The Guardian reports that the University of Michigan has hired private investigators to spy on its pro-Palestine students, both on and off campus. So, according to reports, the undercover investigators have been trailing members [00:00:16] of pro-Palestinian groups on campus, eavesdropping on them and recording their conversations, yelling at them and cursing at them. On one occasion, the investigator drove a car at a student, and then the student had to jump out of the way before getting hit by the car. [00:00:31] And there's video of these students being harassed. One student, Josiah Walker, attempted to confront an investigator who had been following him, and in response, the investigator faked a disability. [00:00:47] Are you still handicapped? What's that? What do you want. How are you doing. I didn't know U of M them had special needs kids. I didn't know people. Oh, whatever. [00:01:03] That was actually really dumb. Okay, so then he attempted to accuse Walker, who was black, of threatening and robbing him. Well, is that I obviously got you now, you two. [00:01:19] You got me doing what I heard. You step back. You can cover your face. Oh, I'm. You see my arm? You see the face? He's threatening me. He's threatening me. And this lady, you want to follow me too, right? [00:01:36] Right. All right, so who are these people? This is from the Guardian report. The undercover investigators appear to work for Detroit based City Shield, a private security group, and some of their evidence was used by Michigan [00:01:54] prosecutors to charge and jail students, according to a Guardian review of police records, university spending records and video collected in Legal Discovery. Most charges were later dropped. Public spending records from the Board of Regents. [00:02:09] The school's governing body show the university paid at least $800,000 between June 2023 and September 2024 to City Shields parent company, America Shield. So reports show that the university has overall spent $3 million [00:02:26] on security and consultants in an effort to address students activity on campus, specifically in regards to pro-Palestinian groups on campus. Michigan's Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel, along with Trumps FBI, have authorized raids on the students. [00:02:44] The university also had Nessel prosecute students charged with alleged crimes during the 2024 protests. Normally, local prosecutors would have been used, but they requested that the state attorney general get involved instead. When asked about the surveillance, the University of Michigan said [00:03:00] that it had not received any complaints about the investigators, but they also didn't deny that they were in fact surveilling their students. Here is what a spokesperson for the university had to say. Any security measures in place are solely focused on maintaining a safe and secure [00:03:16] campus environment, and are never directed at individuals or groups based on their beliefs or affiliations. The university has used evidence acquired through the investigators in internal disciplinary hearings. Also, the administration cannot initiate cases against students. [00:03:35] Only other students and or staff can. So it spent $1.5 million on two consultants who were hired to initiate internal disciplinary action, according to four attorneys who and students who went through the process. [00:03:50] So last month, Nessel and the FBI raided several protesters homes, and students alleged that the surveillance has only intensified since. Okay, so the surveillance of students is troubling. The weaponizing of the state attorney general is troubling. The university's willingness or unwillingness really to, you know, [00:04:09] take some accountability regarding what they're subjecting their students to is, is is unbelievable. So do you think that universities will be able to maintain enrollment in applications when this is the way that they're unapologetically treating their students? Because even if I wasn't pro-Palestine or wasn't planning to join any kind [00:04:28] of pro-Palestinian groups on campus, I still wouldn't want to go to a school that spends millions of dollars for adults to harass their students, and also millions of dollars is ridiculous. Yeah, so that's a good point, man. Now, if you send your kid to an elite school, they better not be for peace. [00:04:46] Otherwise, they'll be hounded. And look at the irony here. We're, hired people to intimidate and bully our own students. Why? Because we were worried about students being intimidated and bullied. [00:05:04] Okay. Were you? Were you? I don't think you were at all. I don't think this has anything to do with anti-Semitism. I think this is all an effort to protect Israel. I think it's super obvious. And there's a good question as to who's behind this. Who was it? Just administrators? [00:05:19] Or was it alumni that some alumni that asked, hey, anyone criticizing Israel? You better. Here. Here's some. Where did the money come from? Did they take it out of tuition here? Give me your tuition. And I'm going to hire private investigators [00:05:35] to try to collect evidence on you. And then give it over to the cops and have you arrested. Have you arrested? Okay, so who's going to go to University of Michigan? Who's going to go to Columbia? Who's going to go to these schools now where if, God forbid, [00:05:50] you criticize a foreign government, they'll not only sometimes deny you a diploma after you paid them a ton of money, and they should be sued to no end over that. Will try to ruin your career prospects. We might arrest you and deport you. [00:06:05] And by the way, a lot of the MAGA guys were like, well, I mean, look, if they're here on a visa, I don't care. Just get them out of here. Whatever. Right. That's not a great attitude to begin with, but this is also for us citizens. If you're a US citizen and you protest Israel on a college campus, it doesn't matter. [00:06:22] They're going to come after you, they're going to target you. They're going to terrorize you. And so the Pinkertons are back, and you see that piece of crap that a thug investigator immediately pulling the, you know, the racism card there and saying, oh, no, I'm being attacked [00:06:38] by this black student. No, you're the one hounding him. You're the one trying to get him in trouble. So I think what University of Michigan is doing is disgusting. And they should tell us who said to spend the $3 dollars. Bullying, intimidating and trying to arrest your own students. [00:06:56] And did you use people's tuition for that crap? So this is this is not the America that I grew up in. Man, there's this is terrible. I can't stand this anymore. All right, Brett, what do you think? So I have two main points. [00:07:12] One is five minutes ago, relatively speaking. My dear friends, Charlie Kirk, Ben Shapiro, Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, we're all talking about how important it was to have free speech and a free exchange of ideas on college campuses. [00:07:32] And they were talking about how horrible it is. The deep state is probably lurking in their car outside listening to your conversations. Five minutes later, people who are trying to stop free speech on college campuses, largely, obviously at the direction [00:07:50] of the Trump administration. They're not keeping this secret, are lurking outside people's houses and following them and listening to their conversations. Right. So, my dear new friends, those same people Joe Rogan, Charlie Kirk, Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, where are you at? [00:08:06] I hear a little bit of it from from Joe Rogan. I hear it louder again. It's happening again. So here's yet another example of it. And it's okay. I think I should we should give everybody permission to come out and call what's call this weird because it is wildly hypocritical and it [00:08:23] seems like they aren't for free speech. They're for one kind of speech, the kind that agrees with them. Now, the other thing, it's like, I don't think these guys who are against free speech and are for the surveillance state really understand what Americans want. [00:08:39] We just we're fine with you listening to us. You just need to be better at it than this guy. Like I say yes to all kinds of, like, terms of service that I know are selling my information to everyone in the world. I say yes to that stuff because I don't want to know the extent [00:08:56] to which it's happening. I'd be fine if someone's following me, as long as he's not just sitting outside on the street being this bad and pretending to know sign language when he obviously does not know sign language, figure it out, buddy. [00:09:13] Figure it out. You're so bad at this. I thought this was a good university. I thought Michigan. We have had interns from Michigan, and they're they're wicked smart. But the university, if you know, they need to do a better job of hiring their their private investigators. - Yeah, I would have said, how much. - Are they paying this guy? [00:09:30] But we know how much they're paying this guy. And his whole his whole his whole company. It's really the amount of money that this university is spending on something like this is egregious. It's unacceptable. And to Jeong's question, like, yeah, are they getting the money from people's tuition? Is this what the students who go there want to support. [00:09:48] They're the ones who are being harassed. Did the kid who's being harassed did his tuition pay for this guy to track him and follow him? It's unbelievable. And the fact that this is happening in universities is always additionally hurtful, right? Universities. [00:10:03] When I was in college, that was not the experience that I had going to college, right? Colleges. That is where you're supposed to have these this higher level of thinking, at least thought, right? You're taught how to think for yourself. And here is a university. How could you possibly teach a student to think for themselves and to analyze [00:10:20] things based on fact and based on reason, when this is what happens to them whenever they exercise that I don't understand what's going to happen here. I hope that there's some kind of accountability for the university, and I hope that they get rid of these people who are harassing their students [00:10:36] or or I really hope that people just stop going there and apply somewhere else. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.