The student shout-down of Ray Kelly at Brown University was bad enough. Even worse is the mixed message the school has been sending since.
On the one hand, university President Christina Paxson rightly called the protestors’ actions “indefensible.” This week, she announced steps to determine what happened, how to prevent it from happening again and whether Brown students might be referred for discipline.
On the other hand, the same statement says she “empathizes” with those objecting to stop-and-frisk and racial profiling (as if this were a fact of NYPD practice). It expresses no empathy for the views of Kelly and the minority communities he protects — only that “deeply upsetting” voices must be heard.
Message: When a cop comes to campus, politely hold your nose.
On top of this, at the university forum Paxson called to discuss the protest, the professor who invited Kelly apologized for having done so. And as for punishment, the university says there is a process for students to go through. We’ll see if they do.
In the meantime, the minimal action that would strip the thugs of their triumph would be to have Kelly back. Brown says it has no plans to do so. Let’s see if the big New York businesses whose foundations contribute so heavily to Brown — from Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase to Metropolitan Life — will stand up for their police commissioner (and the employees, customers and neighbors he and his cops protect) by asking that Kelly be brought back to Brown to be heard.