• theparadox@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    30
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    8 months ago

    City officials said 29% of the 112 people arrested at a protest at Columbia on Tuesday were not affiliated with the school. At the City College protest, 60% of the 170 arrested were not affiliated with the school, according to the city’s press release.

    “Not students” isn’t as informative as “not affiliated with the school”.

    In that light, the numbers reported are much different between the two colleges and the headline should reflect that.

    • zbyte64@awful.systems
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      8 months ago

      I’ve seen interviews where students from other colleges came over to protest. A “not affiliated” could still be a student, just from a different school.

      • Zaktor
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        8 months ago

        Yeah, but the context matters. Columbia is the one that’s been leading news stories, received the bulk of the commentary about “outsides agitators”, and had some of the more extreme policing just occur that they’re trying to justify.

      • theparadox@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        This isn’t just math. The language can be interpreted multiple ways.

        I’d also argue that affiliated doesn’t mean student.