NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly Heckled Off Stage by Brown University Students

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly was heckled off stage Tuesday by protesting students at Brown University in Providence, R.I.

Commissioner Kelly was at the Ivy League school to give a speech about the New York Police Department's crime fighting efforts, but he was heckled off the stage by students protesting the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policies. He was booed off stage before he could utter any words from his prepared speech, The New York Daily News confirms.

"From N.Y.C. to PVD, stop police brutality," they chanted as Kelly left the podium.

He was invited to deliver a speech on "Proactive Policing in America's Biggest City." When he arrived, he was greeted by protestors holding signs bearing messages such as "Stop & Frisk Doesn't Stop Crime," "Stop Police Brutality" and "Ray(cist) Kelly."

When he stepped onstage, the 100 or so students in the room began lecturing him on what they deemed discriminatory police policies.

"You hide behind your statistics of lower crime rates, but the residents of East Flatbush, Brownsville, East New York, do not feel safer than they did in 2001," said Danny Echevarria, a Brown student from Brooklyn, class of 2016.

"Instituting systematic racism in New York City is a disgrace," another student shouted.

Many other students chimed in, with some reading from index cards.

"I thought this was the academy, where we're supposed to have free speech," Kelly said during one of the brief moments of quiet in the protest. Before Kelly could complete his thought, another student rose and accused Kelly of enforcing discriminatory policies against blacks and Muslims.

"It's not a dialogue, it's not a discussion," one heckler yelled. "He doesn't get to say s---."

One student went against the grain and said that Kelly's side should be heard. "The way to reach progress is not by fighting, not being angry, but . . . . " he said. But he never got to finish his sentence.

"Go write an essay or something!" another student yelled at him, promptly silencing him.

After 20 minutes of voracious heckling, Kelly gave up trying to get a word in edgewise and left.

Kristy Choi, a 20-year-old Brown junior and one of the protest organizers, said they accomplished their goal.

"We do not at all support Ray Kelly's stop-and-frisk policies, and we wanted to stand in solidarity with communities the police have targeted," Choi said.

But there were other Brown students who wanted to hear Kelly's talking points.

"That was disgraceful," said a student who asked not to be identified. "If people are really against it, they should be arming themselves with the arguments of the opposition instead of stifling education."