Staff Reports
Something snapped this week on the public stage. A short video from a community summit shows Professor Melina Abdullah of Cal State LA naming an ICE agent, giving a likely hotel and street address, and urging the crowd to “f**k him up.” The clip spread fast, and the basic question everyone should be asking is simple: what will the university do when a tenured professor appears to cross from fiery protest into doxxing and intimidation?
The viral clip: doxxing and a dangerous message
The circulated footage is plain enough for anyone to see. Professor Melina Abdullah identified an agent, reported as ICE agent Brian Palacios, said he “may be staying at the Hilton Garden Inn,” and recited a hotel address before repeating the phrase “f**k him up.” She also recommended reading George Jackson’s Blood in My Eye and urged people to “study guerrilla warfare.” Later, the speaker attempted to broaden what she meant, saying it could include exposing or making agents uncomfortable, but those clarifications came after the name, the place, and the violent-sounding line already hit social media.
Cal State LA’s response so far—and why it rings hollow
The university has issued the familiar line: it’s aware of comments made by a faculty member at an off‑campus event, it respects free speech, and it does not condone threats or violence. Cute. Universities love that middle-ground language until the outrage comes from the right. If a conservative professor had stood on a stage and laid out an opponent’s name, hotel, and room number while shouting violent encouragement, campus spokespeople would be running hot statements faster than faculty can cancel class. Equal standards, not equal excuses, are what people want.
Free speech is important — but institutions can act on professional conduct
Let’s be clear: whether speech crosses the legal line into a “true threat” is a job for prosecutors and courts. But universities don’t need criminal charges to enforce professional codes. Tenure is not a license to intimidate. Doxxing a federal officer and telling a crowd where he might sleep is the sort of behavior most employers would review immediately. Cal State LA can, and should, open a personnel review while respecting due process — and it should explain to students and staff how campus safety will be protected in the meantime.
Hypocrisy has a long memory on campus
American campuses have spent years policing speech when it came from conservative voices: words labeled dangerous, intimidating, or hostile produced swift condemnations and administrative action. If those standards were sincere then, the same standards must apply now. If administrators pick and choose which speech requires discipline, they won’t just lose credibility — they’ll signal that power, not principle, drives decision-making on campus.
What Cal State LA should do next
Here’s a short, reasonable checklist the university should follow: release or demand the full video for context, interview witnesses and the organizer, give Professor Abdullah a chance to explain her intent on the record, open a formal personnel review that aligns with university policy, and take interim steps to protect any staff or law‑enforcement personnel who feel endangered. Above all, apply the same yardstick the university uses for every other faculty outburst — no special treatment based on politics or profile. If Cal State LA wants to be taken seriously about campus safety and free speech, now is the time to show it.
