The Issue: Anti-Israel demonstrations, including burning diplomas, at Columbia graduation ceremonies.
Diligent students at Columbia University and their families were deprived of the chance to celebrate graduation without disruptions from protesters who were chanting and demonstrating (“The hatred commences at Columbia,” May 22).
It’s notable how these demonstrators completely disregard the brutality of Oct. 7 and the ongoing hostage situation. Genuine oppression in places like Iran, South Africa, Angola, Cambodia, and others seems to be overlooked. This hints at an underlying anti-Jewish bias.
Yakov Moshe
Brooklyn
Universities ought to be the foremost environments for the free and open exchange of ideas and opinions, conducted with respect and professionalism. However, the emerging trend appears to be that those who shout and threaten the loudest are the ones who get heard.
Many deserving students were turned away from admission to Columbia University, and here we see a sampling of some of the privileged few burning their diplomas and disgracing their parents, fellow students and professors on a day that should have had only one appropriate purpose.
The diplomas of the perpetrators should be rescinded, and meaningful legal punishment should be enforced.
Karl Olsen
Watervliet
You don’t need a college diploma to recognize that these blatantly disruptive students deserve expulsion and for their diplomas to be shredded.
While freedom of speech is a fundamental right, it has its limitations. These students clearly dozed off in history class and missed the lesson explaining that speech inciting lawlessness or provoking violence is not protected.
After four years of college, the only thing they managed to achieve on graduation day was creating mayhem. If that was their goal upon entering, then congratulations, mission accomplished.
Judy Petillo-Eggert
Long Branch, NJ
Columbia University will never be the same. Its reputation cannot be restored, so it will shrivel up and die.
Thomas Birnbaum
Manhattan
Allowing protesters to wear masks is giving the green light to a KKK practice: Display your hate, hide your identity.
If foreign students are fearing deportation for taking part in such cowardly acts against fellow students and staff, let them be afraid. They are not here to attack easy, vulnerable targets.
What happened at the Columbia graduation ceremony is nothing less than an act of war and an invasion of our daily routines, as the first step.
Gov. Kathy Hochul needs to stop hiding behind her skirt and bring the hammer down hard.
Susan Cienfuegos
New Rochelle
The Issue: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s column on the latest reform of state discovery laws.
It is an insult to the citizens of New York City that District Attorney Alvin Bragg thinks we’re so ignorant as to believe that strict discovery laws have been solely responsible for his failure (“With Discovery Fixes, I’ll Try More Perps,” Alvin Bragg, May 23).
The truth is his own soft-on-crime, criminal-justice reform policies have plagued the city since he took office.
The modest relaxation of discovery rules will help somewhat, but it is Bragg himself who remains the primary reason for our crime problem.
Richard Carhidi
Manhattan
Does Alvin Bragg even read the New York Post?
It doesn’t appear so because there are criminals running through the streets, yet he’s writing about how discovery is a “big win for public safety.”
Releasing criminals is a daily threat to New Yorkers; it’s written in the paper day in and day out.
Was this column a joke?
Sara Gershon
Syosset
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