Q&A – Who’s Behind the Illegal Student Protests in Florida?
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Today’s Entry: Brian, I’m glad that DeSantis and college admins across the state have been strong on the student protests so they haven’t gotten out of hand like at other schools. What I haven’t heard is anything about the status of the USF arrests. How many were students, were outside agitators brought in, etc. I’m wondering if the paid professionals didn’t attempt to come here because Florida isn’t a soft target or if they did and were headed off.
Bottom Line: Perspective is always key, and your question provides a good opportunity to start with a heavy dose of it. A couple of weeks ago when the college protests were significantly ramping up Governor DeSantis said this: At places like Columbia and Yale, Hamas protesters rule the roost, and the universities are too weak and scared to do anything — even as these mobs harass Jewish students and faculty. If you try that at a Florida university, you are going to be expelled. Those strong words probably did go a long way as far as setting the tone for would be activists on college campuses. No doubt the recent warning by the University of Florida did too when this statement was issued: Prohibited activities result in a trespassing order from [the University Police Department] (barring them from all university properties for three years) and an interim suspension from the university. By Friday there had been illegal antisemitic protests on over 70 college campuses, across 34 states, resulting in the arrests of over 1,700 people. Florida is the third largest state so it’s to be expected that if there’s a national movement, there are going to be those who were going to attempt it here as well. And they did but they didn’t get very far.
As of the weekend, there had been 19 arrests of illegally protesting students on Florida’s college campuses. That’s comprised of ten who were on the University of South Florida campus and nine on the University of Florida campus. All were booked and jailed for at least a short time. Those charged with felonies still were as of Friday. Florida’s population is about 7% of the national population so with only 1% of the arrests for illegal antisemitic protests, deterrence seems to have played an important role in keep the worst actors at bay. As for who was/is behind these protests in Florida...
The University of South Florida protests were led by three radical groups: Students for a Democratic Society, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and the USF Divest Coalition (an unsanctioned student organization on the USF campus). All three are left wing organizations with antisemitic stances with the two national organizations also containing socialist ties. The two national groups have chapters within the state and sought to activate them in Florida as they had across the country. Here’s what we know based upon who was arrested.
At the University of South Florida only four of the ten arrested protestors were students. Notably most of the illegal protestors weren’t affiliated with the University of South Florida including the 39-year-old protestor illegally posing a firearm. The story was a bit different at the University of Florida.
The leading organizer of the illegal protests was a student organization at UF: The Young Democratic Socialists of America. As a result, most of the arrests at UF were students. Of the nine arrests, only two were outside agitators and the outside agitators weren’t the type that we’ve typically seen across the country. One is a local Amazon employee and the other a Target employee.
Based on what we’ve seen the combination of the state’s proactive messaging, and UF’s specific messaging, it would appear most of the professionals focused efforts in locations outside of Florida where they thought they’d have the most success. As for the students who were arrested, all are suspended indefinitely pending legal proceedings, with expulsion on the table pending the outcome of those proceedings. In the case of the UF students, a minimum three-year suspension has already been issued.
The biggest takeaway in Florida from all of this for parents is to be mindful of radicalization on college campuses. As I highlighted last week: The College Democrats of America, the official affiliation of the Democratic Party on college campuses, officially endorsed the antisemitic protests on college campuses. In other words, the Democrat Party itself on college campuses is currently radicalizing haven broken with the national party over the Israel-Hamas war. That for me is the biggest takeaway from what’s happened in Florida since the onset of the protests.