US student protesters claim police brutality
Student protests continued at universities across the US, while anger grew over reports of police brutality at some schools.
There were mass arrests at institutions including Columbia University, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas at Austin and elsewhere on Friday.
Members of faculty criticised school leadership and demanded safety and freedom for students.
“As Faculty for Justice in Palestine, we fully support the strength and clarity of purpose that our students are bringing in asking for disclosure and divestment from weapons of destruction,” a Yale University professor told The National.
Colleges and universities have become the focus of student protests demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war and also that their schools divest from financial connections that support Israel’s actions in the occupied territories.
“The fact that they are being criminalised and silenced is an ideological stance that the university leadership is taking and we condemn that,” the Yale professor said. In the UK on Friday, dozens of students rallied at University College London, with banners saying it is “complicit in genocide” and demanding it “divest from death”, while protesters at Paris’s Sciences Po university blocked an entrance to the school.
While US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the protests were a “hallmark of our democracy”, questions about the police response to the demonstrations were raised.
Ohio State University student newspaper The Lantern said that state troopers had “long-range firearms” on a roof overlooking a pro-Palestine student protest on campus, quoting a university representative, after social media photos of the officers inflamed conversation over policing.
Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia was the site of several incidents on Thursday, including arrests of professors.
Human rights organisations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch and others issued warnings and condemnation of university leaders.
The ACLU published an open letter to school presidents arguing that academic freedom and free speech should be protected on campuses.