University of Oregon adjunct law professor James Olmsted was booted from teaching after police charged him with harassment during a clash with student protestors last week.
Olmsted was arrested on two counts of physical harassment Thursday after authorities said he shoved one person and seized a student's cellphone, multiple news outlets reported. The professor began arguing with pro-immigration activists called Students Against Imperialism as they held a mock Mexican-American border check-in at a demonstration on campus Thursday, according to video descriptions on YouTube.
(WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE)
Witnesses told The Daily Emerald that Olmsted removed his jacket and glasses during the argument. When someone stepped forward to intervene, Olmsted shouted, "Get away from my space, you prick," and appears on a video to be shoving the man.
Olmsted then snatched a cellphone from a student filming the exchange and held it until campus police arrived and arrested him, KVAL reports.
Olmsted was charged, escorted off campus and forbidden to return, according to the Oregonian. The university said in a statement that Olmsted had been relieved from his teaching responsibilities.
University spokesman Phil Weiler told the Daily Emerald the school wouldn't comment further. Olmsted did not return a request for comment from The Huffington Post.
Mike Arnold, Olmstead's attorney, told the Emerald that the video footage may have violated state law.
“The recording of him that was seized is possibly an illegal recording,” Arnold said. “It could be argued as legal or illegal.”
None of the videos posted to YouTube show the entire exchange. In one, Olmsted is filmed telling the protesters "If you want this country back, start a fucking war and take it back. Start a war, get a gun and shoot me first, I'm right here," adding "Shoot me first -- instead of just being pussies and talking. Do something."
In the same video, Olmsted can be heard saying he is a part of of the performance as the demonstrators' "protagonist."
"I am a sarcastic caricature of what I am," he says on the video.
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