South Africa: Outcry after university expels 2 anti-rape activists for life

Article here. Excerpt:

'Two student activists have been expelled from Rhodes University for life for their "conduct beyond lawful boundaries" while protesting against rape culture, sparking an outcry on social media.

According to an SABC News radio report, two female students have been banned for life and may never be able to complete their studies after they participated in anti-rape protests at the Grahamstown campus in April 2016.

The protests escalated when a group of female students allegedly took matters into their own hands and dragged four students suspected of sexual assault out of their dorm rooms.

The expulsion decision was handed down on November 17 to two of the student activists, after they were found guilty of kidnapping, assault, defamation and insubordination, the SABC reported.

In response to the SABC, the university said the "sanction had nothing to do with the students’ right to protest, but that their conduct went far beyond lawful boundaries and amounted to common law offences".'

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Basically they were expelled for what used to be termed vigilanteism. Even back during the "Old West" days, that was considered a major no-no. Seizing and beating a person accused of a crime or offense is itself a crime, and for good reason. Those doing the outcrying are basically rallying in support of criminals.

Back to Weimar Germany... when early in the Nazi ascendency, SA brownshirts were arrested by German police for assaulting Jews, et al., in the streets, crowds of Nazi supporters would rally outside the police station, courthouse, etc. to protest the SA men's arrests. Eventually the police stopped arresting the brownshirts and eventually after that, laws were passed giving brownshirts equal standing as law enforcers to police officers.

Shortly after that... we know what happened. The SA was disbanded as a result of a Nazi purge, the SS arose with laws making the SS superior in authority to German police, and the rest is history.

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