Gregory Pflugfelder had just finished the final class of his career at Columbia. In 28 years at the university, he achieved many accolades as a professor of history who taught a popular course on Japanese monsters – mostly focused on Godzilla and “the role of the monstrous in the cultural imagination.”

He didn’t know it, but a cultural monster of sorts would soon be at his door.

The next night, on Tuesday, the 64-year-old silver-haired scholar stepped outside his apartment building, located off campus across the street from Columbia. He wanted to record iPhone video of hundreds of police responding to historic student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. Fifteen minutes later, the NYPD arrested him.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    462 months ago

    Enjoy your six figure settlement, Professor! That won’t hurt your retirement plans any.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      122 months ago

      I think it will be more like five figures… Source: I know multiple people who have received such a settlement. Often it takes years, in one case it took ten. They budget for this.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        72 months ago

        And we get to pay for it, lucky us!

        Cops need to be licensed and insured, with the premium coming from their own salary.