Politico writes here about Bill Barr’s role in the Columbia University student protests of 1968. Radical students occupied several buildings to protest Columbia’s ties to the defense industry and the construction of a new gym in Morningside Park that would be closed to the local black community.
The confrontations on campus were tense, and the administration called in the police (which many provocateurs welcomed, assuming that battles with police would expand their ranks).
One student group, calling themselves the Majority Coalition, opposed the student protesters. Composed mainly of student athletes and conservatives, this group included Bill Barr. He wanted the police to sweep out the radical students who were disrupting the campus. Looking back over half a century, Barr remains consistent in his support of military force to beat back civil protest.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“But even though I was being blocked in the exercise of my constitutional rights, I was being blocked not by the State, but by private people. And my remedy there was to go to State courts and get the city police to get them out of my way, which is what ultimately happened.”
I love it when the anti-gubmint, pro-private sector people cry to the government to protect them from the private sector.
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Who William Barr is becomes more clear as we learn more about his history. He is an authoritarian, a fascist, a racist, an elitist, and a monarchist (I’m sure this list could be longer). Barr is the perfect match for Trump, the kind of person Trump has been looking for as he keeps firing one person after another looking for more Roy Cohns.
“The vast majority of the FBI files include details of an investigation into Cohn for perjury, conspiracy and obstruction of justice in connection with a grand jury probe of an alleged $50,000 bribe Cohn paid the then-chief assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan to keep several stock swindlers from being indicted in 1959.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/27/fbi-releases-file-on-trumps-late-lawyer-roy-cohn.html
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Back then Barr might have approved of The Kent State shootings (also known as the May 4 massacre or the Kent State massacre), were 13 unarmed Kent State University students were wounded, four killed, in Kent, Ohio, by the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970.
It is certainly gratifying to see former Chiefs of Staff and other high ranking military officers condemn Trump’s overwhelming use of military and police force.
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Very interesting account, thank you for posting. Especially, IMO, Pataki’s final words that some of the conservative counter-protesters changed sides when the invading cops beat them up along with anybody and everybody indiscriminately. Reality of a system maintained by ugly violence finally became real when it bit these young white folks.
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What a moron. He could have been hanging out with the Velvet Underground!
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