Assemblyman Gets 10,000 Petition Signatures Calling For Firing Of UC Davis Professor
DAVIS (CBS13) — The call on UC Davis to fire a controversial tenured professor has intensified as 10,000 petitions have been signed and distributed to the administration.
English professor Joshua Clover is at the heart of the heated controversy because of comments he once made saying police officers "need to be killed." Not a growing group of people say Clover needs to go.
Assemblymember James Gallagher started the petition. He gathered 10,000 signatures in less than a week and passed them out to students on campus Wednesday.
READ: Assemblyman Calling For Controversial UC Davis Professor To Be Fired
Gallagher was joined by UC Davis Alumni and others affected by violence toward law enforcement Wednesday, including a widow of a slain officer. All said they want Professor Clover out, and they all say it has nothing to do with free speech.
"It's not a viewpoint. It's an invitation to mass murder is what it is. That's why incitements to violence are not protected speech under the first amendment," Gallagher said.
In 2015, Clover said ""People think that cops need to be reformed... they need to be killed."
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At least one donor says her checkbook to the university is closed until Clover is fired.
"How can the annual fund call and ask alumni for money when the university is allowing a professor to remain that is asking for the death of an entire group of people?" said alumnus Cherie Stephens.
The petitions were handed out Wednesday in front of the chancellor's office. Chancellor Gary May has asked the campus legal team to investigate and review the professor's conduct and provide advice.
