Updated at 3:30 p.m.
A violent “mob” attacked controversial author Charles Murray and a Middlebury College professor as they left a campus building Thursday night following a chaotic attempt at a lecture, a college spokesman said.
Professor Allison Stanger was assaulted and her neck was injured when someone pulled her hair as she tried to shield Murray from the 20 or 30 people who attacked the duo outside the McCullough Student Center, said Bill Burger, a vice president for communications at Middlebury College.
Burger said people in the crowd, made up of students and “outside agitators,” wore masks as they screamed at Murray.
Murray wrote the controversial 1994 book, The Bell Curve. A New York Times bestseller, the book sought to link social inequality to genetics. The Southern Poverty Law Center considers Murray a white nationalist.
“The demonstrators were trying to block Mr. Murray and Professor Stanger’s way out of the building and to the car,” Burger said. “It became a pushing and shoving match, with the officers trying to protect those two people from demonstrators — and it became violent.”
“This was an incredibly violent confrontation,” added Burger, who described the crowd as a “mob.”
On Friday afternoon, Middlebury College president Laurie Patton sent a statement to all students, faculty and staff describing how “deeply disappointed” she was by the incident.
“I know that many students, faculty, and staff who were in attendance or waiting outside to participate were upset by the events, and the lost opportunity for those in our community who wanted to listen to and engage with Mr. Murray,” she wrote, later adding: “I extend my sincerest apologies to everyone who came in good faith to participate in a serious discussion, and particularly to Mr. Murray and Prof. Stanger for the way they were treated during the event and, especially, afterward.”
Murray had been invited and scheduled to speak at Wilson Hall Thursday afternoon. But a jeering and booing crowd of students turned their backs on him and shouted down his attempts to speak. After about 25 minutes, administrators resorted to plan B: moving Murray to a private room and streaming the video of his speech online.
Students continued to make a ruckus as Murray spoke from the private room with occasional questions from Stanger, a professor of international politics and economics.
About half an hour after the event ended, Burger said, the two, accompanied by a college administrator and two public safety officers, tried to leave the building via a back entrance and hurry to a car. But protesters had surrounded various entrances and swarmed to the fleeing Murray and Stanger as they exited, he said.
Once Murray and Stanger were inside the car — and after Stanger had been assaulted — the crowd began jumping on the hood and banging on the windows, according to Burger. The driver tried to inch out of the parking space but the angry crowd surrounded the vehicle and tried to keep it from leaving.
Burger said someone threw a stop sign attached to a heavy cement base in front of the car. It finally got free of the crowd and then left campus.
Members of the Middlebury Police Department eventually arrived on scene, said Burger, who did not know of any arrests. He said members of the campus public safety department, who are unarmed, “put themselves in harm’s way to permit this car to leave.”
“It was a very, very dangerous situation,” Burger said.
Senior college administrators held an emergency two-hour conference call Thursday night and another meeting is scheduled for this afternoon, Burger said. The school will look into arrests and other discipline for “what were clearly violations of our policy,” both during the disruption of the lecture and the violent, chaotic aftermath, he said. Administrators plan to review video and pictures to discover who was involved.
“It’s fair to say this is consuming a lot of our time,” he said.
Stanger visited the emergency room for treatment of her injury and is now wearing a neck brace, Burger said. Murray was not injured, according to Burger.
Stanger did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Murray, who alluded to the incident Friday morning on Twitter.
“We were prepared for the disruption of event, which is why we prepared the backup plan for the live stream,” Burger said. “We were caught by surprise by the violent acts as Mr. Murray and Professor Stanger left the building.”
The Middlebury incident comes approximately one month after the University of California, Berkeley, canceled a planned lecture by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos amid violence. Some 1,500 people protested peacefully, according to the university, but approximately 150 “masked agitators” who used “paramilitary tactics, including hurling Molotov cocktails, setting fires, throwing fireworks at police, pushing barricades into windows and damaging campus and city property.” The protesters there caused approximately $100,000 in damage to the campus, the university said.
“While we have made clear our belief that the inflaming rhetoric and provocations of Mr. Yiannopoulos were in marked opposition to the basic values of the university, we respected his right to come to campus and speak once he was invited to do so by a legitimate student group,” Chancellor Nicholas Dirks said in a statement. “The violence last night was an attack on the fundamental values of the university, which stands for and helps to maintain and nurture open inquiry and an inclusive civil society, the bedrock of a genuinely democratic nation.”
Patton, the school president, attended Murray’s lecture. Some booed her as she received a large round of applause and took the stage.
Patton said she “profoundly disagree(s) with several of Mr. Murray’s views,” but attended in support of free speech on Middlebury’s campus.
“I know, from our community conversations of the last week, that there are some here who might wish to exercise their right to non-disruptive protest at Middlebury, and I wish to state, if you’d like to do so, please do,” Patton said.
Alex Prolman, who helped organize the protest against Murray’s lecture, said he is not a student but a “concerned community member.” He helped write news releases and described his role as connecting students with members of the press for coverage of the event.
“There was a plan from the students that had emerged to prevent Murray from speaking, and I think they were largely successful in that,” said Prolman, who attended the lecture.
Reached by phone Friday morning, Prolman, a Burlington resident, said he was headed to the Middlebury campus for a student meeting about next steps. He declined to say much about what happened outside the building.
“I’m still a little hesitant to comment on this at this point,” he told Seven Days.
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I guess Middlebury College, that centuries-old bastion of intellectualism and artistic tolerance, isn’t.
If the American Enterprise Institute and their nefarious Koch Overlords had conspired together for months to make speech police activists look bad, they couldn’t have topped this spectacular own goal. What a sad little mess.
The Violent Intolerant Morally Superior Ultra Left in Vermont proves itself to be no better than the Tea Party elsewhere in the country. If we don’t like what you have to say, we won’t even allow you to say it. You have no right to speak. You have no right to even be here. And we are so morally correct in our views that it’s okay for us to physically injure you.
In one week we have certain people telling a gay bar owner that he can’t name his private property bar what he wants to, and a violent mob preventing an invited speaker from speaking on a college campus. Gee, we haven’t seen this kind of conduct in Vermont since . . . John Negroponte was not allowed to speak (at his own son’s graduation) at St. Johnsbury Academy in 2006, and Ben Stein was “uninvited” to be the UVM commencement speaker because of student protest in 2009, and violent protesters on multiple occasions obstructed legally-permitted construction of a pipeline, and . . .
“Morally Superior Ultra Left”
I wonder how many of these “outside agitators” were police informants trying to stir up the crowds in order to bust the ringleaders of the protests. No matter what, I do not condone what happened here.
“I wonder how many of these “outside agitators” were police informants trying to stir up the crowds in order to bust the ringleaders of the protests.”
Wow. Police informants? To “bust the ringleaders”? Really? Just where did your mythical police informants come from? Did Trump send them? Via a secret tunnel from Washington DC to Middlebury, VT? Or did he have Bill Sessions place a call to Vlad in Russia to set up this covert operation in Middlebury? Was Mr. Murray himself part of this cabal? Or was this sting operation set up by those sneaky “Kampus Kops” at Middlebury College?
Excuse me. I should have added Paranoid Conspiracy-Theorists to “Violent Intolerant Morally Superior Ultra Left.”
“Everyone who does something I don’t want to be seen as genuine MUST have been paid to do it by my enemies.” A great example of how the far right and the far left are, in many ways, in agreement.
One of my most intellectually challenging moments as a student at Boston University 50 years ago was a debate in front of a packed auditorium between William F. Buckley, Jr. and Gore Vidal.
How sad it is that so many college students today willingly dumb themselves down as useful idiots of the left.
Maybe next time the AEI club can invite a creationist and then a climate change denier. Then again, maybe they will realize that “alternative science” is not science at all.
Just another example of Liberals denying free speech to anyone who has a different point of view. This lack of tolerance speaks to the quality of education and the immaturity of students found at Middlebury College.
Just another normal day in the life of liberals.
What fee did Murray receive for spewing his cockamamie nonsense?
I disagree with every single conclusion of Charles Murray, and I’ve been reading him for years. HOWEVER his data is very interesting AND factual. To deny him the right to speak we deny ourselves the chance to argue and educate. I hope Middlebury decides that LOTS of education is needed
Now let’s see what the President of the college does to members of that “rabid” mob. Probably nothing. Particularly the the leader who worked to incite violence.
The Lovable Left is at it again. Snowflakes on the attack. There is no freedom of idea anymore, unless they are far left ideas.
Liberalism is no different than communism or fascism. It is a violent intolerant ideology that seeks to clamp down on dissent.
Middlebury College was once known as a great College..not so much anymore..As for the “outside agitators,” I’m sure these were just the students to create more violence ..throwing weapons, yes a sign with a heavy cement base at the car is a weapon.., hitting, yanking a person head, this is called terrorists..the pres of the college Laurie Patton was “disappointed!!!! She should had been “OUTRAGE” and said students will be held accountable serverley..but they will get away with it..maybe a little tap on their snowflake wrists..I bet some of the parents are really proud of their “brats” what a waste of money to send their kids to a high price school to act like a mob and cause damage and violence..
Protest is fine, in the proper context. Disagreement is fine, respectfully conducted. Failure to listen is not an admirable academic trait. Discourtesy to a speaker is unpardonable. Better that Middlebury students listen, question, and discuss – but not prevent free discussion. AEI gets credit for bringing alternative views to campus. Middlebury students get no credit for closing their minds to those ideas. Those who do not have the advantage of attending Middlebury must ache at the thought that others treat that privilege with disdain. Appreciate what’s before you, students, and be humble. Many work very hard to afford you the opportunity for intellectual discourse.
Mr. Prichard, we’re way past that. Because Dr. Murray is a clown. He has earned his position there, because he has zero credibility as an academic–he is not one. He is paid to be a respectable shill for a racist agenda. On one hand, I feel bad for the students who have hitched their horse to him. But at the same time, theirs is a callow, but craven, move. It will advance them in the alt-right world.
The students pay to be there but the College is using their money to book a racist to speak authoritatively and from a position of power in the interest of “free speech”? That’s just plain garbage. You don’t need to pay someone like Dr. Murray to appear at a college in order to learn about his views. From the SPLC “Charles Murray, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has become one of the most influential social scientists in America, using racist pseudoscience and misleading statistics to argue that social inequality is caused by the genetic inferiority of the black and Latino communities, women and the poor.” There was nothing “academic” about this booking. There was nothing new to be learned. I’m glad the students took a stand and denied this “academic” the platform to spew hateful rhetoric in our community.
There’s a difference between free speech and granting a platform to promote a person and their ideas. Murray’s talk was ultimately free advertising for his intellectual dishonesty. I hope Middlebury does a better job of vetting speakers in the future.
The negative comments demonstrate that the “activists” have never read even so much as one paragraph of Mr. Murray’s work. He suggests that billions of dollars spent “fighting poverty” during the past 40 years has been largely wasted. The activists don’t want to talk about that. They have no useful information, no plans, no ideas, no grace and no brain — but they are determined to keep shouting just the same. In his latest book, “Coming Apart,” Murray shows that poor whites share almost every social problem with Blacks, but that recent immigrants do not. How that becomes “racist” is astonishing. It indicates the mental and moral poverty of today’s Left. In the 1980’s, Michael Harrington and Daniel Patrick Moynihan came to similar conclusions, but because they were certified Democrats, were never accused of racism.
God forbid one should actually be exposed to different points of view, eh?
Here’s a clue, kids. Critical thinking doesn’t accrue over time by digesting acceptable rhetoric. It’s honed by years of exposure to all kinds of mindsets, even those many disagree with, or find unpalatable. In fact, it can be argued that universities are the only places where this is possible, because the real world isn’t made up of classrooms and invited speakers.
These kids at Middlebury College are acting like Marxist stooges, or ironically, white nationalists with irredeemable attitudes about people. Youth — it continues to be wasted on the young.
The students are TOO INtolerant.
The faculty are TOO tolerant!
Would it ever occur to those who oppose the talk to simply leave if they don’t like it?
Of course not. That’s no fun for children.
And to think, they get to vote.
Eagerly awaiting publication of names of expelled/disciplined Middie students who were part of the mob, if investigation verifies beyond reasonable doubt that some of the thugs were Middies.
And here is the OTHER side of the story.
http://www.middbeat.org/2017/03/04/middlebury-students-college-administrator-and-staff-assault-students-endanger-lives-after-murray-protest/
According to later and more calmly reported accounts, Middlebury president Laurie Patton took a very good position — because of evidence that certain activists were planning an anti-Murray Flash Mob, Middlebury arranged an alternative venue for the speech. And so Murray was not hushed. Unfortunately, its format did not allow audience questions, so no one had a chance to challenge him — but when people set out to shut down the 1st Amendment, everyone suffers.
From the Middlebury website:
“We expect our graduates to be thoughtful and ethical leaders able to meet the challenges of informed citizenship both in their communities and as world citizens. They should be independent thinkers, committed to service, with the courage to follow their convictions and to accept responsibility for their actions. They should be skilled in the use of language, and in the analysis of evidence, in whatever context it may present itself. They should be physically active, mentally disciplined, and motivated to continue learning. Most important, they should be both grounded in an understanding of the Western intellectual tradition that has shaped this College, and educated so as to comprehend and appreciate cultures, ideas, societies, traditions, and values that may be less immediately familiar to them.”
@ Abbey Lin
The blog post you cite, written by “anonymous” Middlebury student protesters who say they felt threatened because the driver tried to inch away in the car WHILE THEY WERE JUMPING ON ITS HOOD, is entirely laughable and not “the other side of the story,” as the many other rational Middlebury students and alums who commented critically on the post show. The protesters were violent and aggressive when Murray tried to leave in his car, and now some intolerant, anti-First Amendment thugs are trying to reverse the narrative and claim that they are the victims. That blog post qualifies as Fake News and revisionist history.
NO BUSINESS AS USUAL
“If the American Enterprise Institute and their nefarious Koch Overlords had conspired together for months to make speech police activists look bad, “
I wonder who these outside agitators were and if they were even connected to Middlebury or if the enterprise group brought them in to make the lefties look bad in the comment sections.
There may or may not have been “outside agitators” there, but your attempt to deflect responsibility away from the thuggish Middlebury students and blame all the aggression on “outside agitators” won’t cut it. In the blog post cited by Abby Lin, anonymous Middlebury students admit that it was students who blocked Murray, Stanger, and Burger from attempting to leave campus. They tried to stop the three from getting into Burger’s car. They surrounded the car on all sides. They banged on the car and pushed and shoved it. They blockaded the car so it couldn’t move. And at least one of them got on the hood of Burger’s car. This much is admitted to by the students who claimed they were there and who wrote the blog post.
So here’s what should happen. These self-righteous students should do what Martin Luther King and his followers did: accept the consequences of their civil disobedience. Which means identifying themselves, acknowledging what they did, and accepting possible suspension or expulsion from Middlebury. They can go home and explain to their parents why what they did was the “right thing to do.”
“.. the crowd began jumping on the hood and banging on the windows .” Animals !
I imagine they all went back to their closets and huddled in a fetal position in their “safe space”.
So where were these protesters when Bernie Sanders embraced violent racist Al Sharpton?
Unfortunately, I need to disagree with almost all of the comments above. I do not condone violence. The students who pushed the speaker and professor should be held accountable. However, The speaker’s opinion is not just a point of interesting debate. Even if the speaker does not call himself a white supremacist, his views are the perfect fodder for their actions. And, it is clear, if you have any contact with people with brown skin at all, that it is not true. The only difference between people with different skin color is skin color and maybe a little body hair differences. There is no such thing as a separate race. I support the students who shouted him down. Middlebury should be ashamed of itself for inviting this speaker. I am Jewish. We have seen where this kind of pseudo-science goes. The current “alt-right” is just a more pallatible word for Neo-Nazi. Steve Bannon and his friends believe that Jews are not really human and should be exterminated or, at least, all move to Israel. They believe that African heritage people and, all those who are not “white” are lazy, of inferior intelligence, and should either be treated as slaves or go back to “where they came from”. Like Hitler, they believe that gay and lesbian people are subhuman and should either be “converted” or killed. They believe that women should do what men tell them to do. That is what Neo-Nazis and the KKK believe. The speaker represents their view points. This is not new academic information. Please, let Middlebury focus on relevant scientific research that can provoke real debate and bring us to improving the lives of everyone.
I must confess I am profoundly shaken by the video from Middlebury. There is no defense, no justification, for allowing mob rule and anarchy to shut down free speech- period! And that’s equally true for mobs on the right or the left. While passion may drive some to protest, that protest cannot come at the expense of the constitutional rights of others. Sunshine remains the best disinfectant when speech is tainted. Prior to this I had no idea who Charles Murray was. As a past chair of Vermont’s Human Rights Commission I flatter myself in the belief that I am no racist, but now I’m tempted to go buy this man’s book to make a point about how frustrated and shocked I am by the actions of this mob.
Middlebury is a forward thinking institution so my question is: Why would they invite someone who wrote a book over 20 years ago – a book that’s been discredited by scholars and experts based on facts, to an open forum given today’s social and political climate? There was no intended “educational” goal here. It was clearly to push an agenda. The school legitimized him and his cohorts by giving him an open forum. Bad move. Had the school made this into a “town hall” where others participated to counter his position and challenge Mr. Murray (and vice versa by the way), it would have been a much better situation and more productive…a true learning opportunity for both sides. You could have followed it with student rebuttals after the so-called experts had their time in the spot light. A clear communications and marketing strategy would have alerted the audiences of a plan to involve all points of view. Cooler heads would have prevailed. This was very poorly handled. BTW, I recommend Mr. Charles Murray so see Hidden Figureshe will learn something. The only reason why non-whites haven’t been able to show their brilliance like the non-Hispanic whites is because of oppressive practices, lack of opportunities and recognition. Hard Facts. Why don’t ANY of the history books talk about the inventions by black scientist, scholars, etc.? Because it’s not a version of history that’s convenient to non-minorities. Not because they agree with it (some do but not all), but because it just doesn’t affect them, so they have no urgency; it’s not their battle. What we should do as a people is DEMAND history books be corrected. From the start, educate kids on the real history of this country. And stop legitimizing the non-sense that pushes an agenda. Both sides are guilty.
Why does Seven Days insist on calling a mob a ‘Mob’ or a “mob”?
According to the interwebs:
mob
mb/Submit
noun
1.
a large crowd of people, especially one that is disorderly and intent on causing trouble or violence.
“a mob of protesters”
synonyms: crowd, horde, multitude, rabble, mass, throng, group, gang, gathering, assemblage
“troops dispersed the mob”
verb
1.
crowd around (someone) in an unruly and excitable way in order to admire or attack them.
“he was mobbed by autograph hunters”
synonyms: surround, swarm, besiege, jostle More
I can’t think of a more appropriate use of a word, without the ambiguity added by the scare quotes, than the current.
I find the students’ actions deplorable. So their are disagreements over opinion, Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Unfortunately this was also shown evident during the presidential campaign and after. “It is ok to have an opinion as long as it does not disagree with mine, if it does then I can act in all manner of disrespect and even resort to being a thug because they should not disagree with me.” is the mantra of a lot of these people. Then to say they were afraid for their safety, they should be sent home to their parents and disciplined like the spoiled little children they are
There are two issues here that need to be kept distinct:
— Is racist blather reprehensible?
Yes, of course.
–Was the behavior of the thugs at Middlebury reprehensible?
Yes, of course.
It is helpful to bear in mind that these are not mutually exclusive statements..
There is nothing racist in The Bell Curve. It is a huge collection of FACTS that scholars left and right have agreed upon for years. There are, however, a lot of the facts that the left and polite moderates have chosen not to speak of. Most people commenting on the book and its suggested conclusions concentrate only on racist themes. The most important thing that the book points out is that we, as a society, have gotten so good at directing high IQ people into high info requirement professions that it is difficult to find a really good carpenter or plumber today. What will happen when we get perfect at this task?
Mmm according to the news and Chief of police in Middlebury there’s no victims..the Professor, Allison Stanger hasn’t brought any charges..me think there was either a pay off or a blackmail..As I said back on Mar 3rd, these Snowflakes will get away with it..Professor Allison Stanger was assaulted as was Charles Murray..It’s getting so that the “students” are the ones in charge of the college, if things don’t go their way of thinking they turn into a riot bunch of idiots.. this is the way we think and if you don’t agree with us then we’ll knock the $hit out of you..there is nothing wrong with protesting…peacefully…acting like human beings…not like animals/fools..why are your parents dishing out big money to send you to school to act like IDIOTS..??? In all my yrs I have never seen such disgusting actions..Far as I’m concerned Alex Prolman, who helped organize the protest against Murray’s lecture, said he is not a student but a “concerned community member.He’s from Burlington, not Middlebury nor an employee of the college,, seems to me he was the lead “outside agitator” his quote “said he was headed to the Middlebury campus for a student meeting about next steps. He declined to say much about what happened outside the building.
“I’m still a little hesitant to comment on this at this point,”
GUILTY for inciting a mob???? He had A LOT to do with what happened..Charges should be brought against all the students and this Alex Prolman who’s not even a Middlebury student.. but should be charged for violence..
I’m all for hearing both sides of an argument but do we really need guy who thinks that black people’s brains are oxygen deprived because of the shape of their noses to be part of the discourse?
Danley Swildon: “I’m all for hearing both sides of an argument but do we really need guy who thinks that black people’s brains are oxygen deprived because of the shape of their noses to be part of the discourse?”?
Your contribution of that fantasy element to the discussion was certainly not needed.
Charles Murray is what dumb people think a smart person sounds like.