[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 74 (Tuesday, April 30, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S3069]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Protests

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I would like to begin today by saying a 
few things about the protests at Columbia University.
  Smashing windows with hammers and taking over university buildings is 
not free speech--it is lawlessness--and those who did it should 
promptly face the consequences that are not merely a slap on the wrist.
  Free speech, discussion, and even strong disagreement are fundamental 
American values, and campuses should be places where those values are 
cherished. Campuses cannot be places of learning and argument and 
discussion when protests veer into criminality, and those who commit 
such acts are doing nothing to convince others that their cause is 
just.
  It is also unacceptable when Jewish students are targeted for being 
Jewish, when protests exhibit verbal abuse, systemic intimidation, or 
glorification of the murderous and hateful Hamas, or the violence of 
October 7.
  As I said in my speech here on the floor last November and many times 
since: That is anti-Semitism. It is loathsome. It is unacceptable.