Minnesota college president offers to bail out students arrested in protests

A college president in Minnesota offered Thursday to help cover the costs of bail for any student arrested during protests related to the 2020 presidential election.

Macalester College President Suzanne Rivera said she “care[s] deeply about both the wellbeing of our students and their right to practice civil disobedience.” The school official said she wanted to “affirm” that students “have the support of Macalester in various ways.”

“Any currently enrolled student who participates in civil disobedience and needs help with bail or a fine they cannot afford can seek reimbursement by emailing me,” Rivera wrote on Twitter.

Macalester is located close to Minneapolis, one of several U.S. cities where protestors took to the streets as efforts to complete ballots in battleground states stretched beyond Election Day. More than 600 people were arrested in Minneapolis after staging an anti-Trump protest temporarily shut down Interstate 94.

Rivera offered a further explanation in an email to the Pioneer Press, telling the newspaper that her goal was to defend free speech regardless on both sides of the political aisle. To date, no student has requested financial assistance for bail.

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“I would defend free speech for our conservative students as vigorously as for our liberal students,” she said.

Democratic nominee Joe Biden won Minnesota and its 10 electoral votes, according to the Fox News Decision Desk’s projections. The former vice president has amassed a projected 264 electoral, just short of the number required to secure victory. He leads President Trump in several states where ballot counts have yet to conclude, including Pennsylvania, Nevada and Georgia.