New York Democrats are questioning whether taxpayer dollars should fund a New York City law school after a recent graduate delivered a "vile anti-American" commencement speech.
At the May 12 commencement for CUNY School of Law graduates, student speaker Fatima Mousa Mohammed called for a "revolution" to "fight against capitalism, racism, imperialism, and Zionism around the world."
"No longer are we going to capitulate to oppressors," Mohammed declared, before quoting Malcolm X and vowing to carry out her mission "by any means necessary."
In the speech — which routinely slammed Israel — Mohammed said "the law is a manifestation of white supremacy," and she even attacked the very institution from which she was graduating for "racism, selective activism, and self-serving interests." The City University of New York, she claimed, is "an institution that continues to fail us."
According to the New York Post, CUNY School of Law initially removed the speech from YouTube but re-uploaded it after receiving blowback.
The speech triggered a tsunami of criticism, including from Democrats who suggested CUNY should lose taxpayer funds for platforming such rhetoric.
Even Mayor Eric Adams (D) criticized the speech, describing it as "words of negativity and divisiveness."
In a statement, the school distanced itself from the speech.
"Members of the Class of 2023 selected student speakers who offered congratulatory remarks and their own individual perspectives on advocating for social justice," the statement said. "As with all such commencement remarks, they reflect the voices of those individuals."
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The leftist New York art professor who attacked peaceful pro-life students at Hunter College earlier this month has been fired after threatening to butcher reporters with a machete.
TheBlaze previously reported that Shellyne Rodriguez, up until today an assistant art professor at the City University of New York's Hunter College, freaked out on pro-life students who — with the school's permission — peacefully staged an information display, detailing the humanity of the unborn and inhumanity of chemical abortion pills.
In footage documenting the May 2 incident, Rodriguez can be heard telling the students, "You're not educating s***. This is f***ing propaganda."
The pro-abortion extremist claimed the display was "violent" and "triggering" her students.
After berating the male and female students, Rodriguez tossed a metal case into the female student, slammed pro-life literature toward both students, then lumbered away, leaving the pro-life activists to calmly clean up her mess.
The student group CUNY for Abortion and other extremists on campus later endorsed Rodriguez's behavior, stating, "We refuse to allow CUNY to welcome Students for Life and other far-right groups onto our campuses. We will not be persuaded by an ambiguous liberal vision of allowing 'all ideas to gain a hearing."
CUNY for Abortion added that "in solidarity with Shellyne, we commit to disrupting, dismantling, and uprooting any of these far-right groups when they attempt to plant seeds of harm at CUNY."
A spokesman for Hunter College told Fox News Digital that the school is aware of the encounter and is "taking this matter very seriously," adding, "The provost has opened an investigation into the professor’s actions."
The New York Post's Reuven Fenton and a photographer sought out Rodriguez for comment on Tuesday, but they too discovered Rodriguez's answer to peaceful discourse was rage.
Fenton knocked on the 45-year-old leftist's door and identified himself as a reporter.
Rodriguez reportedly answered, yelled, "Get the f*** away from my door or I’m gonna chop you up with this machete," then slammed the door.
According to the Post, after threatening to butcher the reporter, Rodriguez reappeared and held the blade of a machete to Fenton's neck, which can be seen in video of the incident.
Rodriguez elected not to follow through on her threats and slammed the door on the Post employees, already on their way out of the building. The altercation was, however, far from over.
The former Hunter College professor reportedly pursued Fenton and his photographer outside, still brandishing her machete.
Dashcam footage appears to show the leftist professor chasing the photographer, waving the blade about menacingly. The photographer managed to evade the middle-aged woman.
The Post claimed that Rodriguez did, however, assault Fenton as he tried to get into his car, kicking him in the shins.
"If I see you on this block one more f**king time, you’re gonna …!" yelled Rodriguez. "Get the f**k off the block! Get the f**k out of here, yo!"
The Post told the BBC it was "glad the reporter is safe."
\u201cUPDATE: \n\nHunter College professor Shellyne Rodriguez is armed and dangerous! \n\nThis psychotic woman held a machete to a New York Post reporter's neck when he questioned her about a viral clip of her attacking pro-life students over the weekend.\u201d— Citizen Free Press (@Citizen Free Press) 1684869255
Vince Dimiceli, a spokesman for Hunter College, informed the Post that "Hunter College strongly condemns the unacceptable actions of Shellyne Rodriguez and has taken immediate action."
Dimiceli added, "Rodriguez has been relieved of her duties at Hunter College effective immediately and will not be returning to teach at the school."
Following her termination, the previous targets of her wrath, Students for Life of America, started a petition to demand that Hunter College "ensures no student experiences violent, viewpoint discrimination again."
Elad Eliahu, a New York City-based reporter, noted that Rodriguez was an exponent of the "f*** the police" movement from 2019 to 2020.
\u201c@MrAndyNgo @Hunter_College this activist was a frequent organizer in \u201cdecolonize this place\u201d and the FTP or "fuck the police" movement in NYC, active in 2019-2020. Also has a history of intimidate journalists\u201d— Andy Ng\u00f4 \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08 (@Andy Ng\u00f4 \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08) 1684885243
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Students for Life of America have circulated a video wherein Shellyne Rodriguez, an assistant art professor with the City University of New York's Hunter College, can reportedly be seen verbally attacking two pro-life students before getting physical.
With permission from the school's office of student affairs, pro-life students staged a modest display at Hunter College on May 2, speaking both to the humanity of the unborn and inhumanity of chemical abortion pills — pills Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul ensured CUNY students could procure on campus earlier this month.
In the video shared by Students for Life, Rodriguez tells the students, "You're not educating s***. This is f***ing propaganda. "
Rodriguez was of the same mind as the student group CUNY for Abortion Rights, which later claimed the pro-life students were "propagating dangerous propaganda," having included "inaccurate depictions" of abortions from "unscientific sources" and dared to humanize the unborn with the aid of a plastic fetus.
After claiming that the scientific factoids shared by the pro-lifers amounted to propaganda, Rodriguez says in the video, "What are you going to do, like, anti-trans next?"
A male student responds, "I mean, no, we are talking about abortion."
"This is bull****. This is violent. You're triggering my students," say Rodriguez.
The assistant professor then presumes the male pro-lifer's gender and claims, "You can't even have a f***ing baby so you don't even know what that is."
Rodriguez apparently thought that the answer to hypothetical violence was real violence.
In the footage, the leftist professor tosses a metal case into the female student, slams pro-life literature towards both students, then lumbers away, leaving the pro-life activists to calmly clean up her mess.
Legal scholar Jonathan Turley noted that ironically, "Rodriguez describes her work as 'depict[ing] spaces and subjects engaged in strategies of survival against erasure and subjugation.' It appears that she also specializes in erasing the views of others."
\u201cPROFESSOR GONE WILD: Pro-abortion professor Shellyne Rodriquez curses at pro-life students and vandalizes table at Hunter College.\u201d— Students for Life of America (@Students for Life of America) 1684347430
A spokesman for Hunter College told Fox News Digital that the school is aware of the encounter and is "taking this matter very seriously," adding, "The provost has opened an investigation into the professor’s actions."
According to CUNY for Abortion Rights, Professional Staff Congress trade union members, the anti-Israeli group Palestine Solidarity Alliance, and others on campus support Rodriguez and her attack on the pro-life students.
The extremist abortion group went so far as to state, "We refuse to allow CUNY to welcome Students for Life and other far-right groups onto our campuses. We will not be persuaded by an ambiguous liberal vision of allowing 'all ideas to gain a hearing,'" adding that "in solidarity with Shellyne, we commit to disrupting, dismantling, and uprooting any of these far-right groups when they attempt to plant seeds of harm at CUNY."
Despite these leftist threats and Rodriguez's apparent antipathy for free speech, a spokesman for the school said, "Hunter College prides itself on maintaining decorum and respect for all, while encouraging the free expression of ideas. ... Students can display one side of a political issue, or more than one side. We consider our campus a vibrant marketplace of ideas."
LifeNews noted that this incident is just one of the hundreds of attacks committed by pro-abortion radicals on pro-life students, groups, facilities and churches over the past year.
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The dean of the City University of New York School of Law said she's retiring as soon as possible because she referred to herself as a "slaveholder" during a faculty meeting last fall, the New York Post reported.
Mary Lu Bilek, 65, said at the beginning of the year she would step down in June — but on Saturday she revealed the reason why in an email to the college community, the paper said.
During a personnel committee meeting in November about an open position for associate dean, Bilek used the word "slaveholder" as a way of taking the blame for a hiring proposal some colleagues thought would have a "disparate racial impact," the Daily News reported.
"In a misguided effort to draw an analogy to a model of reparations in order to place blame on myself, as Dean, for racial inequities at our school, I thoughtlessly referred to myself as the 'slaveholder' who should be held responsible," Bilek wrote, according to the paper.
"I realized it was wrong the minute I heard myself say it, and couldn't believe the word had come out of my mouth," she also noted, the Daily News said.
Bilek added that she apologized immediately at the meeting "and have since apologized without reservation to the faculty," the paper said.
"I am still shocked at what I said and have begun education and counseling to uncover and overcome my biases and further understand the history and consequences of systemic and institutional racism," Bilek also wrote, according to the Daily News.
More from the paper:
BIlek, a Harvard Law School grad, first joined the faculty in 1985 and was later associate dean for academic affairs. She was named dean in 2016.
She wrote that she ultimately decided to retire "because the work it would take to repair the trust necessary to lead the Law School is a burden I don't want to impose on the faculty or the community."
Bilek said she urged CUNY to appoint an interim dean "as quickly as possible so that I can step aside as Dean even sooner" than she planned to leave.
Bilek did not return messages for comment.
Also last fall, Reason said Bilek came to the defense of a student who threatened to set on fire another student's Israeli Defense Forces sweatshirt — which the student was wearing at the time. Even though the threatening student was wielding a cigarette lighter during the incident and stated, "F*** Israel. Free Palestine" in subsequent social media post, Bilek said the student was merely expressing an opinion, Reason added.
Bilek's CUNY faculty page says she's credited with "spearheading programs that increased the diversity of the Law School and the profession, and supporting the development of programs to address the justice gap." The page also said she's chaired the Section on Legal Education Diversity Committee, has served on the Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission and the National Center for Economic Justice, and is a member of the NYC Bar's Committee to Enhance Diversity in the Profession.
(H/T: The College Fix)
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