USA Today Columnist Urges Motorists To ‘Run Down’ Protesters On North Carolina Highway

[Valin]

HuffPo:

Twitter suspended the account of Glenn Reynolds after the inflammatory comment.

Ed Mazza

Sept. 22 2016

 

Conservative USA Today columnist and University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds caused an uproar on Twitter when he urged motorists to drive over protesters blocking a highway in North Carolina.

 

“Run them down,” Reynolds, who also produces the Instapundit website, tweeted late Wednesday with an image of the protesters on I-277.

 

Twitter suspended the account, but The Huffington Post preserved a screenshot of the tweet:

 

 

 

(Snip)

 

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On The Off Chance This "Fact Based" Article Is Not Enough...Go To The Comments......

 

 

[Valin]

Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, Reacts To His Suspension By Twitter

 

Audio

 

HH: I’m now joined by my longtime friend, law professor at the University of Tennessee, Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, who has for 15 years been at the forefront of internet free speech, who is now himself the victim of censorship by Twitter because of a tweet that he put out two nights ago. Glenn Reynolds, welcome, Professor, good to have you.

 

GR: Hi, good to be here.

 

HH: What happened?

 

GR: Well, you know, I actually tried to figure it out. I woke up and just found out my account was suspended, and didn’t know why and couldn’t find an email from them. It’s apparently a tweet I put up last night. They had a thing about how protestors were stopping traffic and surrounding vehicles on the interstate, and I said, perhaps a little too pithily, but it is Twitter, run them down. And apparently, that’s why, I don’t actually know that’s why they did it. but I assume that’s why they did it, because that’s what everybody’s talking about. I’ve heard nothing from Twitter.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Instapundit Triumphant: Glenn Reynolds Censored From Twitter, Responds, Gets Reinstated
By Tyler O'Neil
September 22, 2016

 

(Snip)

Instapundit.com @instapundit

Twitter has unblocked my account on condition of deleting the offending tweet. I've done so, but it's here:: http://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2016/09/22/whoohoo-censorship-free-speech-advocate-and-well-known-conservative-instapundit-suspended-on-twitter/ …

 

9:07 AM - 22 Sep 2016

[righteousmomma]

He only said what many of us were thinking or saying when thugs were surrounding, climbing on and vandalizing cars in the middle of the freeway. Scary time.

[Valin]

Under investigation
Scott Johnson
Sept. 24 2016

(Snip)

Glenn must also be the most distinguished member of the University of Tennessee (Knoxville) Law School faculty, so the University of Tennessee was yet to be heard from. Law school dean Melanie Wilson announced:

University administrators, college faculty, and I are investigating this matter.

The university is committed to academic freedom, freedom of speech, and diverse viewpoints, all of which are important for an institution of higher education and the free exchange of ideas. My colleagues and I in the university’s leadership support peaceful civil disobedience and all forms of free speech, but we do not support violence or language that encourages violence.

Good for you, Dean Wilson. You possess virtuous sentiments and you have demonstrated mastery of the operative cliches and shibboleths of your ilk.

Dean Wilson’s statement is a joke. Dean Wilson, university administrators and college faculty investigating the matter are a joke. National Review’s David French gets the joke: “What’s there to investigate? He wrote a tweet, it says what it says, he deleted it, and he made his explanation.”

Well, they must perform to appease the crazy campus gods and other that Glenn had the temerity to taunt in his tweet. Dean Wilson, university administrators and college faculty investigation the matter are kin to the mob that descended on Sherburn in Huckleberry Finn. As Sherburn put it, “a MAN’S safe in the hands of ten thousand of [their] kind – as long as it’s daytime and [they’re] not behind him.”

Glenn will have the last laugh. Having demonstrated to many of us the highest and best use of Twitter, he has vowed to quit Twitter “%5Ba%5Ds soon as this settles down.” And he won’t be the only one.