University of Utah protests roil state's law-and-order culture

• Civil disobedience is relatively rare on Utah campuses, activists say — and it usually faces a swift crackdown.

The intrigue: Organizers with the student group MEChA have added a demand that the U "stop the political repression of students and take the cops off campus now," according to Tuesday's Instagram post advertising the rally.

Zoom out: At several campuses in other states, demonstrations have been ongoing for weeks.

Driving the news: Amid Monday's rally, Gov. Spencer Cox took to X to enumerate various acts that "the First Amendment does not protect," including: "violence, threats to public safety, property damage, camping or disruptions to our learning institutions."

• "We will protect protestors and arrest those who violate the law," he wrote.

Yes, but: From the Boston Tea Party to the Civil Rights Movement, protesters have often violated the law deliberately.

• When they "willingly accept the penalty," they show they buy into the rule of law — while demonstrating its potential misuse, Martin Luther King Jr. explained in 1965.

Case in point: Several replies to Cox questioned his example of "camping" as worthy of arrest.

• "It is insane to me to list all these things and just casually put 'camping' in the middle," read one response.

Caveat: Whether the protest was "civil" is up for debate. Some protesters Monday were accused of throwing things at officers, and the university reported police confiscated a hatchet during the rally — though it's unclear whether it was used or brought there illegally.

• One officer was injured, per the U's statement.

Friction point: In a statement Tuesday, the ACLU of Utah warned that shooing away protesters broadly stifles dissent.

• "Protests on campus can be loud, disruptive, and offensive to others. A university's role is to help students navigate this situation, not to shut down protests," the statement read. Monday's police response "risked the safety and well-being of those directly involved, as well as those in the area."

What they're saying: "We will not continue with business as usual while there is a genocide happening! The University of Utah is complicit!" MEChA wrote Tuesday.

The other side: Utahns on social media are talking more about the protesters' tactics than about Palestinians — or the rally's push for the U to divest its endowment from Israeli companies and the U.S. defense industry.

Flashback: MEChA members were arrested in the weeks following campus protests in November.

• The U. revoked MEChA's sponsorship on the same day its members led a pro-Palestinian walkout, but school officials said the punishment was for a separate protest.
• State education officials subsequently passed new "free speech" rules for public universities.

Zoom in: Those rules, approved in December, require public colleges and universities to create policies that guarantee:

• the school's neutrality on the position being voiced,
• the right to free expression "at approved events or venues,"
• participants' safety
• diverse viewpoints on campus, and
• a process to "condemn" or "prohibit" actions that violate the law or disrupt students' education.