WASHINGTON (AP) — Police used pepper spray to remove pro-Palestinians tent encampment Dozens of protesters were arrested Wednesday at George Washington University, just as city officials were scheduled to appear before their opponents in Congress to explain the government’s response. Protests 2 weeks ago.
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee canceled hearings in the wake of the repression, and the committee chair and other Republicans welcomed the police action. “There should be no need to threaten to drag the mayor of Washington, D.C., to Congress to protect the safety of Jewish students at George Washington University,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser said she and Metropolitan Police Department Commissioner Pamela Smith made the decision to clear the camp because of signs that “the protests are becoming more volatile and unstable.” Police said there were also signs that demonstrators had “gathered improvised weapons” and were “casing” the university building with the aim of occupying it.
But Moatas Salim, a Palestinian student at George Washington University who has family in Gaza, said authorities had only “destroyed a beautiful, loving community space.”
“Within 10 hours, I was pepper-sprayed and assaulted by police,” he said at a press conference organized by organizers. “Why? Because we decided to pitch a tent, host community activities, and learn from each other. We created something incredible. We created something innovative. I built it.”
Tensions are high with standoffs with protesters. israel-hamas war On campuses across the United States, increasingly in Europe. Some universities immediately cracked down. Some people tolerated the demonstrations. Some lost their patience and began calling the police out of fear that campus life and safety would be compromised.
Police were also called out on Tuesday night and destroyed an encampment at the University of Massachusetts. Video from the scene in Amherst showed an hours-long operation in which dozens of police in riot gear systematically destroyed tents and detained protesters. The operation continued until early Wednesday morning. Police said about 130 people were arrested after demonstrators refused orders to disperse.
“I thought it was a complete overreaction,” said Lucas Ruud, editor-in-chief of the Massachusetts Daily Collegian. “It was a totally unnecessary show of force.” University newspaper staff counted more than 100 police vehicles on campus for enforcement.
In Washington, police announced they had arrested 33 people who participated in the George Washington protests on charges including assaulting a police officer and illegally entering the country. They admitted using pepper spray outside the camp against demonstrators who tried to break through police lines.
Two Democratic Party members attended the press conference along with the five arrested students. “I want all Republicans and Democrats to know that we cannot block our way out of this growing dissent,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. “This was a clear attempt to suppress students exercising their First Amendment rights.”
“Those who won’t stop the genocide in Gaza think they can get out of this by arresting and brutalizing people,” said Missouri Representative Cori Bush.
The school said in a statement that while it is committed to freedom of expression, “this camp turned into an illegal activity as participants directly violated multiple university policies and city regulations.” It later announced that normal operations had resumed following an “orderly and safe operation” to disperse the demonstrators.
President Joe Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said the president believes the right to dissent is “fundamental to us, but when it occurs in the face of disorder, violence, intimidation, vandalism, trespassing or campus closures.” “There should be no connection,” he said. Students have a right to be safe, anti-Semitism is abhorrent, and we are clear about it. ”
Throughout the nearly two weeks of encampment, the scene was mostly calm.
Closely organized demonstrators and pro-Israel counter-demonstrators who stood along the edge interacted without serious clashes. Some of the most violent confrontations involved people protesting the treatment of a statue of George Washington wrapped in a Palestinian scarf and with a flag on its pedestal spray-painted with the words “Genocide Warmonger University” .
Approximately 2,800 people have been arrested at 50 campuses since April 18. The numbers are based on reporting from the Associated Press and statements from universities and law enforcement agencies after this latest anti-war movement began. Protest at Columbia University In New York.
Other schools in the US look like this:
— University of Vermont student protesters ended a nine-day camp on Wednesday. Among their demands, the protesters called for the school to remove US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield as the commencement speaker because the US vote blocked the cease-fire resolution. I asked for it. The school announced Friday that Thomas-Greenfield will not give the address.
— There was a tent encampment of pro-Palestinians. removed by police in riot gear A protest was held at the University of Chicago on Tuesday after administrators, who had initially adopted a lenient approach, said the protesters had crossed the line. Hundreds of protesters gathered there for at least eight days before administrators on Friday warned them to leave or be removed.
— The president of Wesleyan University, a liberal arts school in Connecticut, praised a demonstration on campus that included a pro-Palestinian tent encampment as an act of political expression. The camp there has grown from about 20 tents a week ago to more than 100. “The protesters’ cause is important and draws attention to the killing of innocent people,” President Michael Ross said in a letter to the campus community. “And we will continue to create space for them to do so, as long as that space does not interfere with campus operations.”
— Rhode Island School of Design Dean Crystal Williams spent more than five hours with protesters discussing their demands after students began occupying the building on Monday. She announced Tuesday that the school would move classes out of the building.
— New York City police arrested 50 people outside the Fashion Institute of Technology on Tuesday night after protesters who had been rallying nearby to support a student encampment arrived.
In Amherst, Schools Superintendent Javier Reyes said he ordered the sweep after negotiations over a wide range of demands failed to reach an agreement to remove the camp and engage in “constructive discussions.”
A week ago, several Republican members of the House Oversight Committee appeared at the George Washington encampment, appearing somewhat confused, criticizing the protests and criticizing Bowser’s refusal to send police at the time. visited.
“There was no violence on GW’s campus,” she said at the time.
But early Wednesday morning, hundreds of Metropolitan Police Department officers rushed to the scene, the university’s student newspaper GW Hatchet reported.
At least two police officers fired pepper spray at protesters, who set up an improvised medical area at a nearby market, the newspaper said. The organizers ran to a convenience store to buy water to rinse their eyes.
The now-defunct oversight hearings became another pressure point in the rocky relationship between Republicans in Congress and officials in heavily Democratic districts. Former President Donald Trump threatened to have the federal government “take over” the city to curb crime if he regained the White House.
The district is already a federal enclave, but it has some autonomy, its own police department, and the federal government can exercise control in the event of an emergency.
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Charles Rex Arbogast, Pat Eaton-Robb, Steve LeBlanc, Jeff Amy, Christopher Weber, Mike Corder, Barbara Sirk, Rick Callahan, Sarah Brumfield, Pietro de Cristofaro, and others, USA and Associated Press journalists around the world contributed.
