Julie Burchill of The Spectator has coined a brilliant term for describing the current trend at colleges and universities of persecuting dissenting opinion. She writes:
This is the age of the Cry-Bully, a hideous hybrid of victim and victor, weeper and walloper. They are everywhere, these duplicit Pushmi-Pullyus of the personal and the political…
We’ve seen cry-bullies on the campus of Yale, responding absurdly to debate over “offensive” Halloween costumes. We’ve also seen cry-bullies drum University of Missouri President Tim Wolfe out of his job for failing to create “safe space” for their delicate sensibilities.
That’s bad enough. But now matters have crossed a line. Campus police have put out a statement encouraging students to report “hurtful speech” to law enforcement. They write in a campus email:
To continue to ensure that the University of Missouri campus remains safe, the MU Police Department (MUPD) is asking individuals who witness incidents of hateful and/or hurtful speech or actions to [contact the police]…
… While cases of hateful and hurtful speech are not crimes, if the individual(s) identified are students, MU’s Office of Student Conduct can take disciplinary action.
So the police at the University of Missouri now serve as the enforcement mechanism of campus speech codes. If cases of “hateful and hurtful speech” are not crimes, why involve police at all?
The cry-bully epidemic is completely out of control. Missouri legislators should threaten to defund the university unless or until adjustments are made to uphold the constitutional rights of students and faculty.
