Seton Hall Protesters Have Physical 'Altercation' With Professor

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ - Students protesting racial inequity at Seton Hall campus took to social media on Monday and accused History Department Professor Williamjames Hoffer of making physical contact with Emani Miles, one of the movements organizers. An exchange that Hoffer says has been mischaracterized.

The Twitter page for SHU_concerned 44 posted:

"During our PEACEFUL protest Professor Williamjames Hoffer here at Seton Hall University, shoved a student and had to be held back by his faculty members... This is WHY we are protesting! The security has been “protecting” the provost while the students are being attacked!"

The group further stated that they had video of the encounter and would be releasing it later. Hoffer says the video will never be released because no video of what he calls the inadvertent contact exists.

"The phones didn't come out until after that," Hoffer said.

Hoffer told Patch Monday night that even if they had recorded the entire incident, it would not show either a shove or him being physically restrained because none of that happened.

"There was only incidental, inadvertent contact when I attempted to keep a mob of students from trespassing in the University Club - a dining facility reserved for faculty, staff, and their guests - and disturbing the peace with shouts and threats including 'Get it done or shut it down,'" Hoffer said. "The other faculty who touched my shoulder were not physically restraining me, only attempting to convince me that confronting the mob was playing into their hands. What actually happened is not what they are alleging."

Hoffer said that when he saw the group approaching he put his hand up with a stopping motion like a police officer and tried to block them from trespassing and the group ignored him and went into the room.

"In the process my hand came in contact with the shoulder of a female student," Hoffer said. "I was not attempting to harm or shove anyone."

The group did post a video on Monday afternoon, that was soon taken down, which they claimed was in the aftermath of the physical altercation. Audio in the video identifies Miles as the student Hoffer came in contact with. Miles herself confirmed it the next day when she posted on Twitter.

"The only person who was harassed... actually physically abused was me, by a full time faculty member," Miles wrote. "A history professor."

In the video that was removed, Hoffer addresses the group of students assembled as they take out their phones and film him.

"You don't understand what you're talking about," Hoffer said in the video after the students shout their talking points at him in the faculty lounge.

When someone off camera says that they do, because they are college-educated individuals, Hoffer disagreed.

"No you're not, actually, because you haven't graduated yet," Hoffer said.

After a few moments of cross talking, Hoffer states his name and department, repeating it and then yelling it with his hands cupped around his mouth in an attempt to amplify it to be heard over the throng.

He then tells the students they are crossing the line with their protest.

"You do not have the right to assault," Hoffer said just before the 44 second video ends.

Hoffer is a 1996 graduate of Harvard Law School, according to the Seton Hall bio on him.

"As both a lawyer and historian, I combine a number of different techniques not necessarily to find answers, but to start asking good questions," Hoffers bio states. "I bring this perspective to my research as well, which concentrates on political and legal history in the modern U.S."

Hoffer has written numerous books on topics ranging from constitutional law and racial inequality to the works of George R.R. Martin. His full CV can be viewed here.

Hoffer said he was attempting to instruct the students, explaining to them that what they were doing was not peaceful protest.

"I have JD from Harvard and I use legal terminology, so in the so called black letter law says when you are getting into someone's face and shouting out at them that is technically assault," Hoffer said.

Black letter law refers to well-established legal rules that are no longer subject to reasonable dispute.

Hoffer said it seems as if the protesters believe they are engaging in some sort of civil disobedience akin to Ghandi or Martin Luther King, but that isn't the case.

"What they are doing is much more aggressive," Hoffer said. "They are not engaging in civil disobedience. What they are doing is provocative and meant to create an exacerbation of tension and chaos."

Miles posted her own interpretation of the legalities on Twitter.

"The concerned 44 has done nothing but exercise our first amendment right," she wrote. "It’s written within the United States Constitution."

She also posted links to the Constitution and the ACLU.

"Read. Educate yourself. Study." Miles wrote.

Seton Hall University spokesperson Laurie Pine said the University was informed of an alleged incident between a faculty member and a Concerned 44 student protester while protesting inside the Faculty Lounge.

"The University takes allegations of this nature very seriously and urges the student involved in this incident to come to Public Safety so the matter can be investigated," Pine said. "Seton Hall’s top priority is to provide a safe and welcoming campus environment where all members of the University community feel respected.”

(Photo courtesy of Google Earth)

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