Charges Filed Against Prof Who Attacked Pro-Life Teen
Professor Mireille Miller-Young, who recently assaulted a pro-life teen on a college campus and stole her sign, is now facing formal charges.
Eric Owens of The Daily Caller provides an update.
Charges for prof who claimed ‘MORAL RIGHT’ to censor, batter 16-year-old abortion foe
The district attorney in Santa Barbara, Calif. has formally filed charges against the University of California, Santa Barbara professor accused of stealing a graphic anti-abortion sign from two abortion protesters, then assaulting one of the protesters (a 16-year-old girl) and destroying the sign.
The professor, Mireille Miller-Young, faces counts of theft, battery and vandalism, reports the Santa Barbara Independent. All of the charges are misdemeanors.
Miller-Young, a several-months pregnant feminist studies professor who specializes in queer theory and pornography, is scheduled to appear at an arraignment on April 4.
The incident leading to the charges occurred on March 4 in a designated “free speech zone” on the UC Santa Barbara campus.
Earlier this week, the UCSB police department released its official crime report concerning the incident.
“In essence, Miller-Young told me that she felt ‘triggered’” “in a negative way” by graphic images on the anti-abortion poster and on anti-abortion literature demonstrators Thrin Short, 16, and her 21-year-old sister, Joan, were handing out.
The two sisters are members of a Riverside, Calif.-based pro-life group called Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust.
Miller-Young said she felt the protesters had no right to be on the UC Santa Barbara campus “because the poster was upsetting to her and other students.”
The professor and a small army of female vigilantes “began demanding that the images be taken down.” When that tactic failed, Miller-Young said, she “just grabbed” the sign “from this girl’s hands.”
“Asked if there had been a struggle, Miller-Young stated, ‘I’m stronger so I was able to take the poster.’”
Charges for prof who claimed ‘MORAL RIGHT’ to censor, batter 16-year-old abortion foe (The Daily Caller)
Comments
I might head up there to check out the action…
https://www.countyofsb.org/da/msm_county/documents/MireilleMillerYoung.pdf
I wonder what she thinks of the BDS crowd.
First, why does UC Santa Barbara have to have a “free speech zone,” doesn’t the US Constitution’s first amendment apply everywhere on campus? If they are restricting first amendment rights on parts of the campus, shame on them. Liberal campuses don’t seem to believe in first amendment rights.
Second, whatever Miller-Young’s politics may be, she had no right to go beyond speech and engage in self help and a charged battery. I’m pro-choice, not pro-life, but deplore what she did, well outside the bounds. Free speech is as important for those we disagree with as for ourselves. As Thomas More says in A Man for All Seasons,”I would give the devil benefit of law, for my own sake.” We must stand up for the free speech rights of all — Pastor Neimoller (German cleric who opposed the Nazi but only late in the game) said that “When they came for the Jews, I did not speak out, I wasn’t a Jew. When the came for me, there was no one left to speak for me.”
I teach part time at UC Irvine and have gotten involved in campus anti-Israel events not only to observe, but to film, document and participate in the q and a. Since I am pro-Israel, pro-American and detest anti-Semitism, I have challenged the various speakers who come to our campus. Occasionally, heated words are exchanged, but as a teacher, I take care not to get in heated exchanges with students.
If the charges are accurate, this teacher crossed the line in getting involved in such a manner with a student (or one who appeared to be a student). You will never win the minds of the students who see these things by such actions. It is unprofessional and gives a black eye to UCSB.