Updated on Saturday, February 15, 2025.
On January 30, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to, "Combat Anti-Semitism." This Executive Order reads in part:
- Deport Hamas Sympathizers and Revoke Student Visas: “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”
While I understand that many people will scream that this is violative of the First Amendment, they need to be reminded that the protections afforded by the First Amendment are not absolute. Many of these protesters have crossed the line from protesting to criminal activity. And, many protesters have also engaged in speech that is not protected, such as: true threats, incitement, fighting words, and harassment. In short, these protesters (as a whole) have behaved so poorly that I applaud President Trump's Executive Order to curb their behavior.
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For more than a month now, people have been protesting the war in Gaza, with most of these protests having been on university campuses. I have had the opportunity to photograph these protests on two University of California campuses -- Davis and Berkeley.
While I am a staunch supporter of the First Amendment, many of these folks have taken it way beyond what is protected speech. Assault, battery, trespassing, burglary, vandalism, violating campus policies (disrupting graduations, disrupting classes, disrupting exam weeks, blocking bus stops, illegal camping, etc.) have crossed the line from protected speech to criminal activity.
While photographing the protest at UC Davis, I was hit with an umbrella, had many other umbrellas, hands, and other objects shoved in my face and in front of my camera. I had one "security" guard (who happened to be an unlicensed security guard) shine a bright light into my eyes. They tried to harass and intimidate me by following me in a public place. The whole ordeal has left me with a very negative view of these protesters. Most of them have covered their faces because they know they are committing crimes and violating campus rules. In short, they are scofflaws who cowardly hide behind masks and fences; many of them are completely ignorant as to what and why they are protesting.
The website CANARY MISSION has created a database of many of these dangerous individuals. Click here to visit CANARY MISSION's searchable website.
Follow the link for more photos.
https://www.stevewindham.com/portfolio/photojournalism/gaza-protests/
