26
Mar
2014
It Begins: Tyler Cowen Pepper Sprayed in Class
This is on Reason so I’m guessing it’s legit? I see no mention at MarginalRevolution but presumably that’s because Tyler Cowen is too suave to seek sympathy.
Anyway, according to Reason:
Economist, author, and George Mason University professor Tyler Cowen was pepper sprayed in his classroom today by a man trying to place him under citizen’s arrest. ArlNow.com reported on the incident, which took place at GMU’s Arlington, Virginia, campus this afternoon.
Obviously that’s ridiculous and of course nobody should be assaulting economists. (And for real, I’m zapping stuff in the comments that’s over the line.) But I am only half-joking when I warn my fellow economists that the public is going to come after us in a few years, right after bankers.
I thought it was Tyler Cowan. Did I spray the wrong guy?
I spelled his name correctly.
I would like to think you are safe, Bob. But I can see this playing out: ” Hey, Murphy, this is for tellin’ it like it is”
Why the hell are you joking about this?
Don’t worry Bob, I’m sure anyone who is thinking of doing this will distinguish the Keynesians from the Austrians.
… and they say it’s impossible to communicate sarcasm over the Internet!
At least Krugman will be OK. Unless his would be attacker figures out how to get his hamster ball open.
Krugman is encouraging this.
Read his bit on “Crime of 2010” everything can be blamed on the “Austerity” whatever that means.
?
Krugman is encouraging pepper spraying of his critics?
How exactly?
Ken B is right.
Krugman only wants to have his critics pepper-sprayed, at the very least, if they want to opt out of Krugman’s preferred protection racket.
To all of you who say Krugman is ok with an innocent person like Cowen being pepper sprayed, you’re way, waaaaaay off. Krugman is against initiations of violence…from those not wearing a badge.
This is a well written article that shows how Krugman advocates for initiations of violence while ostensibly foreswearing violence.
http://libertarianstandard.com/2011/01/13/missed/
You did read the article?
The one with “crime” in the title?
Crime -> assest, you might do some “detective” work.
Mistyped above.
I’ve seen you make that warning before, Bob. What do you suggest we do about it, if anything?
Well, I’m branching out into stand-up entertainment.
Economist? No, you must be mistaken, I’m a humble karaoke singer. Just look at my Youtube channel!
David,
Change campus gun laws.
Haha. I’m just kidding. We know getting policy changed is impossible.
If I were a well known free market professor on a highly radicalized campus (ie, pretty much all of them), I would think long and hard about concealed carry, regardless of what the campus policy says…
Get a TA from the football team to sit on the front row. Kubaton. Pen. Pepper spray. There should be an Emergency word to let the class know it isn’t “part of the lecture”. Card swipe locks. Rewards to do overcome the first mover problem. Online classes. A moat around the lectern filled with tigers.
As many others have noted elsewhere, the fact that the victim was not Cowen and not someone more extreme is a bit puzzling. I would chalk this up to one disturbed individual, and not an indication of any broader trend.
That should read “was Cowen and not someone more extreme…”
Sorry for the superfluous “not.” 🙂
BTW, it appears I may be right, assuming this LR article is correct.
http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/man-tries-arrest-economist-tyler-cowen-lecture-video/#axzz2xCKr55mE
From: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/03/assorted-links-1081.html
> Jonathan Pendleton March 17, 2014 at 4:50 pm
> What better place to do prison research than inside a prison?
> If the police and FBI won’t arrest you for hacking my computer and sexually harassing me over the past several months, I will do it myself — in the next couple weeks before school starts again. Either way, one of us is going to prison.
> I will entertain settlement offers at the email address provided.
> Sincerely,
> Jonathan E Pendleton Seattle, Washington
Well, it’s either getting weird or even weirder.
To someone on the extreme left, even someone who entertains free market notions is considered “extreme right.” People called Paul Ryan a radical libertarian extremist for chrissakes!
I have zero doubt that this was ideologically motivated.
Look at the comment Rick Hull posted. That was the motivation. The dude lived in Seattle and thought TC was hacking his computer and harassing him. That sounds like schizophrenia to me, not ideology.
Not his horrific opinions on Thai food?
Didn’t the occupy types go after Mankiw a while back?
violently, though.
They don’t have a good sense of who their real enemies are. No economist is safe.
Er, I deleted the word not before violently by mistake.
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2014/03/29/in-case-you-doubted-that-the-democrats-have-been-taken-over-by-communists/
http://gawker.com/arrest-climate-change-deniers-1553719888