Edith Macias believed herself entitled to take Matthew Vitale’s red MAGA cap. Assuming Macias would never steal anything for the purpose of personal gain, it was theft nonetheless. In her mind, she was justified, not because of any claim of right to possession of property, but because of her indoctrination to an inane ideology.

Blame Edith for the theft? She’s merely a pawn, well-educated in the beliefs of social justice. Young, impressionable, weak minds succumb to the teachings that bolster their self-esteem and entitlement.

Macias has since been charged with misdemeanor theft.

“Man, fuck your laws,” Macias replied, also telling Vitale in the footage:  “Your fucking freedom of speech is genocide, homeboy! Is that what you are trying to represent?”

Not a particularly erudite expression of the point, and unlikely to be a winning defense. No matter how unhinged she was, believing in social justice does not entitled one to steal.

So why would the woman who took Lucian Wintrich’s notes during his talk at UConn be any less of a thief?

BREAKING: @lucianwintrich appears to attack a @UCONN student during speech after she took something off podium. pic.twitter.com/WAcNYAak7c

— Kevin Galliford (@KallMeKG) November 29, 2017

Wintrich is a writer at the far-right Gateway Pundit speaking at UConn on why “it’s okay to be white.” He may not be Milo, but he’s pretty deliberately provocative, as was his topic.* Yet, he was invited to speak by the school’s Republican Club. Others, presumably not members of the club, thought he should not be heard.

As the video shows, one woman took his notes as Wintrich’s attention was directed at another protester. Kevin Galliford characterizes what happened next as Wintrich “attacking” the woman. Someone less biased might characterize it as Wintrich using force to retrieve his property, stolen from him by this woman. And then the man who was at the podium at the time the woman stole the notes physically intervened.

A second altercation followed involving a man who had stood next to Wintrich throughout the event, filming and adding commentary. He was also led away by police, though he was not arrested, according to Reitz.

Neither the unnamed man nor the unnamed woman were arrested. Why they’re unnamed is curious, given that they’re likely quite proud of themselves for having struck a blow for social justice by impeding this remarkably poor choice for speaker for spewing whatever nonsense he had to offer.

But unlike what happened with Edith Macias, campus police arrested Wintrich.

Reitz said Wintrich was held by UConn police and charged with breach of peace and released on $1,000 bail.

That students impeded Wintrich’s presentation is one thing, a dubious assertion of free speech in response to free speech. But when the woman stole Wintrich’s notes, speech turned to action. That’s not okay. It’s no more okay than when Macias stole the MAGA cap.

At Inside Higher Ed, the school’s response reflected the fundamentally misguided lesson.

Susan Herbst, president of UConn, issued a statement late Tuesday that said, in part: “This was a very disappointing evening. Thoughtful, civil discourse should be a hallmark of democratic societies and American universities, and this evening fell well short of that. We live in a tense and angry time of deep political division. Our hope as educators is that creative leadership and intellectual energy can be an antidote to that sickness, especially on university campuses. Between the offensive remarks by the speaker who also appeared to aggressively grab an audience member and the reckless vandalism that followed, that was certainly not the case on our campus tonight. We are better than this.”

Notably, Herbst leaped over the detail of the woman’s theft of Wintrich’s notes. She managed to note that the speaker’s remarks were “offensive.” She managed to note that the speaker “appeared to aggressively grab an audience member.” And then the post-speech vandalism of her students finds its way into her statement, because what’s a protest if they don’t break some of their own school’s stuff afterward to show how woke they are?

Clearly, neither the students nor President Herbst are better than this. The students who engaged in disruption, like Macias, no doubt felt entirely righteous is preventing offensive ideas from being uttered, because they’ve been trained to believe in its virtue. But that is still words against words, even if rude and disruptive.

By omitting any reference to one of her students stealing the speaker’s notes, Herbst validated theft. As if it never happened. As if it wasn’t the impetus for Wintrich’s effort to retrieve his stolen notes. As if her student wasn’t a thief.

And unlike Macias, Herbst’s campus cops arrested the guy who used force to retrieve his stolen property. Perhaps they both should have been arrested. Perhaps all three, including her white knight who came to save her from the victim of her theft. But Herbst’s concern wasn’t her thieving student. Her concern wasn’t her campus cops arresting the victim of a crime instead of its perpetrator.

And that’s why students like Edith Macias, too ignorant to be capable of rational thought and distinguishing between lawful and criminal acts, stole Matthew Vitale’s cap. When a university president endorses crime by her students to thwart political discourse, even by a speaker as underwhelming at Wintrich, there is no longer a line between speech and criminal conduct.

The UConn Republican Club’s decision to bring Wintrich to campus was a poor one. There are serious thinkers with worthwhile commentary out there, and Lucian Wintrich is not one of them. But even dipshits like Wintrich are entitled to give a presentation without being the victim of criminal conduct. And UConn’s president believes she can tacitly whitewash the crime away behind the mist of politics and empty jargon.

*Of course it’s okay to be white, but when signs saying that went up, putatively in reaction to courses about why whiteness is evil, it was purely to troll the easily offended. Two stupids don’t make a right.