Emory lecturer arrested at pro-Palestine camp claims she was taken away in handcuffs after intervening in cop beating of student

An Emory University professor has claimed she was arrested during a pro-Palestine protest on campus after telling police officers to stop beating a student.

Noëlle McAfee, who heads the Atlanta school’s philosophy department, was seen on video being led away in handcuffs Thursday afternoon.

She claimed she was arrested after intervening in an incident in which a young protester was thrown to the ground and beaten by officers.

“I saw them beating someone up, I said, ‘no. And they arrested me,” she said 11Alive.

The teacher added that it is a misconception that she was there to support the Palestinian protest, but that she was “standing up for students and their freedom of expression.”

McAfee insisted she was not confrontational during the ordeal, but was forced to become involved when she saw a student thrown to the ground and hit by officers.

“The mother in me said ‘stop, stop,’” she said. “And I made sure to stand five feet away from them, quiet and non-confrontational.

“One of the officers stood up, stood right in front of me and said, ‘Ma’am, you need to step back, you need to step back.’

“And I saw them beating someone up, I said, ‘no.’ And they arrested me.”

The professor added that the incident seemed to last forever.

“Punching and rolling and knocking and punching, this kid was just…their head was like this, trying to protect themselves. I don’t know how long it took,” she said.

“And when they said, ‘Ma’am, you have to step away,’ not a single person will step away.”

She was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. A trial will take place next month.

“Just questioning the power of the police was an offense. My disorderly conduct was me standing there,” the professor said.

“I stood on my campus, I stood to prevent someone from being beaten to death, so that was disorderly conduct.”

McAfee said people have thanked her for standing up for Gaza, but they are wrong and that she has “complicated views on the conflict.”

She added that she was merely standing up for students’ right to protest and that it was an “issue of higher education administrators restricting free speech and delegitimizing any dissent.”

“I wanted an opportunity for peaceful expression of their views, for peaceful dissent. That was my concern.’

The professor claimed that it is incorrect to say that there were outside agitators at the protest.

“Maybe there were some students from other universities here,” she added.

“But the students I talked to who are organizing it are Emory students I’ve known for years.

“They said outside agitators, I think the outside agitators were the Atlanta Police Department and the Georgia State Troopers. They were the agitators.”

McAfee believes Thursday’s scenes, in which an Emory University lecturer shouted, “I’m a professor” as she was violently pushed to the ground by police, could have been avoided.

Economics professor Caroline Fohlin was wrestled to the concrete by a police officer after she tried to intervene during the arrest of another protester.

The academic, 57, was among teachers arrested on Thursday at a pro-Palestine encampment at Georgia College, which was dispersed by police with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Fohlin was booked into the DeKalb County Jail on charges of disorderly conduct and assault on a police officer.

McAfee said, “What’s really bad here is that the president of the university, or his office, did this.

“The police will do their thing, but the president of the university called them… so the bigger problem is not about the police, because the police will be police, but about an administration that called the police to our campus. ‘

Emory’s vice president for public safety claimed that police were called after some protesters refused to confirm their connection to the university.