Punishing free speech by a leave of absence, coupled with a vice mayor’s boycott:

The University of Virginia might have violated the law by bullying a professor into taking leave because of his political views on Black Lives Matter, and a city official is now taking the baton against him.

The vice mayor of Charlottesville, home to UVA, is leading a citywide boycott of Bella’s restaurant because it’s owned by Douglas Muir, an “executive lecturer” in science, technology and society.

Wes Bellamy posted a screenshot of Muir’s Facebook comment to Bellamy’s Instagram page and wrote an angry post about it:

On another note…I will NEVER frequent @Bellasrestaurant again. I met Doug Muir for the first time a couple of weeks ago at the @tomtomfestival…and I didn’t expect this from him, but if this is how he feels, he doesn’t have anything else to say to me. I would encourage everyone in the city to boycott the restaurant. I would also implore the @theuniversityofvirginia and the Darden School of Business @dardenmba (One that’s celebrating Diversity Week) to address this issue immediately. The notion that #BlackLivesMatter can be comparable to the Klu Klux Klan is not only incredibly misguided, but goes to show the lack cultural awareness that still plagues many professors at our Universities across the country. An organization, a movement, a collective body that aims to empower Black People, and rally allies is not a terroristic organization, but one that aims to collective bring people together to address systemic oppression and racism, amongst other things, is here to stay. If #blacklivesmatter✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 offends you, makes you feel uncomfortable, or makes you believe that we are similar to the KKK…just understand this, times are changing, the movement is moving, and a people oppressed will no longer remain silent. We have support from the highest of the high to the lowest of the low, and WE are here to STAY and WE ARE GOING TO CONTINUE TO CREATE CHANGE!!! #blacklivesmatter✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 #BoycottBellas You have my number Frank Muir, I’ll await your call so that you can get the cultural training that you need. We can make a day, a week, a month, or however much time of it to get you where you need to be!

A photo posted by Wes (@vicemayorwesb) on Oct 6, 2016 at 5:44pm PDT