Wave of pro-Palestinian protests on campus meets forceful response
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[April 26, 2024]
By Jonathan Allen and Kanishka Singh
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Renewed clashes between police and students opposed
to Israel's war in Gaza broke out on Thursday, raising questions about
forceful methods being used to shut down protests that have intensified
since mass arrests at Columbia University last week.
Over the past two days, law enforcement at the behest of college
administrators have deployed Tasers and tear gas against students
protesters at Atlanta's Emory University, activists say, while officers
clad in riot gear and mounted on horseback have swept away
demonstrations at the University of Texas in Austin.
Prosecutors on Thursday dropped charges against 46 of the 60 people
taken into custody at the University of Texas, citing "deficiencies in
the probable cause affidavits."
At Columbia, the epicenter of the U.S. protest movement, university
officials are locked in a stalemate with students over the removal of a
tent encampment set up two weeks ago as a protest against the Israeli
offensive.
The administration, which has already allowed an initial deadline for an
agreement with students to lapse, has given protesters until Friday to
strike a deal.
Other universities appear determined to prevent similar, long-running
demonstrations to take root, opting to work with police to shut them
down quickly and in some cases, with force.
Overall, nearly 550 arrests have been made in the last week across major
U.S. universities in relation to protests over Gaza, according to a
Reuters tally. University authorities have said the demonstrations are
often unauthorized and called on police to clear them.
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At Emory, police detained 28 people on its Atlanta campus, the
university said, after protesters began erecting a tent encampment in an
attempt to emulate a symbol of vigilance employed by protesters at
Columbia and elsewhere.
The local chapter of the activist group Jewish Voice for Peace said
officers used tear gas and Tasers to dispense the demonstration and take
some protesters into custody. Atlanta police acknowledged using
"chemical irritants" but denied using rubber bullets.
Video aired on FOX 5 Atlanta showed a melee breaking out between
officers and some protesters, with officers using what appeared to be a
stun gun to subdue a person and others wrestling other protesters to the
ground and leading them away.
"Our primary goal today was clearing the Quad of a disruptive encampment
while holding individuals accountable to the law," Cheryl Elliott,
Emory's vice president for public safety, said in a statement.
The Georgia office of the NAACP questioned what it called the "apparent
use of excessive force" against people exercising free speech.
"The use of force should only be considered as an absolute last resort
and must be proportionate to the threat posed," Georgia NAACP President
Griggs said in a letter.
Similar scenarios unfolded on the New Jersey campus of Princeton
University where officers swarmed a newly formed encampment, video
footage on social media showed.
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![](../images/042624PIX/news_j17.jpg)
Students attend a protest encampment in support of Palestinians at
University of California, Berkeley during the ongoing conflict
between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in
Berkeley, U.S., April 25, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
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Boston police earlier forcibly removed a pro-Palestinian encampment
set up by Emerson College, arresting more than 100 people, media
accounts and police said.
At the University of Southern California, where 93 people were
arrested at the Los Angeles campus on Wednesday, administrators
canceled the main May 10 graduation ceremony, saying newly required
security measures would have placed excessive delays on crowd
control.
'ALARMING REPORTS'
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union have
condemned the arrest of protesters and urged authorities to respect
their free speech rights.
But some Republicans in Congress have accused university
administrators of allowing Jewish students to be harassed, putting
increasing pressure on schools to tightly control any demonstrations
and to block any semi-permanent encampment.
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Thursday said his
department was closely monitoring the protests, including what he
called "very alarming reports of antisemitism."
In response, activist groups have strongly denied that the protests
are antisemitic. Their aim is to pressure universities from
divesting from companies that contribute to the Israeli military
actions in Gaza, they say.
Even so, protest leaders have acknowledged that hateful rhetoric has
been directed at Jewish students, but insist that people who tried
to infiltrate and malign their movement are responsible for any
harassment.
Outside Columbia, hundreds of conservative pro-Israel demonstrators
staged a counterprotest to the students, marching on the streets
circling the campus, waving and draped in Israeli and U.S. flags.
University officials have given protesters until 4 a.m. on Friday to
reach an agreement with the university on dismantling dozens of
tents set up on the New York City campus in a protest that started a
week ago.
The university already tried to shut the protest down by force. On
April 18, Columbia President Minouche Shafik took the unusual move
of asking police to enter the campus, angering many rights groups,
students and faculty.
More than 100 people were arrested and the tents were removed from
the main lawn. But within a few days, the encampment was back in
place.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York, Kanishka Singh in
Washington, Brendan O'Brien in Chicago and Rich McKay in Atlanta;
Editing by Bill Berkrot and Diane Craft)
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