No, Professor. Violence Against Campus Speakers is Never Justified

The hate is spinning out of control in America

Brian Tubbs
2 min readMar 28, 2023
Wayne State University’s Old Main — Del arte via Wikimedia Commons

As we mourn another mass shooting, one possibly driven by resentment, we now have a university professor suspended for a vile post in which he endorses killing (yes… killing!) any campus speaker deemed to be “racist, homophobic or transphobic.”

The author of this despicable social media post is apparently an English professor at Wayne State University. According to the university, the matter has been referred to law enforcement and the professor has been suspended “with pay” pending an investigation.

Here is the statement from Wayne University President M. Roy Wilson:

Dear campus community,

This morning, I was made aware of a social media post by a Wayne State University professor in our Department of English.

The post stated that rather than “shouting down” those with whom we disagree, one would be justified to commit murder to silence them. We have on many occasions defended the right of free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but we feel this post far exceeds the bounds of reasonable or protected speech. It is, at best, morally reprehensible and, at worst, criminal.

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