CU instructor Whitmer still facing assault charges?

Looks like the assault complaint filed with CU cops by Boulder Daily Camera reporter Heath Urie after he was forcibly ejected by ethnic studies instructor Ben Whitmer and another goon from a free class taught by Ward Churchill is still alive. The Campus Press:

Ethnic Studies instructor Benjamin Whitmer, who was involved in a classroom incident on Oct. 2 at the unsanctioned class being taught by ex-Professor Ward Churchill, maintains that there is no truth in the accusations against him.

On Oct. 2, Daily Camera reporter Heath Urie entered the classroom where Churchill was teaching his unsanctioned class organized by CU students. According to Churchill, Urie was repeatedly asked to leave the classroom and eventually was escorted out by Whitmer and another individual. Urie then called CUPD and filed a report of the incident.

"Urie can claim whatever he wants," Whitmer said in an e-mail sent to the Campus Press on Oct. 4.

While Urie has declined to comment on specifics of the story, he does believe that the investigation by CUPD will vindicate him.

"The police report is the accurate version of what happened," Urie said.

Furthermore, Urie denies that he meant to cause a scene with his actions.

"I don't think that any of us want to become the subject of our own stories," Urie said.

Whitmer said he firmly believes that since the class is run by students, he had every right to ask Urie to leave.

"These classes are organized by the students, and the students have every right to dictate who's allowed inside," Whitmer said.

So why did they use an instructor as enforcer?

Churchill, who was just beginning to lecture at the time, said that when Urie entered the room, Whitmer put a hand up to stop him and Urie ran into Whitmer's hand.

Ran into his hand. Classic.

"He was agitated, loud and disruptive, maybe even threatening," Churchill said.

Oh, that's believable coming from you, Wart.

Churchill does not believe that what Whitmer and the other individual did constitutes assault, but he did suggest that Urie's actions could be construed as trespassing and intrusion. He agreed that Urie had the right to ask to be admitted, but believes that Urie had no right to enter the room after being asked to leave.

"I'm here as a volunteer, I have a prerogative to say who I want to talk to," Churchill said. . . .

At the beginning of class on Oct. 9, he posed the following question to his students:

"Is anyone here so afraid of the judicial system that they will not be a witness if this case goes to trial?" No one in the classroom said they wouldn't defend Whitmer.

Now there's a surprise. The true believers will lie for Ward.

The investigation into Urie's report is still ongoing. According to CUPD Detective Brian Jordan, in a story reported on Oct. 3 by The Campus Press, Whitmer and the other individual Urie identified in his report could potentially face charges of 3rd degree assault and harassment. Jordan believes that Whitmer's account of what happened is not very realistic.

Not very realistic.

"This is a pretty extreme perspective," Jordan said in the story, referring to Whitmer's comments he posted on his blog.

Oh goody, didn't notice the first time around that the cops know about Benjie's blog. That'll make him popular with them. Might be time for Churchill's dog to call David Lane, see if he has room for another pro bono case.

The university's policy on the use of university facilities has very clear rules on who can and cannot be allowed to attend private functions. Section V of that policy defines the rules for open meetings:

"Those who qualify to schedule the use of university facilities may set their own policies concerning opening or closing their scheduled activity to the public and news media, and such policies shall be stated at the time of scheduling. If such scheduled activities are closed to the public, they may be open or closed to the news media at the discretion of the sponsoring user."

But, of course, they never stated their policy at the "time of scheduling." This is something they've pulled over and over again, all the way back to the pathetic "teach-in" last February when Benjie called the cops to stop a videographer from recording the event.

Update: PB, with his flair for--well, I'm not sure what his flair is for, thank God--is calling the ill-fated classroom confrontation between the reporter and the instructor, "The Genocide of Benjie's Hand."

Update II: the dress-for-success types at the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement have posted their take on the Denver Columbus Day protest. Fun quote:

A white-trash blogger or similar scum were in the protest crowd trying to stir up people. RAIM-D members and others confronted them many times. RAIM-D did its share of agitation to give balance to the regular liberal sentiment and chants. RAIM-D is tired of the lame “hey hey ho ho chant fill-in-the-blank has got to go” and tried to mix it up a bit with “down with all settler states, down with the united snakes.” Many asked us to tone it down, but many others appreciated our efforts.

Update III: At the blog Intellectual Conservative, Richard L. Cravatts contrasts the reaction at UC-Davis to a proposed speech by former Harvard president and ostensible sexist pig Lawrence Summers (horrified) and the welcome given to actual anti-semites like Norman Finkelstein and Ward Churchill (who will give his "Zionism, Manifest Destiny, and Nazi Lebensraumpolitik" speech there November 1):

Both Finkelstein and Churchill serve a purpose for the Leftist academics on American campuses who profess an adoration for academic free speech, even speech that those with normal sensibilities and intellect would find repulsive, vitriolic, outlandish, anti-American, and sometimes nearly seditious. In their zeal to prove how open they are to “diversity” of thought, campuses welcome these academic charlatans who need not exercise restraint in their fulminations as long as they attack those institutions and ideals already reviled by liberals. So on a campus where the former president of one of the world’s leading universities — a true intellect with a prodigious record of academic and professional achievement — is not welcomed because he dared question prevailing liberal thought, vitriol-spewing academic charlatans are given open invitations without a whisper of dissent from the same University’s administration and faculty.