Twitter Suspends a Conservative Law Professor and National Columnist over a Violent Tweet

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | September 22, 2016 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | September 22, 2016 |

Glenn Reynolds, known as @instapundit on Twitter, is a University of Tennessee law professor and a conservative columnist for USA TODAY. He also runs the blog Instapundit. This morning, he posted this message to his blog after discovering that his Twitter account had been suspended.

I can’t imagine why they’d do that, except that it seems to be happening to a lot of people for no obvious reason. It’s as if, despite assurances to the contrary, Twitter is out to silence voices it disagrees with or something.

I can’t imagine why they’d suspend his account, either.

Oh wait …

This from the same man who earlier tweeted:

After realizing why his Twitter account was suspended, Glenn Reynolds offered this defense:

I’ve always been a supporter of free speech and peaceful protest. I fully support people protesting police actions, and I’ve been writing in support of greater accountability for police for years.

But riots aren’t peaceful protest. And locking interstates and trapping people in their cars is not peaceful protest — it’s threatening and dangerous, especially against the background of people rioting, cops being injured, civilian-on-civilian shootings, and so on. I wouldn’t actually aim for people blocking the road, but I wouldn’t stop because I’d fear for my safety, as I think any reasonable person would.

So an actual legal scholar is suggesting that his tweet was not simply racist hyperbole; he’s saying that running the people down was an actual option. He wouldn’t “aim for people,” but he wouldn’t stop for a protester who got in his way.

Folks on Twitter are asking USA Today to drop him as a columnist.

Meanwhile, while a law professor is sewing racial discord and advocating mowing down protesters in cars, the Seattle Seahawks’ Richard Sherman is using his platform to address police killings. If anything good can come of Glenn Reynolds’ tweet, maybe it can be that some of you will watch this:

Wow— this is a must-watch.

Seattle Seahawks' Richard Sherman addresses police killings of African American men at presser, then walks out. pic.twitter.com/GOAOSgufAx

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 22, 2016

via Dave Itzkoff