NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s speech on proactive policing at Brown University was pre-empted yesterday afternoon when he was booed off the stage by protestors, according to the Providence Journal.
New York’s top cop was greeted at the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions by students and activists carrying signs reading "Stop & frisk doesn’t stop crime" and "Stop police brutality." Protestors said they were objecting to NYPD surveillance of Muslims and what they believed to be a racist and needlessly aggressive stop-and-frisk policy by the NYPD.
Brown University President Christina Paxson said the protest "deprived the campus and the Providence community of an opportunity to hear and discuss important social issues," according to CBS News.
Jenny Li, a protest organizer and Brown student, told the network students had petitioned the university to cancel Kelly’s lecture, titled "Proactive Policing in America’s Biggest City." When university officials refused, "We decided to cancel it for them," she said.
