Let me preface this by saying that I am not totally informed about the incident regarding Tallman Trask and Shelvia Underwood. Trask very well may have committed a crime, but I am not going to speculate on an incident if I do not know the full story.
Regardless of what incident may have occurred on that day in August of 2014, this call for “amnesty” for the protestors is not a reasonable viewpoint. In his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated that although he was in full support of disobeying laws or rules that people consider to be “unjust”, he also noted that, “One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty.”
These protestors broke the law by occupying the Allen Building. Regardless of whether or not they are fighting for a noble cause, they are trespassing on a space that isn’t theirs, and the university has full legal right to remove them from the building.
I know many of you will disagree with me for not supporting the protestors and not accepting all of their words as facts, but hopefully you will understand that I am on nobody’s side in this situation. The protestors need to be held accountable for their actions, no matter what cause they are fighting for.
Travis Closs is a Trinity sophomore.
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