When faculty shows support for their students, it usually means offering extended office hours or writing letters of recommendation. Following a series of arrests on May 1st, the faculty at other schools need to step their game up: SUNY Buffalo law professors are trying to get their students out of jail time. From Law.com:
University of Buffalo School of Law (SUNY) faculty members are making efforts to petition the UB president to drop charges against protesters who were arrested on May 1…The faculty wrote that the administration should drop all charges because—with the one exception of an arrest for resisting arrest—all offenses charged were violations consisting of loitering (Penal Law Section 240.35), trespass (Penal Law Section 140.05) and disorderly conduct (Penal Law Section 240.20), which are classified under New York law as violations, not crimes.
Further, “it would reflect poorly on the university to continue pursuing these criminal charges which have little or no legal substance to them. Nor is doing so necessary to maintain good public order,” according to the letter.
“Reflect[ing] poorly” is a tame way to put it, as the circulating footage of the apparent arrests definitely don’t do anything to help SUNY’s image:
the events yesterday of suny purchase including my arrest only brought more people together towards the goal of disclosing and divestment. i’m so proud of this campus pic.twitter.com/ZfF8Eijrxd
— zi ✡︎ (@oofouchoww) May 4, 2024
Students of history know that protesting college students have a pretty good track record for being brave and on the right side of history. Regardless of how SUNY’s institutional response will be taken over time, it is pretty clear that the faculty were early on the “Hey, unhandcuff our students” side of the argument. This is the third time that UB’s faculty have moved to get the charges dropped against their students.
UBuffalo Law School Faculty Petition School to Drop Charges Against Protesters [Law.com]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
