Boston police wearing riot helmets and carrying zip ties surrounded a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the lawn of Northeastern University's campus one day this week. Six police vans were idling nearby, and officers were issuing terse warnings. Mass arrests seemed imminent.
Then, without any explanation, the riot police packed up their belongings and left.
The sudden end to the standoff prompted cheers from the demonstrators and confused those who had been bracing for chaos. In recent days, police have stormed in to destroy student camps at the University of Southern California, Emerson College in Boston, and The Ohio State University. At Emory University in Atlanta, police officers used pepper balls to slam protesters to the ground, ultimately arresting 28 people.
On quads and lawns from coast to coast, universities are grappling with a growing student movement over the ongoing Israeli military operation in Gaza. Administrators have to make controversial decisions about whether to call the police, and are often criticized no matter which route they take.
“They don't seem to have a clear strategy,” said Jenny Stevens, a professor at Northeastern University who joined the protests on the ground to support the students. “I think there's a tendency to want some kind of control over what happens on campus, and that doesn't mean visual or violent or actual harm that would be done to students, faculty, staff, or others if they were arrested. It's well balanced.”
On Thursday, about 100 demonstrators crossed arms in a circle around six tents on a lawn known as Centennial Common in the Northeast, but who is directing the police response? It was unclear exactly.
The Dean of Students Office and university police warned demonstrators that if they did not present their student IDs, they would be considered trespassers. The dean then went around the circle asking students for cards. Some people showed it to me, but many didn't.
University spokeswoman Renata Null said in an email that Boston Police ultimately decided to leave the officers without arresting them.
Then, in the early hours of Saturday morning, Massachusetts State Police troopers arrived and eventually began arresting protesters. Nur said the protests were “infiltrated by professional organizers,” and that someone at the protest had said “kill the Jews” the night before, something protesters denied.
Michael Armini, another university official, said at the scene that the school had made the decision to arrest the protesters and that university police had asked state police for help. As the sun rose on Saturday, police handcuffed protesters with zip ties and removed some tents.
This is the second time in less than a week that protesters have been arrested in the early morning hours on a Boston campus. Early Thursday morning, city police officers stormed a student encampment in an alleyway at Emerson, a small private university downtown, tearing apart tents and throwing students to the ground as they barricaded themselves and tried to leave.
Police arrested 118 people there, angering some students who said the university had failed to protect them. But city officials defended the operation, saying it required clearing alleys that included public rights-of-way.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu told WCVB-TV that “the issue was really about the fire hazards posed by the tents and the public health and safety risks that are occurring there.”
Pro-Palestinian camps on university campuses have mushroomed since Columbia University students set up camps this month. They draw ire from students and faculty who complain about anti-Semitic chants and what they see as a lack of safety for Jewish students, and off-campus from supporters of Israel's military operation in Gaza. There was also.
In response to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and took about 250 hostages, Israel's shelling and invasion of Gaza has so far killed more than 34,000 Palestinians. A person died.
In Colombia, where the president had already come under fire from Republicans in Congress, the administration initially took an aggressive approach, calling in New York City police, arresting more than 100 people and removing tents. But the students soon returned, pitched new tents and vowed to stay.
This time, Colombian authorities are again negotiating with protesters rather than calling in the police.
“We have previously called on the NYPD to clear encampments, but based on our discussions within the community and with outside experts, we believe that recalling the NYPD at this time is counterproductive and will continue to prevent encampments from occurring on campus.” “We all share the opinion that this is further inciting people and attracting thousands of people to our doorstep who threaten our community,” Columbia University leaders said Friday. This was stated in a campus message tonight. “That said, we must also continue to enforce our own rules and ensure that those who violate community norms face punishment.”
But at Emory University, where police arrested students and faculty on Thursday, the university's president, Gregory L. Fenves, said afterwards that the university would not tolerate “any attempt to disrupt the campus through vandalism, violence, or the establishment of encampments.” “I will not tolerate any attempt,” he said flatly. ”
Harvard University tried a different approach. The university restricted access to historic Harvard Yard, allowing only those with university ID to enter, and suspended a pro-Palestinian group for holding an unauthorized demonstration.
But the group and its supporters still set up camp in the garden. The atmosphere was calm Wednesday night, with several campus police officers sitting in cars at the edge of the school grounds and students passing by. Still, the university has faced criticism from some prominent alumni, including former president Lawrence H. Summers, who said allowing the tents to be set up was a “serious failure.”
Like Harvard, the University of Texas at Austin tried to pre-empt a planned encampment by students, warning them that it was not allowed, but the students gathered anyway. Unlike at Harvard, administrators responded by force. On Wednesday, dozens of police officers, many in riot gear or on horseback, pushed through a crowd of protesters to blockade the campus' main lawn, ultimately sending 57 people to the county jail. He was imprisoned in
But by evening, nearly all state and local police officers had disappeared. The students returned shortly after and gathered with picnic blankets before leaving for the evening.
University President Jay Hartzl said in a statement that administrators had canceled the planned protests out of fear that students would “try to follow a pattern” and “significantly disrupt the campus for an extended period of time.” He said he had prevented it. In a message obtained through a Freedom of Information request, Hartzell told lawmakers she asked for help from state police because school police “can't do it alone.”
As of Friday night, about 300 of the university's 3,000 faculty members had signed an open letter of no confidence in Hartzell. “President Hartzell needlessly put students, staff, and faculty at risk. Dozens of students were arrested for peacefully gathering on their campus.”
Another protest was planned at the university on Thursday, but the scene was fairly calm, with university administrators handing out flyers with the rules for the protest. One administrator said he assured students that police would not arrest them unless they set up a tent or tried to stay past 10 p.m.
Cathy Zoehner, who served as chief of police at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, for nearly a decade until 2019, said university administrators often want to avoid responsibility for police responses to protests, but ultimately He said that decisions are often made by university administrators themselves. to do.
She said protesters who come from outside the university can be difficult to deal with because they are not intimidated by academic repercussions and may be more intent on agitation than dialogue. The recent tent camps can be especially problematic for administrators focused on school optics, Ms. Zohner said.
“That's the big concern, right? Whatever that means, these encampments are going to be there forever and that's the reason people don't choose your college or your college,” she said. said. “And let's face it: Universities are businesses. Whether they're nonprofit or for-profit, they're businesses. They have a bottom line and they have to look out for that.”
This is just one of the challenges managers face in the face of a crisis. Students, faculty, staff, elected officials, parents and donors all often offer very different advice on how the university should respond, said former University of Mississippi President Daniel W. Jones. he said.
“I think the biggest tension is in the air: Am I acting in the best interest of the students on campus or in the best interest of the board, politically interested people and alumni in general?” ” he said.
Nicholas B. Dirks, former president of the University of California, Berkeley, said there are few decisions for university leaders as difficult as whether to subpoena the police, in part because outside law enforcement officers This is because they may use very different tactics. campus police.
Dr. Dirks, a former senior administrator at Columbia University, said, “University presidents are supposed to have complete power and control, so bringing in outside police forces is the first thing they do to lose control of the situation.'' You'll understand,” he said. Before becoming Berkeley's head coach in 2013.
Berkeley has been very reluctant to bring in off-campus police officers unless there appears to be a threat of violence, he said.
“You're in a kind of crisis situation, balancing partial and always incomplete information with some kind of time urgency where you actually feel like you have to make very quick decisions. There are people out there, but now is not the best time to make a decision.'' Clear call,'' Dr. Dirks said.
“Those are decisions that are under fire,” he added.
Report contributor: carla marie sanford and Erin Davis From New York Matthew Eadie From Boston Sean Keenan Originally from Atlanta.