that the 11 students shouldn't, either.

Tony Raukauckas's Hysterical First

Thanks to Orange County's DA, 11 Muslim students face up to six months in jail for organizing a peaceful demonstration on campus. The ACLU says it's a first.

The Whole World's Laughing

One of the 11 students charged yesterday with conspiracy to disrupt Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's speech at UC Irvine in February 2010 allegedly posted on a message board:

We will be staging a University of Chicago Style disruption of the Ambassador’s speech.

UCI's freshman comp teachers should brush up on hyphenation and capitalization. There may also be an issue for the U.S. history curriculum, because I'm assuming the young man was talking not about the University of Chicago (whose famous style guide could help with the hyphenation and capitalization) but the 1968 demonstrations in Chicago against the Democratic National Convention.

Thanks to this poor decision by Orange County DA Tony Rackauckas, unless the kids plead out to avoid having to serve up to six months in jail, our community may enjoy a spectacle not unlike the notorious Chicago 7 trial now that U.S. government officials are appearing to single out Muslims for prosecution of campus tomfoolery.

Picking On The "Disfavored"

Two Episcopalians -- my clergy colleague the Rev. Wilfredo Benitez, rector of St. Anselm's in Garden Grove, and Mike Penn, longtime lay leader at St. Paul's in Tustin -- are among the Orange County faith leaders who signed a Feb. 2 letter urging DA Tony Rackauckas not to prosecute the 11 students who disrupted Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's talk at UCI last February. They imply that Rackauckas is picking on them because they're Muslims:

As District Attorney, it is within your discretion to determine society's interests in seeking punishment of certain offenses. Over the years, there have been countless instances of non-violent protest activities during campus speeches, including at UCI, with no comparable criminal prosecution. By criminally prosecuting one set of protesters and not others, including the counter-protesters at the same event, who cursed, threatened and even assaulted the students, these indictments would be singular. Orange County citizens would understand from your office's actions that minority or disfavored groups receive a disproportionate and selective application of the law, while the integrity of the office of the OCDA as well as the justice system would be profoundly undermined....

Our vision for Orange County is that it be a place where all faith groups are treated with equal respect and due process of law, where no political viewpoint is penalized, and where all of our public officials and offices utilize their stations to promote these ends.

This One Goes To 11

Editorializing about the possibility of criminal charges by the Orange County DA against students who disrupted an on-campus speech by the Israeli ambassador last year, the LA Times is absolutely right:

Criminal charges...are not appropriate. They would be overkill, a punishment out of proportion to the offense. Is it really necessary to threaten the futures of students who engaged in a nonviolent protest that didn't, ultimately, stop Oren from delivering his remarks? These students have been punished already, in an effort to make clear the difference between legitimate protest and their unacceptable actions. We hope they've learned a lesson. Now it's time to move on.

Hat tip to Tom Tierney

Out Of The Courtroom And Back To Class

As Egyptians stand up to their authoritarian president on the streets of Cairo and Alexandria, 11 UC Irvine students may face criminal prosecution for disrupting an on-campus speech by the Israeli ambassador last February. At the Orange County DA's office yesterday, 50 people (some shown here) gathered to protest a grand jury investigation of the 11.

Ambassador Michael Oren finished his speech after the protesters were arrested. The university suspended the Muslim Student Union for a year, though the organization denied any involvement in the incident. As the Times reports this morning:

Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of UC Irvine's law school, said the issue is not about free speech or expression but about appropriate punishment.

"I don't think the D.A. should press charges, but what the students did wasn't freedom of expression," he said.

"I favor them being punished by the university because what they did was wrong," he said, adding that "university discipline is sufficient."

Chemerinsky is no enemy of free expression, so his nuance is important. You can't use your rights to deprive someone of his. That's the first irony of the Egypt comparison, since those who do enjoy the blessings of freedom must use it discerningly. A college or university campus is one place where a legitimate spokesman for a point of view -- the ambassador of a sovereign nation and vital U.S. ally definitely falls into that category -- is entitled to expect to find open minds and pointed but civil debate.

Instead, young people who may not fully appreciate the purposes of a liberal education nor the privilege of attending one of the greatest universities in the world at still-popular prices end up wasting their time and our money on street theater. When it comes to UCI, I'm not just talking about the anti-Israel club.

But criminal prosecution of student protesters sounds like a Mubarak move. Unless he has evidence that the students were up to something worse than being obnoxious, DA Tony Rackauckas and his grand jury should close the books on this case in the hope that the young people will open theirs and get back to class.