One time, many moons ago, when I was a young a naive student: I dared to counter protest a student union led protest that I disagreed with. I was polite, non-distuptive, and some distance away from the group.

I got reported to campus security for irrational behaviour by someone, which then caused them to go digging. I had been writing editorials for the campus newspaper and they were in the newspaper offices trying to dig up dirt (my editor let me know).

I have no idea whether there is such as thing as due process and such when dealing with campus security (they aren’t really police), but at the time I felt violated. I was expressing a political opinion in the most democratic way I could, and someone gunned for me in response. I don’t blame security for doing their job, I blame whomever maliciously contrived a report to make them act.

That said, this story is clearly written slanted towards the ACAB angle. I think more digging is required by the journalist here. What was the actual perceived threat.

(And yes, ecoterrorism is a thing, so perhaps there were concerns, real or imagined.)