Protesters injure Middlebury professor escorting controversial speaker

Mar. 3, 2017, 11:55 pm by 45 Comments
Alec Fleischer, Middlebury College

Alec Fleischer, a freshman at Middlebury College, protests the appearance of Charles Murray, the author of the controversial book “Bell Curve.” Photo by Emily Greenberg/VTDigger

MIDDLEBURY — Protesters at Middlebury College injured professor Allison Stanger as she was escorting controversial guest lecturer Charles Murray from the campus Thursday. Stanger was treated at Porter Hospital for a neck injury and released the same evening.

“The act appeared to be committed by non-Middlebury students,” said Bill Burger, the college’s vice president of communications. “They were wearing masks and are believed to be from outside of the Middlebury community who came specifically to the event as agitators.”

Murray was invited to speak under the banner of the student-run conservative organization, the American Enterprise Institute Club. Murray has been criticized for his controversial work, “The Bell Curve,” which correlates race and intelligence. His more recent book, “Coming Apart,” is about class division in the United States. Murray has been labeled as a “white nationalist” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Students were disrupted Murray’s appearance by rallying in the auditorium, ultimately forcing his presentation to continue via live video stream.

“There’s what happened in the hall, which was a disruption by our students and is matter of college policy,” Burger said. “Then, there’s what happened outside, which I consider assault and could be a criminal act.”

While Burger and Stanger escorted Murray from the building, they were quickly approached by a small group of masked protesters. The group grew quickly to between 20 and 30 people. At one point, Stanger was grabbed by the hair, ultimately twisting her neck, Burger said.

Once Stanger and Murray reached a vehicle to leave, the car was surrounded. Protesters stood on the hood, banged on windows and threw a traffic sign in front of the car, Burger said.

Middlebury College public safety officers, who are a non-deputized force without weapons or authority to make arrests, were also on the scene and ultimately shoved through the mob to allow for a safe exit by the professor and guest lecturer.

By the time police arrived, Burger said, most people had scattered and no arrests were made.

Stanger, a professor of international politics and economics, was the moderator for the event and just before Murray was moved to another hall, she made a plea to protesters in the crowd to allow Murray to speak so a proper discourse with rebuttals to his claims could ensue.

“I have academic credibility,” she said.

Stanger could be not be reached for comment.

CORRECTION: Stanger’s name was originally misspelled. Also, we clarified that Burger was present during the altercation.

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Emily Greenberg

Emily Greenberg is a freelance writer in Charlotte who contributes to several Vermont-based publications. She has also written for periodicals in Washington state and New York state. Read more

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  • Paul Slobodian

    Solzhenitsyn reflects: “To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he’s doing is good.” (Gulag Archipelago). How did the students come to embody what they are protesting? An interesting topic for research: how can high IQ/high SAT students be turned into a thug/brown shirt/fascist mob? What techniques are used? This is a sincere question…..I am familiar with Middlebury and how selective the institution is.

    • Neil Johnson

      Great questions, really great questions. What standards are they held to and what exactly are they being taught? Harvard and Yale have some serious issues, 2012 survey found 42% cheat on homework. Are we creating smart criminals? Enron was run by our countries smartest and brightest, but when your focus is on money at all costs, grades at all costs…some things get lost in the teachings.

    • Doug Eisler

      Good points. But the fact of the matter is, morality and intelligence don’t always have anything to do with each other.

      • Paul Slobodian

        Doug, I agree regarding morality and intelligence. To me it is concerning that too many of the Middlebury faculty and students were so totally convinced of their moral superiority that they felt righteously compelled to shut the event down….and that too few of the other faculty and students stood up to them and asked them to back down to allow the discussion. And the connection to intelligence is relevant to the future when these students are likely (IQ is very good predictor of career advancement) to rise to leadership positions in academia, politics and business…..or perhaps their arrogance and certainty will be tempered by experience and awareness that such arrogance and certainty can lead to bad, even evil things.

        • Doug Eisler

          Yes. Over-zealousness, to put it mildly, can lead to bad things. It’s reminding me of the fevered pitch before the expanses of both communism and nazism.

    • Phil Greenleaf

      Your question is no doubt sincere but sounds like a sincerely obsequious reference to a fear of activism and wish for status quo civility. What you are seeing is mostly pure disgust with the social status quo with (in certain cases) some trained leadership.

  • Isn’t it time that the Governor and Vermont’s congressional delegation show their non-partisan support for free speech by condemning these outrageous mob actions at Middlebury?

    • James Rude

      Tom, that would be nice if they had the capacity to act in the way you hope for. But unfortunately our congressional delegation is about as partisan as it gets and they can’t see the forest through the trees of their discontent. I suspect that most of the students have not read The Bell Curve based on their rants and allegations about white supremacy, even though the book points out that the highest IQ’s come from east Asia.

    • Phil Greenleaf

      You might be right Tom – but it might be a bit quick for that. Let all the facts come out and lets not discount the pure righteousness of the mob – as opposed to the self-righteousness of Murray (and the AEI for that matter). Hate has no home anywhere!

      • J Scott Cameron

        Nice job Phil. Blame the victims.

      • Jon Corrigan

        Using ‘pure righteousness’ to define a ‘mob’ is ‘pure nonsense’.

    • Sally Cook

      Are you kidding? You might ask who is sponsoring the paid demonstrators in the ski masks? These paid agitators are moving from demonstration to demonstration. Time to unmask them. What could they have to hide?
      As for students, apparently there are no manners taught, and no discipline enforced just as in the public schools….

  • Rich Lachapelle

    In the interest of free speech, mutual respect and public safety, Americans of all stripes should learn the definitions and the differences between the following terms:
    -peaceful disagreement
    -dissent
    -civil disobedience
    -demonstrating

    -rioting
    -insurrection
    -anarchy

    At some point we need to draw a line and say what will be tolerated and what will be considered a violation of the law, and vigorously prosecuted.

  • SnoCamo

    Do consequences exist in academia?

  • GraceGershuny50

    Highly likely that the violent masked marauders were on a mission to discredit the protest. From the tone of the comments, they succeeded.

    • J Scott Cameron

      Wishful thinking. What evidence do you have to back up your speculation? The simplest answer is most likely to be true: they were there to take the protest to the next level. Professor was merely collateral damage.

    • Steve Baker

      That seems to be the narrative at many “institutes of higher learning” lately, a naïve impressionable student body and some administrators feed the flames of dissent, then Out of nowhere a mysterious group of violent masked fascist thugs show up and wreak havoc on the unsuspecting campus. Campus security, administration, local police are all caught off guard and no arrests are made.
      Missouri State
      Berkeley
      Middlebury College
      Washington University
      Dartmouth College
      Are just a few in the headlines.

    • kurt wright

      the protesters did that on their own by not allowing someone to speak.

  • Homer sulham

    Assault with personal injury resulting. Sounds like a law suit to me. I hope there is one.

  • rosemariejackowski

    There is a BIG difference between peaceful protest and violence. I know. I was arrested, Tried, and convicted for PEACEFULLY protesting the war on March 20,2003. I never injured anyone. Even the Police testified that I was very polite during my arrest.
    We need more protests and more resistance. Violence should never be tolerated.

  • Neil Johnson

    Masked people from outside of Middlebury college. Physical violence. And people are suggesting that I’m calling out the methods of Saul Alinsky too much?

    Me think not.

    White tailed deer need to know and understand wolves. Anyone with any love for country needs to understand the teachings of Alinsky.

    The difference between an Alinsky Democrat and a Kennedy Democrat is like sour and sweet. They are not the same. If you haven’t read Rules for Radicals, you are sorely uninformed. I so wish I’d read it years ago.

  • Trevor Lewis

    Goon squads completely disrupting free speech and injuring persons based on the ideas expressed in speech- or worse still, like here, injuring someone who is trying to merely escort a speaker who is trying to peaceably leave the premises, are goon squads, and it does not matter if they are right wing goons or left wing goons. I don’t buy the spokes-blatherer-apologist’s “our nice Middlebury students would never do this- it must be outsiders.” Even if the specific thugs who inflicted the physical injury might have been non-Middlebury students- it’s very clear by how completely disrupted the whole event became that the thuggish climate that ended up permeating the event very much emanated from within the Middlebury student body. Outside thugs would not feel such a degree of invitation and impunity if the inside thugs hadn’t created and fueled the climate of incipient violence. Lest anyone write me off as a neocon or something, thirty years ago I was an outspoken dissenter as an undergraduate at another university. But dissenters, most of all, should understand the hazards of a climate in which you risk serious injury for expressing your views. Middlebury should have had greater protection for the speaker and the faculty person escorting the speaker off the premises. And someone should have tased or pepper-sprayed these thugs. Looks like someone needs to form the campus free speech equivalent of the Patriot Guard Riders (who shield families at soldiers’ funerals from the “Westboro” goon squad).

  • wendywilton

    Angry mob that does not believe in free speech, except for themselves.

  • Renée Carpenter

    Keeping this article in perspective, “‘The act appeared to be committed by non-Middlebury students,’ said Bill Burger, the college’s vice president of communications. ‘They were wearing masks and are believed to be from outside of the Middlebury community who came specifically to the event as agitators.’”

    “Murray was invited to speak under the banner of the student-run conservative organization, the American Enterprise Institute Club.”

    What is the American Enterprise Institute and who funds them?

    http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Enterprise_Institute

    According to many, including George Lakoff in his seminal book, “Moral Politics,” they are one of dozens of “front organizations” established since the 80s to dismantle “New Deal” social programs developed to rebuild society after “The Great Depression.”

    As the economy polarizes and “trickles” UP–they have gained more and more power …

    THIS–and related issues of injustice–is what is behind students who honestly protested. CONTEXT is essential to each story.

    • kurt wright

      No. They shut down free speech and would not allow the debate to happen. What you want is apparently to only have a singular point of view. They weren’t simply protesting. they chilled, stifled and shut down a speaker and your question is who is AEI?? Way to divert from the real issue. there were students that wanted to hear the debate. Middlebury College officials also said it was the saddest day of their lives…and theyh were talking about the anti-free speech demonstrators.

    • Ms Carpenter,

      This is nothing more than a red herring. Everything you write is irrelevant to the students’ violent censorship of free speech. One person’s right to it does not trump another’s. All you do is simply out yourself as no better than those who will silence others. There’s your essential context, unfiltered.

      Very Respectfully,

      Telly Halkias

      https://www.linkedin.com/in/telly-halkias-75396333/

  • Renée Carpenter

    PS: Inserting the word, “Non-Student” before the word “protesters” would make your headline more accurate.

    • J Scott Cameron

      Why? Do you know who the people who committed the assault were? Bill Burger is only hopefully speculating – he doesn’t have a clue either. He wants to believe that his Middlebury students were merely violating school polices by denying their fellow students and others the right to hear alternative viewpoints, but he doesn’t know who committed the assaults.

      • Rich Lachapelle

        If law enforcement authorities had been on hand in sufficient numbers and DONE THEIR JOBS, those who engaged in the VIOLENT ASSAULT would have been taken into custody and the public may eventually find out if they had any affiliation to Middlebury College. That would be useful information that those in the College who actually saw this as a shameful display of censorship could use to clear their own students of involvement. Unfortunately, my assumption is that most Middlebury officials were proud of the “resistance effort” and the national press it garnered. Anarchy has become very chic since last fall’s election and Vermont must be seen as on the cutting edge, even if it is displayed by rich, privileged, predominantly-white college students.

  • Joe Flack

    Coming Apart is an exceptional study and read together with Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone, provides a tidy analysis of the current state of affairs in American society. Truth hurts, I guess.

  • walter carpenter

    “Non-Student” before the word “protesters” would make your headline more accurate.”

    Good point, Renée. This rioters were not students at Middlebury and either brought in or came specifically as agitators and I wonder if anyone brought them there on purpose to make the Middlebury students protesting a racist speaker look bad.

    • Steve Baker

      How do you know that? The freshman holding the sign wasn’t a student?

    • Glenn Thompson

      I have no idea what happened outside the building, but inside, those people who shouted down that speaker were definitely for the most part college aged people. You don’t think they were Middlebury students Walter?

      The fact of the matter is…..Middlebury College received a black eye and had their reputation harmed by the antics of these people. The story has spread nationwide and can be found on many major media sources. I find it astonishing the number of people out there who support these kind of tactics.

      • Rich Lachapelle

        It depends on who you speak to whether this was a black eye for Middlebury. The pervasive attitude on the typical Ummerican college campus these days is that this kind of violent protest against a speaker who does not espouse the tenets of multiculturalism or political correctness is really a feather in the cap of the institution.

    • Mr Carpenter, please support your assertions with some evidence. By all accounts—and national media have been on this for several days–these were students. Don’t let your own ideological bias reveal the same intolerance with which these misguided teenagers embarrassed themselves and their institution.

      Very Respectfully,

      Telly Halkias

      https://www.linkedin.com/in/telly-halkias-75396333/

  • Steve Baker

    I wonder where the students historical perspective has gone.
    A freshman hold a sign with the word R E S I S T… A young Lady holds a sign “F— EUGENICS” ?
    Are we resisting eugenics? Has the Resistance on American campuses become like Europe in the ’40s?
    Does anyone see the irony of this argument? These signs might have been more useful at a pro-life rally or in WWII.
    We should all know the historic origins of the resistance efforts. Look at the founders of eugenics and how it was the spring board of one of the most widely respected well funded “women’s health providers” in our country.

    My point is…Do these young adult students understand what they’re talking about let alone protesting for?

  • patricia jedlicka

    Were any arrests made or charges filed for battery? That IS a crime. Smh

    • Steve Baker

      Didn’t you notice that the police never make arrests of the liberals

      • patricia jedlicka

        Yes, I certainly have. The only feasible excuse is that they did not see the misdemeanor (to arrest it has to have occurred in their presence) and no one was willing to effect a citizen arrest (as a witness) or press charges (the victim – who frankly contributes to this mob mentality by not doing so). Oh well. Not my problem.

  • Doug Eisler

    Ahh, how open-minded and liberal of the protestors.

  • Joe Benning

    I must confess I am profoundly shaken by the video from Middlebury.
    There is no defense, no justification, for allowing mob rule and anarchy
    to shut down free speech- period! And that’s equally true for mobs on
    the right or the left. While passion may drive some to protest, that
    protest cannot come at the expense of the constitutional rights of
    others. Sunshine remains the best disinfectant when speech is tainted.
    Prior to this I had no idea who Charles Murray was. As a past chair of
    Vermont’s Human Rights Commission I flatter myself in the belief that I
    am no racist, but now I’m tempted to go buy this man’s book to make a
    point about how frustrated and shocked I am by the actions of this mob.

  • Phil Greenleaf

    Just calling for a little time and perspective on this issue. Those accusations that lefty commenters are “blaming the victims” is dripping with irony, as that is the exact coded message of Murray’s writing on welfare! Here’s a guy who went to Harvard and MIT, worked in the peace corps, then returned and began “analyzing” for the CIA and US military and took off on a career of writing about American education, human services and economics!? Unless there is some hidden US work experience on his resume he comes off lacking any credentials to even write on the subjects (not even to mention the disregard from academia), He’s just an uneasy soul bleating in a field.

    I’m not ready to totally condemn the people who purportedly assaulted Stanger just as I stated that Murray should not be banned from speaking (although it would not have been the first time). Let’s see what happens…

  • Matt Young

    Phil, I don’t think much time or perspective is necessary to condemn a group of thugs that injured a professor and broke several laws. Your suggestion that Mr Murray doesn’t have the credentials to write on certain subjects makes me wonder if you feel the same way about liberal professors who lack real world experience or a community organizer that becomes president. Again, I am not endorsing Mr Murrays opinions or writings.

    • Phil Greenleaf

      Late with the reply to this, but indeed I would challenge any professors credentials (and have). More real world experience the better. The election of that “community organizer” is another matter of course because we’ve certainly had a slew of inferiorly qualified chief executives. I’m not one to ever be impressed with POTUS’ so in this case, Obama was by far the best of the last 8. That doesn’t grant him greatness though.

      Now that the “verdicts” are emerging from Middlebury, what do you think of the result? About as I expected. Still can’t believe there was no video of the “mob” of thugs. Students were forewarned of the consequences in the student code.

  • Samuel Owen

    A little late here but… Murrays book doesn’t correlate race and intelligence.What the book is about, is CLASS and intelligence. It is racist to most people because it only includes white people in its studies. Murray felt that adding race to the factor would confuse it, so yes he’s racist. But it has a chapter on race and intelligence, and it inconclusive on that issue.

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