GWU Trustees Condemn Attempted Criminal Extortion by Students

WASHINGTON - Amzeal -- The Board of Trustees of George Washington University [GWU] strongly condemned the criminal acts committed by some students, designed to pressure them into violating their legally enforceable fiduciary duties, by engaging in "destructive activities" that "threaten individual safety."

Student supporters of Hamas are demanding that GWU divest from companies that supply arms to Israel.  But, when the divestment issue was brought up in the past, it was pointed out that the trustees and the University itself could be sued by its donors if its investment policy lost money because they'd be failing to meet their "fiduciary duty," which they were legally obliged to follow.  It was explained that "To fail to manage [the funds] so as to meet its fiduciary duty as prescribed by law would be a betrayal of the responsibility of the governing board and could be counted on to bring prompt legal channel by donors, their descendants and by potential beneficiaries."

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Recently the students went to the homes of many of the trustees and engaged in criminal vandalism designed to serve as a dire warning about more serious harm that would occur if their demands are not met, reported public interest law professor John Banzhaf, who suggested that they might be testing a new and potentially even more effective tactic than tent encampments and occupations of campus buildings in support of their demands that GWU - and possibly also at Columbia and other universities - yield to the demands.

Specifically, they literally called for the "guillotine" to be used on GWU President Ellen Granberg and other school administrators.  In addition, the students sent letters addressed to neighbors of each Trustee warning: "Danger: War Criminal Lives in This Area."  Included in the letters were photos of the Board members and their families, says Banzhaf, who says that all these various activities constituted terroristic threats and attempted extortion.

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Law professor Banzhaf notes that D.C. Criminal Code § 22-407 makes it a crime to utter words likely to cause the "ordinary hearer" to reasonably believe that the threatened harm would take place, and that the defendant intended to utter the words as a threat. Extortion is the crime of obtaining something from someone by making threats to cause them harm. And terrorism has been defined as the unlawful use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.

Perhaps we should all stop pretending that what these Hamas supporters are doing is mere political speech protected by the First Amendment, especially since private universities such as GWU are not bound by any constitutional guarantees, argues Banzhaf, who is one of the most successful defenders of free speech at his own GWU.

http://banzhaf.net/   jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com   @profbanzhaf