If you thought law students hijacking classes for inane exercises in “naming the violence” was bad, just wait. While my law school experience did not involve scandals of national interest, it was punctuated by students attempting to do anything—lecture, agitate, yell—except learn from others.
Here’s one story I’ll never forget, from the same criminal law class where my classmates pestered their uber-progressive professor to say she thought rape was wrong. We were studying the 1971 revolt at Attica state prison in New York, which left 10 prison workers and 33 inmates dead. Prosecutors subsequently chose not to press charges against corrections officers who had allegedly brutalized and possibly murdered some of the rioters. The episode gave a panorama view of the issues we cover in criminal law, such as theories of punishment, prosecutorial discretion, and self-defense.
Who needs to ask difficult questions, though, when you…
