NEW CITY – Rockland County legislators have unanimously adopted a resolution affirming the right to free speech while also strongly condemning the illegal behavior as part of some protests on some US college campuses.
The lawmakers are urging students and the public to return to peaceful protests and debates while also calling on colleges and universities to provide safe learning environments for Jewish and all other students.
“The reality of what is taking place on our college campuses can’t be ignored, said County Legislature Majority Leader Alden Wolfe, the main sponsor of the resolution. “We all stand in support of the right to peaceful protest, to civil discourse on any issue, even those issues on which we may strongly, vehemently disagree. That’s the American way and quite frankly, it’s the human way.”
But he said in many cases, “that civil discourse has transformed into something much uglier. It has transformed into illegal activity, to threatening activity, to conduct that is blatantly and boldly anti-Semitic.”
Wolfe said the county legislature must “stand up for the right to free speech and also condemn conduct that is not the type of conduct that we want to see on our college campuses.”
