Northwestern students’ ‘defund police’ protest probably isn’t what you think it is

Finally, something interesting about Northwestern football.

Well, something interesting about their game on Saturday night, anyway, because it was interrupted by protestors calling on the school to dismantle its police department.

As Fox News blared in its headline, “Northwestern football game disrupted when ‘defund the police’ protesters storm field.”

The Northwestern Police have been having quite a time lately. There’s an ongoing investigation of people being drugged without their consent at off-campus gatherings, following the suspension of all fraternity activity amid an investigation of druggings at on-campus parties. But that scandal has led to protests calling for the abolition of the fraternities, not the police, as The Daily Northwestern reported.

Meanwhile, there were 4,500 COVID-19 test kits stolen from a storage room at a university building, But that seemed like it was fairly open and shut, as The Daily Northwestern reported that the university police had suspects in the case and had security footage to review.

The big police-related story that The Daily has reported recently was about the Evanston municipal cops allegedly pointing guns at children and then not sharing the footage of the incident.

Given all of that, it seems like perhaps the most likely flashpoint for this protest would be frat boys angry at their fraternities’ suspension? Wait a minute, there were other banners, too.

Stop funding the war on Palestine? Okay… that’s something that a group called NU Dissenters has been protesting, again as reported by The Daily Northwestern. They want the university to stop investing in war-profiting companies, and face an obvious hurdle with the current CEO of General Dynamics and former CEO of Boeing being on Northwestern’s board of trustees — with whom one of the banners was demanding a meeting.

And, from that story about NU Dissenters’ previous protest work: “As the students hung the banner, the sophomore said University Police officers pulled up in a police vehicle and began ‘harassing’ the students, so the students dispersed.”

Maybe the demands are being heard. After all, it didn’t seem like there was much of a university police presence in the middle of the football field while those protesters waved their banners, and Outkast playing over the loudspeakers made it that much more surreal.

So, how are things going for the Canadiens after their Cinderella run to last season’s Stanley Cup Final?

Alright, then! It was 5-2 Vegas, and the Habs are dead last in the Atlantic Division. Yes, that division has Buffalo, Detroit, and Ottawa in it.