NYC Top Cop Kelly Shouted Down at Brown University

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was shouted down by protesters at Brown University Tuesday, forcing administrators at the Ivy League school to call off his lecture on “Proactive Policing in America’s Biggest City.”

More than 100 students and social justice activists turned out to protest the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy. Many of them began shouting and chanting inside the lecture hall as the event began.

Brown officials asked protesters to allow Kelly to speak and reserve their comments until a question-and-answer session. When the shouting continued, the hall was cleared.

Students opposed to Kelly’s visit first petitioned the university to cancel the lecture, according to Jenny Li, a Brown student who helped organize the protest. When the university did not cancel the event, “we decided to cancel it for them,” she said, calling the protest “a powerful demonstration of free speech.”

Brown University President Christina Paxson said the protest “deprived the campus and the Providence community of an opportunity to hear and discuss important social issues.”

Paxton said in a letter to the university community she will “convey my deepest regret” to Kelly and convene a campus forum “to discuss our values and expectations as a community.”

This article appeared in print on page 5 of the October 31st, 2013 edition of Hamodia.