Rancor remains after New Paltz protest breakup

NEW PALTZ — In the week since law enforcement forcibly cleared an antiwar encampment at the State University of New York at New Paltz, recriminations and defenses of the crackdown have reverberated around the campus, within the county executive’s office and on social media.

Students are dealing with the physical, emotional and legal fallout while trying to prepare for final exams. Law enforcement officials are defending their actions amid criticism by some parents, dozens of SUNY New Paltz faculty members and Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger. The district attorney’s office is deciding how to prosecute the 132 people arrested. And tensions on campus — which has been a hotbed of political activism related to the latest war between Israel and Hamas — showed little sign of easing.

In the time since the pro-palestinian encampment was established and taken down less than 36 hours later, various sides have tried to establish their narrative about what happened.

Sheriff Juan Figueroa said on Tuesday that police acted properly during the sweep without using pepper spray or Tasers or striking individuals with batons, even though protesters allegedly threw bottles — one of which hit a State Police investigator above the left eye, causing a laceration that required stitches, according to Troop F Public Information Officer Steven Nevel.

Figueroa’s comments followed a Monday night statement from Metzger, who criticized the “show of force by State Police.”

“The students were engaging in peaceful protest and standing up for what they fervently believe, and the response of law enforcement was disproportionate to the scene in front of them,” Metzger said. “I have already communicated my concerns about the police response to officials in Albany.”

In an open letter, more than 120 SUNY New Paltz faculty and staff members also strongly criticized the police response as a “brutal infringement of First Amendment freedoms” and noted that law enforcement arrived after protesters had dismantled their tents ahead of a 7 p.m. deadline set by the university administration.

“This raises grave issues of freedom of speech and assembly,” the letter states. “The police violently broke up a peaceful gathering in a public space on campus.”

Meanwhile, protesters have said they suffered physical injuries and trauma and lost valuable property — including laptops, cell phones, books, clothes, medicines and other materials — when the encampment site was swept up early Friday morning after the arrests. One student’s sister said her sibling, who was at the protest, was taken to the hospital with a head wound. State Police confirmed that one person arrested at the scene was briefly hospitalized with an injury.

Vivian Kelleher, a 19year-old freshman at SUNY New Paltz who said she joined the encampment shortly after it formed last Wednesday afternoon, shared a grainy video with the Times Union that appeared to show an unidentifiable trooper jabbing his baton into a protester’s body.

Lt. Joseph Sciutto of the sheriff’s office said the video did not contradict Figueroa’s claim that “batons were displayed but not used to strike individuals,” instead saying that troopers used the batons to pry apart the protesters, who had locked arms in a seated circle.

“No one was struck in the sense of being swung at,” Sciutto said. “They were using the batons to pry them from their grip.”

Kelleher, along with other students who requested anonymity, also said they heard police say they would shoot rubber bullets at anyone who ran during the arrests.

Nevel, the State Police spokesman, did not answer specific questions about any threat by police to fire rubber bullets or use of batons. The sheriff ’s office also declined to answer questions about the rubber bullets, instead referring a Times Union reporter to State Police for “any particular questions regarding equipment utilized by the State Police.”

Kelleher said she lost a tent, three sleeping bags, two lawn chairs, a purse with her IDS, cash and credit cards, a change of clothes, and medicine she needs for a gender transition.

“It was the craziest night of my life,” she said.

Kelleher said she joined the encampment to protest U.S. funding of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which has killed nearly 34,000 Palestinians, according to the Ministry of Health there. Israel launched its campaign in response to Hamas’ multi-pronged attack on Oct. 7 against Israeli settlements and attendees of a music festival, which killed more than 1,200 Israelis and captured some 200 hostages. On Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. had paused a shipment of bombs to Israel amid concerns about Israel’s plan to invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinians — more than half of Gaza’s population — are sheltering following months of fighting.

When Kelleher returned to the New Paltz encampment site Friday to retrieve her belongings, she said she was denied access. Most of the materials had been removed by then anyway, she said.

SUNY New Paltz Executive Director of Communication Andrew Bruso said that anything left behind after the arrests “was disposed of in accordance with public safety and sanitation best practices,” though he declined to say where the materials were taken. He added that the university would not pay for any lost or damaged property.

As of May 8, more than 2,700 people have been arrested or detained on campuses across the country, according to a New York Times database. SUNY New Paltz — which has about 6,000 enrolled students — had the fifth-most arrests of any campus protest, following the University of California, Los Angeles; Columbia University; City College of New York; and the University of Texas at Austin.

Of the 132 people arrested at New Paltz, there were 74 enrolled students, two employees, 10 alumni, one former employee and 45 people with no affiliation to the university, according to preliminary information gathered by SUNY New Paltz. Three were charged with misdemeanors, according to Administrative Assistant District Attorney Sajaa Ahmed. One person was charged with second-degree assault, a felony, accused of throwing a metal Gatorade bottle that struck a State Police investigator. The rest were charged with trespassing, a violation.

Asked to explain the trespassing charge, Bruso said demonstrators “violated long-established SUNY policy on lawful demonstrations (the institution’s ability to determine time, place and manner for such demonstrations) by cordoning off an area in Parker Quad that is not the designated free speech zone and establishing an encampment there. They also violated provisions against outside camping and temporary structures on campus grounds.”

He declined to answer whether the protesters remained in violation of the provision against outside camping and temporary structures after dismantling their tents.

All of the students arrested were referred to the school’s student conduct process, according to Bruso, which could include sanctions up to expulsion. The referrals are being held in abeyance for three weeks to let the semester conclude, according to a copy of a letter sent to one student that was shared with the Times Union.

The encampment and surrounding protest appeared peaceful, with chanting, poetry readings and educational events, according to videos shared on social media, interviews with eyewitnesses and statements from university officials. There were no visible counterprotests when a Times Union reporter arrived shortly before 7 p.m. last Thursday. By then, it had grown to include approximately 250 people, including students, faculty and outside community members. Another several hundred people had gathered outside the encampment cordon to watch or express support.

After two university-set deadlines to disperse came and went and following several verbal warnings by law enforcement, approximately 150 officers from the State Police, State University Police, Ulster County Sheriff ’s Office and New Paltz Police Department advanced on the encampment about 10:40 p.m. Thursday, dragging away protesters one by one. Among those pulled from the scene was a Spectrum News reporter.

The sweep concluded about 2 1⁄2 hours later. Everyone arrested was given an appearance ticket for a future court date and released.

Kelleher told the Times Union that she felt compelled to join in the protest and compared the wave of pro-palestinian activity on college campuses to student-led protests against the Vietnam War, which eventually helped turn public opinion against U.S. military strategy in that conflict.

But on Wednesday, she was having trouble focusing on finals, which are next week. Two of her professors had made exams optional, but she still had to write a paper and finish an art project. For that, she was seeking inspiration from a campuswide email President Darrell P. Wheeler sent on Friday after the arrests, in which he called the decision to deploy law enforcement “among the most difficult I have had to make at any point in my career” and detailed points of emphasis in the wake of the protest and crackdown.

“We sought a path of compromise and collaboration and arrived in a space of hurt and distrust,” Wheeler wrote. “We did not want to see this happen.”

By Tuesday, Wheeler had softened his tone, writing in a statement that meetings with students and others are “opportunities for me to learn about where you sit with the anger, pain and hurt that you are feeling, and reflect on how we have arrived at this point.” He also called Israel’s actions in Gaza “genocidal behavior occurring to Palestinian people and the people of Gaza,” echoing language used by the protesters.

But Kelleher said she might print out his email for her art project. She joked that she could use it for blackout poetry.