Don’t mess with Texas! Troopers in helmets arrest Palestine protesters in latest college demo while NYC waits for Columbia University crowd to clear out
Hundreds of Texas troopers entered the University of Texas at Austin on Wednesday, in the latest confrontation with authorities and pro-Palestinian students.
Police arrested at least four protesters after warning them they could face criminal charges if they did not disperse, police said. Texas Tribune.
The meeting on the Austin campus was organized by the university’s Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSJ).
The group said it was inspired by their “comrades” at Rutgers, Yale and Columbia University, where in-person classes have been canceled due to unrest caused by an “encampment for Gaza.”
Standoffs continued at other universities across the country, such as the University of Southern California, Harvard, and UC Berkeley, among others, while new student camps continued to emerge, including at Brown University in Rhode Island and New York University.
Police arrested at least four protesters at UT Austin after warning them they could face criminal charges if they didn’t disperse
The demonstrators took to Instagram to ask for ‘support’ when riot police showed up on campus
Hundreds of Texas troopers went to the University of Texas at Austin campus to control a pro-Palestinian student protest
Pro-Palestinian protesters were seen sobbing as they saw police enter the scene
One of the protesters is seen being held by police
At NYU, police said this week that 133 protesters had been taken into custody and all had been released with a summons to appear in court on charges of disorderly conduct.
UT Austin’s PSC chapter said on Instagram, “The UT administration has called in state troopers in an attempt to scare us into silence.”
They added, “Get these photos off our campus.”
Texas Department of Public Safety officers were also seen wearing horses and riot gear during the protest.
DailyMail.com has contacted the Texas Department of Public Safety for additional information.
Several pro-Palestinian protesters were seen sobbing as they saw police enter the scene.
The PSC department said on Instagram: ‘UT administration has summoned state forces in an attempt to scare us into silence’
They added: ‘get these photos off our campus’
The group said it was inspired by their “comrades” at Rutgers, Yale and Columbia University
The more than 200 protesters are demanding that UT-Austin divest from all manufacturers that supply Israel with weapons in support of the war against Hamas in Gaza.
They gathered at the university’s Gregory Gym and marched to the South Lawn, where they planned to sit for the rest of the day.
One of the arrested demonstrators was one of the organizers of the protest. An officer called him over and said he would be the first to be arrested, the Tribune reported.
Also Wednesday, police clashed with protesters at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
USC Public Safety official informs students to disperse Wednesday
Officials broke up a tent demonstration after students began camping out in Palestine following a call from USC’s Divest from Death Coalition and National Students for Justice in Palestine
Pro-Palestinian supporters from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology gather at an encampment for Palestine at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Pro-Palestinian protesters set up a tent camp in front of Sproul Hall on the UC Berkeley campus on Monday
Officials broke up a tent demonstration after students began camping in Palestine following a call from USC’s Divest from Death Coalition and National Students for Justice in Palestine.
It comes as the situation at Columbia University in New York City remained tense, with campus officials saying talks with pro-Palestinian protesters would continue for another 48 hours.
University President Minouche Shafik had set a midnight deadline to reach an agreement to clear an encampment of protesters on campus, but the school extended negotiations and said it was making “important progress.”
Student protesters had committed to dismantling and removing a significant number of tents, the Ivy League university said in a statement.
Wednesday morning the camp seemed quiet and slightly smaller than the day before.
Student demonstrators occupy the pro-Palestinian ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’ on Columbia University’s West Lawn on April 24
An encampment protesting the genocide in Gaza enters its second day on April 23 on the grounds of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States.
Police attempted to clear the Columbia encampment for the first time last week, when they arrested more than a hundred protesters. But the move backfired and served as an inspiration for other students across the country to set up similar camps and motivate protesters in Columbia to regroup.
Elsewhere, at the University of Minnesota, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar attended a protest late Tuesday, hours after nine protesters were arrested on campus as police took down an encampment in front of the library. Hundreds had gathered in the afternoon to demand their release.
Omar’s daughter was among the protesters arrested in Columbia last week.
At some protests, students hid their identities. In an encampment of about 40 tents in the heart of the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, almost every student wore a mask, which was handed to them as they entered.
Meanwhile, more than 40 protesters were arrested Monday at an encampment at Yale University.
The increase in demonstrations has left universities struggling to balance campus safety with the right to free speech. Many have long tolerated the protests but are now using more heavy-handed discipline, citing security concerns.