GWU Surrenders to Criminal Threats Again

WASHINGTON - Dec. 12, 2024 - PRLog -- Officials of George Washington University [GWU] have again surrendered to the threat of criminal trespass by a small group protesters - many of whom were shown not to even be GWU students - this time by erecting a permanent 12-foot high black-wire prison-like fence surrounding the central gathering area on its D.C., campus.

Following illegal protests by pro-Palestinian supporters who engaged in illegal trespassing and malicious destruction of property, GWU erected a temporary fence around its university yard, hoping to prevent additional criminal invasions, notes public interest law professor John Banzhaf of GWU.

Although no such criminal trespass events apparently occurred once the protestors were routed in April by police, this university - located in the middle of our nation's capital and a magnet for TV news cameras - has spent an amount of money they refuse to disclose to fence in the heart of our campus, complains Banzhaf.

The reaction on the Internet was immediate.  One student wrote: "I thought that the fencing in U Yard would be temporary? This new fence makes the only major outdoor area on campus look like a prison yard."  Another was similarly outraged, posting: "Stupid wall, this school is so scared of protestors."

The latter concern seems to be directly on point, says Banzhaf, who has seen his university turned virtually upside down, and embarrassed for weeks in national and even international media this spring, with law students unable to study for or take final exams in GWU's law school complex, and professors literally unable to enter their own offices.

The only reason for a huge far-from-decorative prison-like fence surrounding the university's main gathering point is fear that a tiny group of protestors will again seek to engage in criminal trespass on the Quad.

Rather than simply adopting a policy of promptly arresting those who continue to engage in criminal trespass after being warned to leave, GWU has secretly spent large amounts of money - which could have been much better spent to provide scholarships to needy students or for other academic purposes - in another very expensive surrender to criminal threats which has turned a beautiful urban campus into something that looks like a "prison yard," one of its professors complains.

So rather than adopting a simple, logical, and straight-forward policy of having any persons illegally trespassing on its promptly arrested  GWU has again surrendered its campus to a mere threat by a tiny minority that they may again try to disrupt the overwhelming majority of students by erecting tents, by making this central meeting place feel like a prison yard and not a place of higher learning, argues Banzhaf.

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