Wu defends arrest of Emerson protesters
Mayor says actions of police were appropriate
boston Mayor Michelle Wu on GbH Radio on Tuesday doubled down on her support and defense of boston police who arrested more than 100 pro-palestinian protesters and cleared an encampment students erected in an alleyway adjacent to Emerson college in a chaotic early morning scene last month.
Wu emphasized that the protesters were in violation of an ordinance she filed last year, which the city council passed in October, that “prohibits any person from camping or maintaining campsite materials on any public property or in a public right of way.” The proposal was part of Wu’s efforts to address the extensive encampment and humanitarian crisis at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea cass boulevard.
“We cannot say to unhoused residents, you have to comply with this ordinance that is on the books for health and safety, but if you are a student or if you are for a cause that we agree with, then we’re going to look the other way,” Wu said on GbH’s boston public Radio on Tuesday.
but for percy DavisShaw, a 22-year-old Emerson college senior who was one of the 118 protesters arrested on the morning of April 25, Wu’s argument and explanation feels like a “cop out.”
“It does not acknowledge the violence that was enacted in enforcing it,” DavisShaw said. “If it was just about, ‘We need access to these right of ways,’ there wouldn’t have to be that level of violence on students and to community members trying to support these students . ... They could have separated us without people getting hurt.”
Several city councilors have pushed back on whether it was necessary or appropriate to use the camping ordinance to clear protests like the one next to Emerson. but on Tuesday, Wu insisted that the city and university communicated several times with protesters to say their demonstrations could continue but the tents needed to be taken down to remove the threat to public health and safety.
DavisShaw disputed that characterization, saying she always felt incredibly safe at the encampment, and it didn’t feel dangerous until the police intervened on the morning of April 25. She also disagreed that the city and university officials made every effort to communicate and negotiate with protesters. She said the discussions were limited to the removal of the tents, and that school officials never negotiated with students over their demands, including divesting university’s funds away from companies tied to Israel.
“If every effort had been made, it wouldn’t have reached that point,” said DavisShaw. “I hold both our academic advisors, as well as the city, in tandem, responsible for that.”
The Friday after police broke up the encampment, Emerson college’s student government unanimously passed a resolution calling on the school’s president, Jay bernhardt, to resign.
Wu said Tuesday that city and school officials gave multiple warnings to protesters that they needed to remove the tents or risk arrest.
“The response was that the students, the organizers, wanted to get arrested and would keep the tents up to get arrested,” said Wu, acknowledging her own participation in protests in the past. “I understand that part of the point of protests and part of the point of civil disobedience that has been important to our country’s history can be to provoke or to draw attention with an incident that leads to an interaction with law enforcement.”
DavisShaw said she knew that arrest was a possibility, but, “I don’t think anyone wants to get arrested ever. It’s an unpleasant experience, it’s scary.”
Several videos shared on social media show the clash between police and protesters, some of whom were pushed or pulled to the ground to be placed in zip tie handcuffs. While Wu said officials are continuing to review all the body camera footage from the incident, some clips she has reviewed show police attempts to de-escalate the situation and give protesters the opportunity to leave.
One clip of body camera footage reviewed by the Globe shows a police official addressing students, conveying his support for the students’ right to protest and instructing them to remove the tents or risk arrest.
but DavisShaw said, due to the crowd size and noise, many students didn’t hear those announcements by police, who she said later got violent with the students.
“It did not feel like there was ample time for any students who didn’t realize how things could escalate, to leave,” she said. “We have a student who talks about how he thought he was going to die, because there were numerous officers pinning him to the ground telling him to not resist when he could not resist.”
Speaking on GbH, Wu said there is no documentation of any ambulance transports or hospitalizations from those who were arrested, though one protester complaining of shoulder pain declined medical treatment. Several police officers were injured, she said.
Wu said officials are still reviewing hundreds of hours of video, including overhead footage from the police clampdown, but from what she’s seen, the protesters chose to lock arms and face arrest.
“It is the city’s, the police department’s, responsibility to uphold the right to express your views and First Amendment and [right] to protest and all of that,” said Wu. “Where there are some parameters is that it cannot violate or conflict with public safety and the city has an ordinance that is meant to protect public health and safety around encampments and tents.”