Jackson Purchase News

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) expressed concern over Princeton University's decision to adopt a 'restorative justice process' for student protesters, rather than traditional disciplinary actions. This statement was made during his remarks on the Senate floor about college campus protests.

In his address, McConnell referenced a previous suggestion he had made that schools like Columbia University, where he claimed "nests of anti-Semitism were festering and growing," should follow Princeton's example in swiftly arresting and removing trespassers with the help of law enforcement.

However, McConnell voiced disappointment in Princeton's recent approach to handling campus unrest. He said, "Unfortunately, Princeton may not be setting such a shining example, after all. The school has apparently decided that perpetrators on campus shouldn’t bear actual consequences."

He continued by revealing that "Yesterday, at the urging of ‘several’ academic department chairs, Princeton announced that they would forego traditional discipline and instead let the student radicals who had tried to occupy a campus building participate in a ‘restorative justice process.’"

McConnell criticized this move by suggesting that it allows students involved in protests to evade proper consequences and continue their studies uninterrupted. He quipped, "But the bottom line is these students will be allowed to graduate in the coming weeks. After all, what’s a little call for intifada between friends?"

In an attempt to underscore his point about accountability for civil disobedience, McConnell quoted Henry David Thoreau: “When Henry David Thoreau famously chose jail as a consequence for his civil disobedience, he explained it this way. ‘Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.’”

He concluded his remarks with advice for those advocating for restorative justice at Princeton: “Make these student radicals read Thoreau. Let them and their faculty enablers indict themselves with the comparative cheapness of their violent play-acting.”