Posted on 03/29/2002 5:10:29 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Several hundred copies of the Gator Standard, a weekly conservative student newspaper published at the University of Florida in Gainesville were stolen on Wednesday, according to its managing editor Adam Guillette.
Guillette said this is the second theft in a row. Several people had stolen copies of the Standard's first edition when it came out March 20.
According to Guillette, the first theft occurred when he and other Standard staffers were distributing the papers on campus.
"A couple of neo-hippies tried to steal [news] boxes and then they got up in a middle of a crowd of people where we were and started shouting that we were fascists and nazis and tearing up our papers and slapping them out of peoples hands,' said Guillette in an interview with CNSNews.com.
The protest cooled, Guillette said, when police talked to the demonstrators. Guillette said he then decided to write an editorial about the protest in this week's edition and believes that struck a nerve because there were more protests this week.
Guillette said he left papers inside a newspaper box on Wednesday afternoon and when he returned the next day, the box was gone. He filed a police report and later discovered that a video camera had caught the thieves in action.
"You look [at the tape] and see a silver van pull up and a box being loaded and then the van is driving away. It looks like our green box. We think it might have been [someone] from the other publication, but we don't know for sure," said Guillette.
Paula Rausche, a spokesperson for the University of Florida confirmed that the campus police are investigating the matter.
"The Gator Standard did file a report on Thursday, the 28th saying that the chairman-editor of that newspaper [Guillette] filed a report, saying that he visited the box at 4:30 p.m. (Wednesday). And it was there, but at 11:15 (Thursday) when he went back, it was gone," Rausche said.
"He indicated to the police that he had some problems and would supply names to the police department. He, the editor, was going to talk to some people and it was referred to the (university) police department's investigation and they are looking into the matter," the spokesman added.
Guillette confirmed to CNSNews.com that he was the one who filed the report with university police. Rausche also confirmed that it was Guillette that filed the report as well.
The Alligator has been the main student newspaper at the University of Florida for several decades.
"We write a weekly column in our paper called 'See Ya Later, Alligator' which pokes fun at the horrible journalism that they produce," said Guillette.
Officials at the Alligator newspaper did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Guillette concluded that his paper has a right to publish on campus and was angry about the thefts.
"It's appalling and I'm really outraged that this could happen. Regardless of the viewpoint, I think free speech should be protected for all," Guillette concluded.
University of Florida administration officials did not return calls seeking comment.
Last month, on the University of California Berkeley campus, the offices of a conservative student magazine called the California Patriot were burglarized. Officials said the person or persons who broke in stole all 3,000 copies of the magazine's February edition.
The investigation of that burglary is continuing.
A few weeks later at Arizona State University, the Collegiate Conservative student newspaper had several of its papers stolen. Editor Daniel Moody said despite the theft, the paper will continue publishing.
A spokesperson for the Leadership Institute (LI), located in Washington, D.C., Friday said its Campus Leadership Program created all three publications. LI said it would assist in keeping the publications going.
"It's a shame that the only way conservative students have to promote their principles at many American colleges and universities is to raise money to print their own newspapers. Then the self-appointed jack-booted thought police rampant on America's college campuses steal and burn their conservative campus publications," said Rich Moha, director of the CLP.
Leftists will use ANY means at their disposal to stifle conservative information being disseminated.
After all, the liberal definition of "free speech" is ONLY WHAT THEY AGREE WITH.
All else is "hate speech", subject to their whims and control.
Happend=Happened
Fumblefingers typing service.
About time these leftist weirdos were forced to confront who the real fascists are.
Busted!!!! Book em Dano!
If this had been me, hippie would've gotten a mouthful of fist.
U.C. Santa Cruz is a lot like this. However there is some glimmer of hope here. U.C. Santa Cruz engineering and mathematics students are sick of that crap. They are starting to stand up.
These people are really disgusting. They cannot withstand any competition at all. They cannot exchange ideas. They want to rule - and if you don't believe what they believe, they will destroy you. Geeeeee, does that remind you of anyone - how about Arafat, Sadaam, Ghadaffi, etc.
Of course they will. They know their own ideas can't compete -- so silencing the opposition is their only chance to prevail.
It works the same way in the Senate, doesn't it?
If this had been me, hippie would've gotten a mouthful of fist.
I agree with you. We must show these traitors that no matter how much passion they have for destroying our country, we have that much more passion for saving it. They are our enemies. They are not just Americans with differing views. The trash that pulls these stunts is not American. We must treat them as enemies and fight them with everything that we have.
The leftists know that they are the real fascists and don't care. They wouldn't hesitate at all to do everything that Hitler did in order to advance their cause. What we need to do is make the average stupid sheeple recognize this truth. If the average apathetic citizen whose life revolves around what Katie Couric and other idiots thinks were to wake up and realize that we face an internal enemy that is no different from the Nazi's of 1930's Germany, then we would have a voting majority to do what is necessary to defeat our enemies.
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