The same Columbia University professor who advocated defunding the police is the same professor who is now pleading for law enforcement to protect him from the anti-Israel protestors invading the university’s campus.
Columbia Business School assistant professor Shai Davidai was a staunch anti-police advocate in the past, accusing law enforcement of using their weapons “disproportionately on black men.”
“Lawmakers give police offers the ammunition which they then use disproportionately on Black men. Should we hold lawmakers accountable?” Davidai said when asked by author and filmmaker Mike Cernovich if he is “worried that the evil racist police will shoot people?”
Aren’t you worried that the evil racist police will shoot people? https://t.co/FgUCQDieDC
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) April 22, 2024
However, Davidai is demanding Columbia officials to send New York Police officers to his side and escort him to and from his office on campus amid the anti-Israel protests occupying university grounds.
He accused Columbia of “completely fail[ing] to protect the safety of Jewish students,” resulting in him “requesting approval to have a police escort of at least 10 cops with me.”
“I would ask for an escort from the school’s Public Safety, but they have proven themselves useless versus these mobs, and I do not want to put their lives at risk,” he continued in a letter to administrators.
A CNN report noted that Davidai has more than 50 complaints against him from students accusing the professor of harassing them. The university has confirmed that the professor is currently under investigation.
However, the professor said that he has never spoken out against students by name, only referring to them as “pro-Hamas” student organizations.
The professor, who is Jewish, was denied access to campus after his ID was de-activated due to the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” happening at Columbia where at least 200 demonstrators have been harassing Israeli students.
Davidai claimed that he had been banned from campus after trying to lead a pro-Jewish rally at the Ivy League school.
On Monday, several students arrived on campus with the professor to show solidarity with the university’s Jewish students. This comes as there have been increased calls for Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to resign after failing to break up the pro-Hamas protests.
“I promise, I will try to get back to each and every one of you,” Davidai wrote on X. “In the meantime, I want you to consider this: To the best of my knowledge, the last time that a professor was denied access to their own university for being Jewish was Nazi Germany.”