The incident happened at GMU’s Arlington campus, near Virginia Square, around 3:00 p.m. Police say the man entered the classroom and attempted to place the professor under a citizen’s arrest. The professor tried to get the man — described as a white male in his 20s or 30s — to leave, at which time the man pepper sprayed him and a scuffle ensued, according to Arlington County Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck.
The professor did not know the man, Sternbeck said.
An off-duty police officer heard the commotion and tried to intervene. The suspect fled but was arrested outside the school by Arlington County police officers, according to Stenbeck. He’s now being questioned by police. Several charges are pending.
Paramedics evaluated the professor and about a dozen students who were in the classroom at the time and suffered residual effects from the pepper spray. There were no reports of anyone being taken to the hospital.Cowen has had long-term close ties to the Koch brothers. He is the Holbert C. Harris Chair of economics professor at Koch-funded George Mason University and also serves as general director of the Koch-funded Mercatus Center.
With Alex Tabarrok, he runs the blog, Marginal Revolution.
He is author of two books that appear to contradict each other:Average Is Over
and The Great Stagnation. In the book,Create Your Own Economy, Cowen claimed he was autistic.
UPDATE 1:
School says Cowen ran, intruder chased, student in hall caught suspect & he was held until Arlington Police arrived. 12-14 students in class
— Tom Roussey (@tomrousseyABC7) March 26, 2014
UPDATE 2:
A few hours after the incident Cowen tweeted:
Back to work! (as usual)...
— tylercowen (@tylercowen) March 26, 2014
UPDATE 3:
VIDEO: Of Tyler Cowen Attacker in Custody
A tentacle of the Kochtopus, you say? Hmmm. What would Samuel Edward Konkin III think?
ReplyDeleteWhile I certainly have no love for the Koch brothers the last couple of paragraphs in the blurt above almost appear to suggest that the author may believe Cowen deserved to be assaulted in this way...
ReplyDeleteWhy are the lefties always so violent?
ReplyDeleteViolence is the foundation of leftism. By and large leftism is the belief that social problems can be solved with gratuitous violence.
DeleteYes, he's Koch funded.
ReplyDeleteBut lets not forget the real issue; he was physically assaulted, and there is no excuse whatsoever for this.
To close with remarks about his Koch ties or the weakness of his work is to slyly suggest (even if unintentionally) that we can laugh about the assault, or that he somehow had it coming.
The background information was not provided to imply that Cowen "had I coming," but to simply provide information on what might have been behind the attack, given that lefties are big anti-Koch people. I doubt a libertarian was involved.
DeleteThat's why i said you didn't intend it that way.
DeleteBut the addition suggests it anyway. It has a sort of "yes, this guy was assaulted, but he's Koch funded, so..." rationale to it.
Again, i know it wasn't intended.
"given that lefties are big anti-Koch people"
So are many anarcho-capitalists. That's the thing.