All this time, I thought storming a building - any building (but then again, I could be thinking too much) - was an act of aggression, intimidation, and inherently violent.

...The riot -- which followed a months-long disinformation campaign by former President Donald Trump and his allies, who claimed without evidence that the election had been stolen through fraud -- lasted seven hours, during which approximately 10,000 people came onto Capitol grounds, with many engaging in violent clashes with officers trying to protect the building and lawmakers inside. At least 2,000 made it inside the Capitol building.

Violent clashes with police officers are bad. Weren't we all agreed on that?

I really don't see much difference other than numbers between people charging up the capital steps and what happened from sea to shining sea across the country on college campuses, from NYU and Columbia to UCLA.

STORMED THE BUILDING, BARRICADED THEMSELVES INSIDE

WE ARE NOT LEAVING, YOU DON'T SCARE US

Even if said "occupiers" are sometimes comical in their ineffectual pajama-boyishness? Their intent is obvious.

The best and brightest. pic.twitter.com/wOV6MWcxif

— J.R. Holmsted (@JHolmsted) May 2, 2024

But I guess I'm wrong. They must be coming in peace.

WHO KNEW?

I swear to God, these Progs give me whiplash. I can't keep up.

ok for the last damn time: THE OCCUPATION OF A BUILDING IS A PEACEFUL PROTEST pic.twitter.com/CGpwCSjk03

— Nathan J Robinson (@NathanJRobinson) May 2, 2024

Occupying something that doesn't belong to you, into which you were not invited, perhaps forcibly entered, and denying people who do have a right to be there entry (or exit) is what qualifies as "peaceful" protest now, according to the Current Affairs editor. 

Not insurrectiony or violent or just plain wrong. 

PEACEFUL

"Peaceful" at Columbia translates into the school requesting that New York Police Department officers REMAIN ON CAMPUS UNTIL 17 MAY, two days after graduation.

SO PEACEFUL COLUMBIA'S TERRIFIED THEY WILL BE PEACEFUL AGAIN

Now, being open-minded - trying to anyway - we are all working diligently to adapt to these new #rulez as quickly as possible. Are there limits, parameters, or things we should know before we set out on an occupational quest for cause?

Can we order in once we get there?

— tree hugging s*ster 🎃 (@WelbornBeege) May 2, 2024

Man - didn't I start getting the thous and thou shalt not right off the bat? Sean was kind enough to offer some cost-saving advice. Always helpful when you're a starving journalist here or on a student budget, although what that means at a swanky joint like Columbia, I can't begin to say.

For the record, this Robinson fellow is a progressive tool. Much like Chuck Schumer being all about protestors screaming from a Supreme Court justice's front doorsteps but not so hep on folks on his own lawn, I very much doubt Mr. Robinson would be so sanguine were one of his windows shattered or a pricey ornamental tree uprooted, whatever his given definition of allowable property damage when it's not his property.

Yes, property damage is a form of violence. Demolishing a building is okay if done legally, just like cutting someone open for surgery is okay.

— Emanuel Leisetritt (@leisetritt) May 2, 2024

UCLA "students" were pretty violent going in, judging by the video evidence. The damage they left behind is both disgraceful and heartbreaking. 

Royce Hall is UCLA’s most iconic and recognizable building, a landmark that houses a beautiful concert hall and so much more. Tonight, because of UCLA/Newsom’s selfish negligence, it lays in ruins - severely vandalized inside and outside, many millions of dollars in damage that… https://t.co/IvFfstU6NH pic.twitter.com/I1bemQPo3Y

— Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD (@houmanhemmati) May 2, 2024

The kiddies who run the student NPR station at Columbia are doing their darnedest to keep peaceful flames blazing in ardent student radical hearts. I guess they found themselves an anniversary to celebrate and embrace the memory of today.

WKCR reporting that the police attack on the occupation at Columbia tonight is 56 years to the day of a similar police attack on an occupation. Just, wow.

— Nate Holdren (@n_hold) May 1, 2024

"Police attack on an occupation" - yeah. Not incendiary at all. Plus, they get to wrap themselves in the mantle of Martin Luther King as they wave their Hamas hate flags and scream about the annihilation of Jews.

SCHWEET!

...Violence or the threat thereof is another difference. Initial demonstrations at Columbia University in April 1968 started with the threat of violence between radical students who wanted to end the university’s ties to war research during the Vietnam War and terminate a university gymnasium construction project and mostly white athletes who wanted to push forward with it. The gym had been designed for mostly Black and brown Harlem residents to enter one door and Columbia affiliates in another. Columbia affiliates also had greater access to various parts of the gym, leading residents to refer to the situation as “Gym Crow.”

...Considering the institution’s history of expansion and the uprisings surrounding the assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that took place just weeks earlier, tension was in the air. Taking the demonstration to the gym site, student activists then clashed with police in the park before returning to campus to take over Hamilton Hall, the same building where dozens of Columbia student activists in this year’s protests over Gaza were arrested on the night of April 30, 2024.

Until April 30, students were less disruptive than they’d been in the past. The encampments on the South Lawn did not prevent major functions of the university.

But after students took over Hamilton Hall, the calculus has changed. By breaking into the building and barricading themselves in, the campus activists provided administrators with even more justification to call on the police to remove them.

How so?

Officials in 1968 called city police to forcibly remove students, who had subsequently taken over four more buildings, and to make arrests. It quickly turned violent. Police charged into buildings and around campus to make arrests. In a building called Math Hall, activists, including Tom Hayden – author of the Port Huron Statement, a leftist manifesto that called on students to work against racism, imperialism and poverty – fought back. Police struck observers and activists alike with batons.

With long-standing critiques of the university in their minds, and the death of King in their hearts, Harlem residents were ready to support protesting students.

The Columbia KKeffiyeh Klan are just like Dr. King.

PEACEFUL

But Dr. King spent some time in jail for a righteous cause, as I remember. I'm not convinced that these privileged cretins will ever see a consequence, even as their "peacefulness" spooked school administrations into action.

And it’s looking like Alvin Bragg will not bring charges against the Columbia protestors and UCLA is saying the protesters “could” face charges. Meaning they will all be released without consequences. It’s a travesty of the justice system.

— bubbanotabot (@bubba1231864061) May 2, 2024

Progs and Dems don't want to aggravate their storm troops too badly with actual charges because it's looking like they're going to need them desperately this fall.

And they still have to get through another summer of love...but peacefully.

Or Republicans will pounce.