Professor of Poetry and Marxism Reprimanded for Saying All Cops 'Need to Be Killed'

Source - An English and comparative literature professor in California was reprimanded after an interview quoted him as saying police “need to be killed,” according to reports.

The California Aggie also reported the tweets of UC Davis professor Joshua Clover, who is also a poet:

“I am thankful that every living cop will one day be dead, some by their own hand, some by others, too many of old age #letsnotmakemore” — tweeted on Nov. 27, 2014.

“I mean, it’s easier to shoot cops when their backs are turned, no?” — tweeted on Dec. 27, 2014.

“People think that cops need to be reformed. They need to be killed.” — published in an interview on Jan. 31, 2016.

The university said in a statement: “The UC Davis administration condemns the statement of Professor Clover to which you refer. It does not reflect our institutional values, and we find it unconscionable that anyone would condone much less appear to advocate murder.  …  We support law enforcement, and the UC Davis Police Department and Chief Joe Farrow have been and remain critical partners to our community.”

Clover, whose work focuses on critical and political theory, political economy, poetry, poetics and Marxism, wrote to The Aggie, saying, “I think we can all agree that the most effective way to end any violence against officers is the complete and immediate abolition of the police.”

Whoa. I can’t believe UC Davis went to this extreme. I mean, a reprimand? Holy smokes, is that ever drastic. And it’s in writing, no less. Imagine how bad Professor Clover must be smarting right now, getting a stern talking-to in that strongly worded letter this way. That is a real draconian reaction by the school, I must say. When all he’s done is openly advocate for the wholesale murders of police officers. Which is to say, all cops. Regardless of gender, sexual preference, ethnic background, politics or what kind of poetry they like. That is one harsh rebuke, indeed.

I just have a few questions. The first being, is there another group of people whose murder you can call for on social media and end up with nothing more than a finger wagging letter from your bosses saying how disappointed they are? I mean, if I spend the afternoon on Twitter advocating for the mass slaughter of, oh say, pedestrians, left-handed relievers, baristas, Quakers, philatelists, Olympic curlers or the Dutch, do I get to settle for nothing more than a memo from corporate saying they beg to differ with my bloodlust? I’m guessing I’d get one email, and the subject line would have the words “terminated” and “immediately” in there someplace. Then I’d never hear from them again.

Second, let’s say someone – not me, but someone a little more hardwired like Joshua Clover – comes out and publicly demands the targeted killing of all Marxist poetry professors and someone decides to act on it. Like some unstable, impressionable, easily influenced maniac hops Joshua Clover’s fence. Who does the good professor call for help? He can’t call the cops, since in his utopia they’ve all been shot dead. So who does he turn to?

Is there an emergency number where you can reach a SWAT unit of poets? Where a rapid response team of guys in red-framed glasses and cardigans with leather patches on the elbows will pull up and start shouting stanzas from Yeats and Wordsworth at the perp? Or maybe he’s got a 911 especially for Marxists, who’ll stop the killer dead in his tracks by reminding him that soon the Lumpen Proletariat will seize the means of production from the Bourgeoisie, extract their wealth through appropriation of the surplus product and end classism once and for all?

Hopefully we’ll never find out. Because as backwards, warped and detached from reality this crackpot is, he doesn’t deserve to have death wished upon him the way he wishes it upon the officers sworn to protect him. And if it came down to it, who’d lay down their lives trying to save the life of sniveling little Ivory Tower ingrates like this.

So in honor of the men and women of UC Davis police department, here’s something I’ve written for Prof. Clover. In a poetic structure, so he can fully appreciate it:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
You’re a piece of shit.
Fuck you.