Critical Fallout After Violent Arrests of Emory University Protestors

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After descending on the protestors, dozens of Atlanta police officers and Georgia state troopers arrested 28 people, including three faculty members in the latest of crackdowns on pro-Palestine protests.

During the crackdown, an Emory economics professor experienced a violent arrest in which a cop grabbed her and appeared to violently curse at her to “get on the f****** ground” and then flipped her onto the ground, smashing her head into the sidewalk in the process. The professor was reportedly attempting to intervene during the arrest of a student, and is now being charged with battery against a police officer, despite not touching the police officer nor the student.

«To sustain this level of blind support for Israel, the U.S. must erode its own democracy. And that is what we see happening on U.S. campuses now,» said Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

Emil’ Keme, a professor of English and Indigenous studies at Emory said that the scene on her campus resembled that of a “war zone”.

«I started feeling the tear gas, and I held arms with some people,» he said. «We were being pushed back out of the encampment. And the student I was holding arms with, she was then arrested and the next thing I knew I was on the floor and I was being arrested.»

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, who is a Republican, issued a statement saying, “College campuses … in Georgia … will never be a safe haven for those who promote terrorism and extremism that threatens the safety of students.”

George Washington University students rally on campus during a in support of Palestinians over the Israel-Hamas war on Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Washington - Sputnik International, 1920, 26.04.2024

Pro-Palestine Student Protest in Washington Continues Despite Demands to Remove Camp

The Emory arrests came a week after Columbia University suspended more than 100 students for setting up an encampment in solidarity with Gaza, where more than 34,000 Palestinians have been brutally killed by the US-backed Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since October. Columbia asked the New York Police Department to clear protestors from the camp which led to over 100 arrests and fueled pro-Palestinian protests across the country with at least 20 college campuses taking part in the encampment protests.

Police arrested 108 protestors at Emerson College in Boston on Thursday morning as well. And prior to that, state troopers in riot gear arrested nearly 60 protesters on Wednesday at the University of Texas in Austin at the behest of Governor Greg Abbott. Also on Wednesday, officers took 93 people into custody at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Arrests have also been made at Ohio State University and Princeton University.

The American Association of University Professors called the arrests «antithetical to the mission of higher education.»

«Our institutions exist to foster robust exchanges of ideas and open dialogue in service of knowledge and understanding,» said the group. «Sometimes that includes open dissent. Peaceful campus protests should never be met with violence.»

The Biden administration has not directly addressed the protests nor their demands since Monday, though US President Joe Biden did suggest that the student protests were “antisemitic”.

Since the clash on Emory’s campus, one professor wrote a “motion of no confidence” in the university president, Gregory Fenves. Another professor said he would like to see a public apology from Fenves. A statement from 19 state legislators also opposed the “ [university’s] use of extreme anti-riot tactics … [and] a dangerous escalation to protests which were by all accounts peaceful and nonviolent”.