Ken Berwitz
The question cannot beavoided: Are University of Missouri acting president Mike Middleton and MUPDchief R. Douglas Schwandt moral cowards? Each has had adequate time to actin the matter of Professor Melissa Click, the Missouri communications professorwho assaulted a student journalist—a crime conveniently captured onvideo-before attempting to incite mob violence against him while citing herstatus as faculty to attempt to intimidate the undergraduate sheattacked.
She has not yet beencharged with a crime, but Professor Click is prima facie guilty of, at thevery least, third-degree assault, which is defined under Missouri law as “placing someone in fear of immediate physical injury”-which is what she didwith her call for “muscle” to eject the undergraduate from an open public spaceon campus-as well as “knowingly causing physical contact with another personknowing it will be considered offensive by the other person,” which she plainlydoes in the video, swatting at his face. That is an offense that comes with amodest jail sentence under Missouri law, and Professor Click should do everyday of it.
Worse, she committedher crime in furtherance of another illegal act-obstructing access to a publicspace. The University of Missouri quad would be a public space under anyordinary circumstance, but in this case a state statute specificallyguaranteeing access to the space makes that unequivocal.
As a professionalmatter, Professor Click is in violation of specific policies of the Universityof Missouri regarding violence on campus and standards of professional conduct.She should be terminated as a matter of course.
We have seeninstitutions such as the University of Virginia move with great speed to punishstudents corporately for fictitious crimes in the absence of any evidence. Herewe have a professor, incontrovertible evidence, and a police complaint filed bythe student. But no action has been taken. This isn\’t an occasion for anapology, a mandatory sensitivity seminar, or a disciplinary afternoon withhuman resources. This is a criminal assault on a student committed by aprofessor who then attempted to incite mob violence against him. She should notresign-she should be terminated, charged as a criminal, convicted, andjailed.
Does Governor JayNixon have no interest in this? Has county prosecutor Daniel K. Knight not seenthe video? Or are we to conclude that, amid all these shouts of “privilege!” state university professors with the right political affiliations are in fact aspecial protected class under the law?
