Protesters who disrupted Israeli ambassador at UC Irvine charged by prosecutors

The Orange County district attorney’s office on Friday charged 11 defendants with conspiring to disrupt a meeting and a speech by the Israeli ambassador to the United States at UC Irvine last year.

The move comes after about 50 protesters rallied in front of the Orange County district attorney’s office Tuesday. Though some have criticized the students’ method of protest, many said that university punishment was sufficient enough for the “Irvine 11,” as the students came to be known.

In a statement, Orange County Dist. Atty.Tony Rackauckas said the case was filed because of an “organized attempted to squelch the speaker.” He also said the students “meant to stop this speech and stop anyone else from hearing his ideas, and they did so by disrupting a lawful meeting.”

“We must decide whether we are a country of laws or a country of anarchy,” he said. “We cannot tolerate a pre-planned violation of the law, even if the crime takes place on a school campus and even if the defendants are college students. In our democratic society, we cannot tolerate a deliberate, organized, repetitive and collective effort to significantly disrupt a speaker who hundreds assembled to hear.”

The Muslim Student Union, which denied planning to obstruct the speech, was suspended by the university. It was one of the first instances in recent memory in which the school recommended the ban of a student group for an action other than hazing or alcohol abuse. Individual students were also disciplined by the university.

The Feb. 8, 2010, incident sparked a debate about free speech at the campus after a group of students disrupted a speech by Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Oren was shouted down repeatedly, and supporters cheered as students were escorted away by police.

The students are accused of meeting with other members of the Muslim Student Union to discuss options to respond to the speech as far out as six days before the event.

According to prosecutors, students circulated e-mails and held multiple meetings to plan the disruption of the speech. One of the students is accused of sending an e-mail to the MSU-UCI message board announcing that “we will be staging a University of Chicago Style disruption of the Ambassador’s speech.”

Approximately 500 to 700 people had assembled for the meeting, authorities say.

Eight of the defendants are students at UC Irvine and the other three were students at UC Riverside. Each is charged with one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to disturb a meeting and one misdemeanor count of the disturbance of the meeting. If convicted, they could be fined and/or sentenced to probation with community service or six months in jail.

The students will be arraigned March 11 in Santa Ana.

-- Nicole Santa Cruz

Comments

[Lita]

All I can say is seriously????????

[Wade]

Wow. Talk about abuse of power. I'm sure the DA's office has spent the last year aggressively pursuing this case, right?

[s. security]

So these students were charged and disciplined despite the fact the only "crime" which had occured was "conspiring to disrupt a meeting", which is clearly a lower-order crime than the obvious violation of their first amendment rights. Glad to know that the Patriot Act is being enforced so conscientiously - this makes me feel almost as safe as when the USG diverted Cat Stevens` plane to Toronto.

[Steve]

"Conspiring to disrupt a meeting"?

THIS is a crime? Wow. Either Rackaukas is getting a lot of pressure to throw the book at these kids . . . err, Muslims, or he's planning on running for office.

The kids . . . err, Jews who interrupted Ahmadinejad's speech were not charged with any crime.

Ugly double standard in effect here.

[nmrabbit]

Oh, come on you big bad Procecutor. Picken on them poor misguided UCI students. What's the cost for a 4 year tuition for UCI eh. Poor muslims my rear. Are they full time students or just part-time so they can come on campus just to dimonstrate? Free speech Nan No. The speaker has 1st rights to free speech. The students have 2nd rights. If an Iman was the speaker and Israeli students had done the protesting somebody would have died. 30 days in jail. $1000 fine. If the all courts would demand the max for all this crap on all campuses you would not see any, but the most dedicated to their cause. Besides these muslim students rich daddys can afford it.

[PGelsman]

Deport them!

[nmrabbit]

I can not understand the LA Times comment moderators. The author of the article OKs or disses the comment----Ha Ha.
The author is bias to start with. How come the Times doesn't have an unvalued person doing the moderation like nearly all other papers?

[WHERE ARE THE JOBS OBAMA?]

Finally-a prosecutor/school with some BALLS! Hopefully more will follow and this BLANTANT disregard for our LAWS will STOP.

--

Notice how the Left is all for Free Speech--until you say something they don't like?

[Kathleen]

Kudos to the District Attorney! Let's hope others follow his lead and universities, such as Columbia and NYU, follow the lead of UC Irvine.

It is one thing to protest; it is another to stifle speech by intimidating those who do not share the same "religious" beliefs as Muslims. I would suggest these college students take an American History class so as to better understand our founding fathers, our Constitution, and our culture.

[James Andrews]

OUCH. Breaking the law isn't suppose to come with actual consequences! Apparently the students didn't realize civil disobedience is honored because it comes with actual penalties for supporting your belief.

[Rob johnson]

Thats religious persecution

[Ida]

What a bunch of catbox litter. They are in America

[Syed khundmir]

A group of Muslim students disrupted a speech by Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S.
University where students among different faith admitted from different part of the world,therefor the university administration never allow to disturb the peace full atmosphere in the Campos.
Students protest just like University of Chicago Style disruption, so it is good enough to do so.
If they convicted, they could be fined and/or sentenced to probation with community service or six months in jail is not fair .Then the Muslim Student Union will be asked whether is this a country of laws or a country of anarchy.

[Steve]

I don't get it. In their native Muslim countries women have to cover up their bodies and face, can't vote, can't drive, and keep quiet when there is a man around. Then they come to this country and enjoy the right to vote, the right to drive, etc, but they still wear that silly Batman costume, and even sue to take their DMV photos with their face all covered up due to their religous beliefs!

[Syed khundmir]

My comment has been saved. Comments are moderated and will not appear until approved by the author.
If author dos't approve ,that mean press is not fair .In that case i do't have to post any another comment.Never!

[Michal Mangone]

The district attorney is correct.. We are not a country of anarchy.. These students could have their own assembly with rebuttal to the ambassadors speech. We are a country of laws..

[coolrepublica]

That sooooooo unfair. If it was a minuteman talking and Hispanic students shot him down they would have been heroes. If a Nazi supporter was talking and Jewish students shot him down they would be heroes. If George Bush is talking and students who don't agree with him disrupt his speech, they become heroic. But some Israeli Ambassador was talking and Muslim students disrupt his speech and they get taken to talk. Is there justice in this world? I would not care if I felt that everyone acting that way toward anyone talking would be treated the same way. But I am not stupid and I know that these kids are being treated this way ONLY because they are Muslim and their target was Jewish. But I guess that is the world for you.

[Marco]

Lame. Charge them with disturbing the peace, at worst.
It's a college campus. I would have lost all faith in UCI had there not been some protest.

[Will]

I am sympathetic to the cause of these young people- an independent Palestine. But the manner they went about it was wrong. They were not exercising their first amendment right they were being disruptive for the sake of being disruptive. That is an abuse of the 1st Amendmenet. It is also remniscent of the tea party people during the town hall meetings on health reform. They too suppressed debate and were intentionally disruptive-and should have been prosecuted.

[Bob Sanderson]

This is an outrageous waste of taxpayer money for something that was not criminal. This is strictly a political vendetta and we can take care of it when Orange County Dist. Atty.Tony Rackauckas runs for office and tries to get our vote.

[David G Epstein]

I saw the videos. These people were rude by some standards, but they were also protesting what they (and I) regard as war crimes in Gaza. Rudeness is hardly criminal.

Heckling is a tough business, but it's an old tradition. Would Tony Rack prosecute British MPs, who do pretty much the same thing?

There seems to be a political bias at work here.

[Marie Del Banco]

This is an outrage. With the real crime we have in the county the DA is trying to intimate students and waste our tax dollars. They have been discipline by the school which is the only appropriate choice. There was no crime and they are not criminals.

[Get Planted]

They are most likely guilty of disturbing the peace and violating the Ambassador's right to free speech, and should be prosecuted.

[ed skutnik]

what more to say.......................STUPID PROSECUTORS..................geeeeez get a life prosecutors.

[lwps]

Criminalizing political protest is the activity of tyrants.