Exclusive | Taxpayer-funded CUNY professor trains DSA members to skirt the law, lie to cops

A CUNY professor is one of the leaders of the Democratic Socialists of America’s emerging paramilitary wing — which held a rare training session in NYC this week.Walter Lucken IV is an assistant professor of English at Queens College who made $105,000 on the taxpayer’s dime last year, but on Thursday night he was leading a workshop for the Red Rabbits Security Commission on ways to skirt the law and lie to police.“I moved here from Detroit, where police will beat you up if you don’t say anything if they ask you a question,” said Lucken, 35, at the workshop at the NYC DSA’s dingy Lower East Side headquarters.“In New York, you’re allowed to just not say anything if the police talk to you…you can look right at them.”“Play to their love of hierarchy… act confident even when feeding misinformation…police will sometimes let you do things that are not technically legal.”Lucken, who lives in a $3,000 a month two-bedroom apartment in Kensington with his therapist wife specializes in “public rhetorics of state violence, incarceration and higher education,” according to his online bio for the Journal of Multimodal Rethorics.The Red Rabbits Security Commission, launched at last year’s national DSA convention, has been preparing for a “national uprising against federal agents and police brutality,” according to its authorizing resolution.In other cities — Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Tucson, Austin and Portland — Red Rabbits “self-defense” trainings have taught members to block intersections and fight “fascists” with umbrellas, pepper spray and martial arts, along with what one chapter billed as “sick” firearm safety courses.Lucken, who said he joined the DSA after Hamas’ Oct.

7, 2023, attacks, downplayed getting arrested, telling the dozens of attendees a mere charge of disorderly conduct wouldn’t show up on a job background check.“The state relies on the mystique surrounding the arrest process...