Hundreds of Washington DC police, some deploying pepper spray, cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment at George Washington University early on Wednesday, in the latest clash between law enforcement and protesting students to sweep the US.
The GW Hatchet student paper reported that at least a dozen people had been arrested as the impromptu tent village was dismantled in University Yard. The Metropolitan police department said the arrests had been made for “assault of a police officer” and “unlawful entry”.
The George Washington confrontation follows the clearing of the protest encampment at the University of Chicago on Tuesday. A large police contingent was sent in to remove tents in the university’s Quad, after the school authorities said that negotiations with students had broken down.
Since campus protests first erupted three weeks ago at Columbia University in New York City and spread rapidly across the country, there have been at least 2,600 arrests on 50 campuses, according to the Associated Press.
At George Washington, tension rose on Tuesday night after protesters left the university encampment and marched to the home of the institution’s president, Ellen Granberg. The local TV station Fox 5 reported that they were chanting, “Granberg, Granberg, you can’t hide, you’re complicit in genocide.”
University authorities said in a statement following the removal of the encampment that the protest had “evolved into an unlawful activity, with participants in direct violation of multiple university policies and city regulations”. On Sunday, Granberg went further, claiming the protest had been taken over by outsiders and accusing the demonstrators of a raft of illegal and provocative acts.
“When protesters overrun barriers established to protect the community, vandalize a university statue and flag, surround and intimidate GW students with antisemitic images and hateful rhetoric, chase people out of a public yard based on their perceived beliefs, and ignore, degrade, and push GW police officers and university maintenance staff, the protest ceases to be peaceful or productive,” Granberg said.
Student protesters have called her account of events “deeply misleading” and countered that Granberg had repeatedly refused to meet with them and discuss their demands. They include disclosure by the university of all its investments and endowments, and divestment from academic partnerships in Israel.
One question looming over the volatile events at George Washington was why the DC police took so long to remove the encampment following days of requests by the university authorities to do so. On Friday the police chief and mayor of DC ordered police officers who had been assembling to dismantle the tents to stand down, saying they were worried about being seen to act against peaceful protesters, the Washington Post reported.
The mayor, Muriel Bowser, and the police chief, Pamela Smith, were set to answer questions from US Congress members on Wednesday about why they failed to respond to the university’s request to clear the campus until now.
