Protester shows up to home of U-M Board of Regents member, posts list of demands
OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. (FOX 2) - A University of Michigan Board of Regents member is shaken up and upset after a protester showed up on the front steps of his home around 4 a.m. on Wednesday.
The masked man left behind a list of demands on Regent Jordan Acker's door.
While the incident was non-violent, Acker said it was unacceptable.
"I have three young girls," he told FOX 2. "It’s enormously scary for my family. That was really where my head was at this morning."
Acker said he believes the man is a pro-Palestinian protester. Students at U of M have been demanding that the university divests from Israel amid the ongoing war in Gaza and other Palestinian territories.
"No one knows what someone who is covering their face entirely is looking to do in the middle of the night," Acker said. "They’re not looking for a conversation, generally. That was what was most terrifying about it."
While the incident took place around 4 a.m., Acker said he did not learn about it until 6 a.m. – when U-M police called him.
"They knew about this because it had happened to several other regents at the exact same time," Acker said. "Our chair, Chairwoman (Sarah) Hubbard, woke up with a tent city and fake dead babies on her lawn."
Tents and fake dead bodies left outside the home of U-M Board of Regents Chairwoman Sarah Hubbard.
Protesters chanted outside Hubbard's home and taped a list of demands to her door too.
Some of the demands posted on regents' doors pertained to Israel, Acker said. Other demands called for defunding the U of M police, and divesting university endowment from any companies linked with Israel.
Acker immediately gave his copy to police, who launched an investigation.
Acker, who is Jewish, said he has met and spoken with pro-Palestine protesters in the past. But he recently stopped when some of the leadership called for violence.
He says that's a conversation he will not have; a line he will not cross.
"When you’re a public official you understand that people have the right to protest. It’s our first amendment. But it does not extend to my home, and it certainly didn’t extend to 4 in the morning," Acker said.
The Jewish Voice for Peace student organization, and the TAHRIR Coalition took responsibility for the recent incidents, he said. An investigation remains ongoing.
The Tahrir Coalition released this statement:
"We are alarmed by UMich Admin’s portrayal of our action as dangerous. The Regents have refused to meet with us to discuss divestment, canceled student government elections, threatened students with felony charges at their homes, and most recently, unleashed campus and state police on pro Palestine protestors, attacking them with mace. They have made no efforts to engage with the Gaza solidarity encampment (on day 25 now), and they have lied about UM's endowment. As Israel's onslaught on Gaza persists, we adopted a common protest tactic. Our non-violent home visits of the publicly elected Regents aimed to deliver our demands for divestment directly to the Regents, to level with the University's continued complicity in the genocide. We are still here 24/7 at the encampment on the Diag, if the regents are at all interested in discussing divesting the +6 billion dollars implicated in Israeli apartheid and genocide. Read our demands here: tahrirumich.org/demands."