by Farrukh Abadi
Over 2,000 students have been arrested nationwide as campus repression has reached new heights over the last week and Gaza solidarity encampments and protests continue to spread.
On Monday, police attacked protesters and cleared out encampments at Columbia, City College NY, UNC Chapel Hill, and Yale, among other locations, with nearly 300 arrested in NYC alone. At UCLA, a masked Zionist mob attacked protesters at an encampment with sticks and fireworks while campus security and local police stood by and watched for hours before intervening.
On Wednesday night, riot police at UCLA attempted to disperse a crowd of over a thousand pro-Palestine protesters, with some wearing helmets and goggles and holding make-shift shields of plywood. Students stood their ground and police were surrounded, or “kettled”, by protesters and eventually retreated. Riot police later returned, firing rubber bullets, sound canons, and flashbang grenades at the protesters, destroying the encampment and arresting over 100.
At the University of Madison, police and state troopers were also kettled by protesters while attempting to disband the encampment, leaving four officers injured, with one being hit over the head with a skateboard. After the encampment was destroyed by the police, protesters immediately set it back up.
Students and faculty at Emory University and UT Austin have faced particularly brutal repression over the last few days.
At Emory University, Atlanta police and state troopers arrived at the encampment within a few hours of its establishment and used rubber bullets, pepper spray balls, and stun guns on students and faculty. A few faculty members were arrested simply for walking by or recording the violence, with one faculty member likening it to a “war zone.” Georgia State Representative Mike Collins tweeted a video of police holding a protesters to the ground while tasing them with the caption: “Not sure what y’all are doing up north, but we don’t give them the time to encamp. Tazers set to stun!”
At UT Austin, 57 students were arrested last week following a rampage by police and state troopers on students and reporters while bicycle police used pepper spray and officers on horseback forced their way into the crowd. On Monday, another 79 protesters were arrested, with police again using pepper spray and flashbang grenades. District Attorney Delia Garza has said that the arrests are “putting a tremendous strain on criminal justice resources.”
Off campus, an encampment at Jackson Square Park in New Orleans was brutally attacked by police with batons and tasers, sending three to the hospital. In one instance, a woman running away from the police was tased and hit the pavement face down, only to then be arrested. Democrat Mayor LaToya Cantrell praised police actions.
Across the country, university administrations have justified the violent arrests of their students by referring to them as anti-semitic, outside agitators, professional activists, and terrorists. Administrators, police, and politicians have failed to properly explain their selectively-enforced criteria for these scare terms.
Meanwhile, students have continued to regroup following police violence, rallying more students and faculty to continue fighting for their divestment demands. Protests have also continued to spread internationally, with a recent wave of demonstrations taking place across 6 universities in the UK and encampments being established in Parisian universities and at 4 universities in Australia.
