In a hearing in front of Washington state lawmakers, Evergreen State College President George Bridges claimed that he regrets asking the school’s police chief to attend protests on campus unarmed.
“I was wrong,” said Bridges, referring to his decision to tell the campus police chief to attend campus protests unarmed.
“My decision was to de-escalate the conflict…when law enforcement and our police services unit asked whether I wanted them to intervene, I declined. Intervention in those settings by law enforcement from my perspective and experience would have escalated the conflict and possibly resulted in injury and property damage,” Bridges also said during the hearing.
Bridges blamed the “mischaracterization” of Evergreen’s Day of Absence event for the eventual chaos that led to students roaming campus with baseball bats and Professor Bret Weinstein moving his class sessions away from campus due to security concerns.
Evergreen State College Police Chief Stacy Brown claimed that the Evergreen police department is the only campus law enforcement group in that state of Washington that does not have rifles. She claimed that the reason for not having rifles, which are used in active shooter situations, is for “philosophical” reasons rather than due to budget limitations. “It concerns me greatly,” Officer Stacy Brown said.
Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart.com