David Boren Dusts Off Oklahoma’s "Criminal Syndicalism" Law

By Michael P. Wright — Norman, Oklahoma — mpwright8@aol.com

April 2008

According to Webster, a political revolution does not have to be violent:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dict...

It says (2b) that a revolution is "a fundamental change in political organization; especially : the overthrow or renunciation of one government or ruler and the substitution of another by the governed."

According to this Oklahoma law (paragraph B), it is a felony crime for anyone over the age of 18 to advocate revolution on a college or public school campus. This is punishable by 10 years to life imprisonment.

http://www.oscn.net/applications/os...

Why is it a crime to advocate that "the governed" renounce a government and then substitute another?

It is also a felony in Oklahoma to advocate "indirectly" the overthrow of the government by force or unlawful means. The vagueness of the adverb "indirectly" is obvious. Someone vigorously denouncing the U.S. government while defending revolutions at other times and in other places might be accused of "indirect" advocacy.

The reason that this is of interest at this time is that recently David Boren, president of the University of Oklahoma and mentor of George Tenet, has seen to it that someone who distributed a goofy flyer around OU has been arrested and charged under this law. The flyer stated that OU was going to cease to exist on April 21, and would be replaced by the "Happy Nihilist University."

Was this flyer an expression of discontent about Boren’s incessant tuition increases?

In March, Boren had proclaimed that the flyer was probably just a prank. For some reason he changed his mind. He was probably eager to convince the public that Great Savior Boss Boren was going to protect us from terrorists and bomb-throwing revolutionaries. He was also sending an intimidating message to those who might dare to engage in protest politics reminiscent of the 1960s. The implicit warning to OU students sick of Boren’s incessant tuition hikes is that they should keep their mouths shut.

http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/03...

More than a month later, the newspapers announced that the fellow was being arrested and charged with a felony:

http://www.normantranscript.com/sta...

It mentions Oklahoma statutes (21 O.S. 1327).

The odd thing is that in the fall of 2005, a couple of jerks entered the OU library with "super-soaker" water guns drawn during a prank attack. The OU cops were notified, interviewed them, and let them off without so much as a disciplinary hearing. Earlier an alarmed library user, not a student, overheard them talking about an "attack" and saw the bulges in their trench coats. Thinking that a serious armed attack was in progress, he called the cops. A few weeks later the whistle-blower was banned from the campus, for reasons never disclosed to him.

The witness told me his story and gave me the photos, but he doesn’t want to be named (I assume because of the embarrassment associated with having been banned). The photos and details are online here:

http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?ar...

Why didn’t Boren have these punks charged under the "criminal syndicalism" law?