Americans have, for some time, been watching with dismay the dissolution of England. British citizens are being arrested for expressing opinions, and even Americans who didn’t know it before are beginning to realize only America has a shaky First and Second Amendment under constant threat from the American left, as Lauren Noble, former Yale student and the founder and executive director of Yale’s Buckley Institute, recently discovered.
The Institute’s home page—it’s named for Yale Grad William F. Buckley–notes:
The Buckley Institute is the only organization dedicated to promoting intellectual diversity and free speech at Yale. Every year, we expose students to perspectives they won’t hear in the classroom, offer exclusive access to political and intellectual leaders, and provide a forum where students can speak freely about issues that matter.
That this is the sole organization promoting free speech at Yale is unsurprising. That Yale and local authorities might resent and try to destroy anyone attempting such anti-revolutionary blasphemy at Yale is equally unsurprising.
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The case stemmed from three alleged incidents in July, 2023 where Noble was accused of making racial slurs—apparently the “N” word—regarding a parking lot attendant in New Haven, CT where Yale is coincidentally located. Though the attendant’s name was publicized, his race—he’s presumably black—was largely avoided in media accounts.
Noble was originally charged with disorderly conduct, though that charge was later swapped for three breach of peace counts.
Felsen, Noble’s attorney, told the judge her client had expended an “insane amount of her resources.”
“This has been emotionally tumultuous for her to say the least. She is innocent, she has done everything she possibly could within the confines of — of what is able to be done through the criminal justice process to prove her innocence; it’s very hard to prove a negative,” Felsen said during the court appearance in March.
Noble and her attorney have maintained the police and prosecutor never did a competent job of investigating the allegations, nor did they review the available surveillance video. It wasn’t until March of 2025, the prosecutor admitted Noble was innocent:
During a court appearance March 27, the state’s prosecutor, Jacqueline Fitzgerald, said the prosecution was entering a nolle to drop the charges because it could not prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
“The reasons we cannot prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt are there is insufficient evidence to support — support the complaining witness claim; there are inconsistencies in the complaining witness’ statements; there are credibility issues; there are — there exists video evidence clearly contradicting the complaining witness’ statements,” Fitzgerald told the court.
She also cited the possibility that Noble “may not be the correct offender.”
In other words, the “complaining witness” lied, wasn’t remotely credible, the police and prosector didn’t do due diligence, and when it came time to put on a case, they weren’t quite willing to suborn perjury, so they had to dismiss the entire mess. They apparently didn’t mention why they thought Noble “may not be the correct offender,” nor when they knew that, or why they kept persecuting Noble when they did.
After the case was dismissed, Noble wrote:
The interest in my case seemed to have more to do with what the Buckley Institute represents than anything I ever did, or was accused of doing.
Headlines in local newspapers made much of both Buckley and conservatism generally, as left-leaning media outlets welcomed the opportunity to advance the dishonest narrative that everyone on the right is racist.
They made the malicious assumption that those who defend free speech do so to say offensive things.
The case was a farce from the start: There were no threats, no violence — just a made-up accusation, rubber-stamped by a system that didn’t bother to check basic facts before putting someone’s life through a meat grinder.
When the state finally obtained the video footage I had asked the police to view before arresting me — footage that had been accessible all along — it showed me, on multiple dates, calmly parking, getting out of my car and walking away.
No confrontation, not even any interaction, with the accuser.
No slurs.
No drama.
Noble is correct. Her prosecution was an attempt by a corrupt university, police department and prosecutor to end the threat she, Buckley and free speech represent to an anti-American University. During my police career, I would never have arrested someone in a case like this without first interviewing everyone involved, and certainly not without viewing all possible video footage. That’s minimum, professional police practice. That such minimal steps were not taken speaks to incompetence, malice or both.
Connecticut does have a malicious prosecution law: 939-53-39. One would hope that law would be applied to the police and prosecutor. And perhaps the Bondi DOJ might take a federal denial of civil rights interest?
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
This article was originally published at www.americanthinker.com
