Here’s the campuses winning our Award for Excellence in Escalation
Hall of Shame, police response to Palestine protest edition.
All eyes are on college campuses this week as students erect forests of tents at universities across the country. On quads and administration buildings on at least 29 college campuses, students have turned out en masse to protest for Palestine. Demands include calls for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, academic boycotts of Israeli universities, divestment of college endowments, and, at some universities, an end to campus police joint training with the Israeli military. Protests span the country, with over a dozen protests at East Coast colleges, and at least three protests each in the upper Midwest, South, Texas, and California.
And colleges are scared. Since the outset of Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza, they’ve caved to political pressure by suspending protest organizations, censuring students for political speech, and launching disciplinary proceedings. Now, they’re calling the cops. Echoing the long tradition of violence against protesters calling for peace, police are assaulting protesters and making arrests by the hundreds. Facts on the ground are developing fast, but as of 5 pm on April 25, 2024, here are the worst of the campus responses:
Columbia University, New York City
The current upswell of encampment protests was inspired by a protest at Columbia, which hit the headlines after a series of decisions made by campus administrators to silence student political expression. Coinciding with college president Minouche Shafik’s testimony before Congress about student speech on campus, students began occupying Columbia’s campus on April 17, 2024. On April 18, the college invited the NYPD onto campus to arrest 108 protesters. In an email to campus, Shafik called the student protest a “clear and present danger.” Even the NYPD - a department notorious for harsh crackdowns on protest - contradicted that characterization.
University of Texas Austin
They’re bringing in the cavalry (literally). The Texas Department of Public Safety rode up on horseback, with about a hundred cops from three departments - including state troopers - joining them on the ground. On April 24, Governor Greg Abbott bragged on X/Twitter that “arrests are happening right now & will continue until the crowd disperses,” and commented that “these protesters belong in jail.” Police armed with batons and riot shields tackled protesters to the ground and made at least 60 arrests.
Out of nowhere, police assaulted a reporter covering the protests for FOX 7 Austin. It’s hard to find a more transparent example of police knowingly attacking a journalist; the reporter sported a large shoulder mount camera. To the police, it didn’t matter. As state troopers surged into the protest line, police dragged the reporter backwards onto the ground as he struggled to hold onto his camera.
Emerson College, Boston
Late on the night of April 24, Emerson campus police and Boston PD confronted protesters in an alley adjacent to campus. After giving a dispersal order, police blocked both sides of the alley. Joined briefly by state police, BPD forced their way into the protest crowd, arresting over a hundred students. Boston Police Department spokesperson Sgt. John Boyle said 108 people were arrested. Coincidentally, that’s the exact number arrested at Columbia. The protesters will be arraigned on May 1 or May 8 for criminal proceedings.
Police claim that four officers were injured, and one seriously hurt, from the showdown they instigated with protesters. Police in riot gear wielded batons in a tight space; protesters also reported injuries. A student arrested described the onslaught as, “they came forward and grabbed as many people as they could.”
And for bonus points…police arrested a journalist reporting for the Working Mass, a publication of the local Democratic Socialists of America.
Emory University, Atlanta
From the departments that brought you tear gassing George Floyd and Stop Cop City protesters, Georgia State Troopers and Atlanta PD liberally lobbed less lethal weapons into a crowd of protesters chanting on the lawn at Emory University. As students yelled “protest is not a crime” and “every city is cop city,” police deployed tear gas and pepper balls into the crowd. In a disturbing video, three officers tasered a Black protester already handcuffed on the ground. Two of the three departments involved are notorious for lethal brutality. In 2020, Atlanta PD murdered Black man Rayshard Brooks in the course of a DUI enforcement. In 2023, Georgia State Troopers killed Defend the Atlanta Forest protester Tortuguita, marking a grim first: the assassination of an environmental activist on US soil. In 2020 and throughout the Stop Cop City protests of the past two years, both departments poured resources into showering protesters with less lethal weapons and showing up in overwhelming displays of force intended to intimidate protesters.
Nearby Georgia State University participates in the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE), which includes cross training between campus police and Israel Defense Forces. Among the Emory protest demands is a withdrawal of universities from GILEE.
University of Southern California, Los Angeles
At the University of Southern California, a private college, LAPD dispatched sixty to a hundred officers in riot gear wielding less lethal weapon pistols to disperse protests. LAPD arrested 93 people. The current repression of protest comes on the heels of the university’s decision last week to cancel a valedictorian's speech claiming that her views on Palestine expressed on social media could create “security hazards” for the university.
As an organization dedicated to freedom of political expression, we’re disturbed by the campus crackdowns on dissent. As police respond to protests with shows of force and escalatory tactics, we call on all colleges to stand up for students’ freedom of speech.