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By Alison Cross
Hartford Courant
(Hartford Courant) — Police at the University of Connecticut cracked down on student protesters Tuesday morning, arresting those who were part of the “Gaza solidarity encampment” on the Storrs campus. Student organizers reported that 23 protesters were arrested. online news
Students said that police encircled and dismantled the encampment, established April 24 to demand the university break ties with Israel and divest from companies supporting the country’s war in Gaza that has left tens of thousands of civilians dead since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.
The students had remained at the encampment after the university on April 26 issued a statement prohibiting tents on the property and declaring a 24-hour quiet period through the end of the semester.
Stephanie Rietz, spokesperson for the school, issued a statement Tuesday morning saying about 20 tents remained Monday afternoon and the group continued to use “amplified sound,” despite the recently stated university policy. Students had said they would maintain the demonstration until their demands were met.
“The group was warned multiple times over a period of days that while they were free to be in the space and exercise their free speech rights, the guidelines needed to be followed and the tents needed to be taken down. This was ignored,” Reitz said.
“UConn Police directed them four times on Tuesday morning to remove the tents and disperse, and they again repeatedly ignored the directives. Officers then entered the site to remove the tents and tarps, and to arrest those who refused compliance.”
One student, who wished to be identified by only his first name, Chris, said approximately 80 police officers and state troopers encircled the encampment and began arresting demonstrators shortly after 7:30 a.m.
Chris, a junior who served as a “police liaison” for the encampment, said he was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and criminal trespass. According to Chris, all students received the same charges. He said bond was set a $500 for each charge, totaling $1,000 for each student.
“We kind of were anticipating a raid coming this morning because we heard it was happening at Yale,” Chris said. “We expected that there was statewide coordination on this, which seemed to have been true.”
Students said the police blocked off the entrances and exits to the camp before making arrests.
“Over the megaphone, they told us that we had to disperse or they would arrest us,” one arrested student, who wished to remain anonymous said. “After no one was moving, they started arresting people. First, they arrested the people who were chanting, and then they came up to the tents and they started taking people one by one.”
The student said that she was arrested and zip-tied. Afterward, she said, police brought students to the parking lot and transported them to the station in police vans.
She said the arrested students kept protesting, laughing and singing in the vans and the cells.
“We were having the best time ever,” she said. “The energy is very good. The cops were saying ‘Oh, you guys are the most fun group we’ve ever had in here.’”
Despite the jubilance, the student emphasized the gravity of their mission.
“We want our university to know that we will go all the way for them to listen to our needs,” she said.
Other students expressed their frustrations with the arrests at the UConn Spirit Rock, painting the message “Hands off our students.”
“Students should have a voice and for the officers and for administration here on campus to silence them is not something that should be happening, especially since it’s peaceful,” Lujayn Banday, a sophomore said.
Sajal Raja, a graduate student, said that it feels like the UConn administration is “really picking sides.”
“UConn has to remember that this isn’t Muslim versus Jews. This isn’t religion versus religion. It’s Palestinians that are being killed, innocent people that are being killed. This isn’t war, it’s genocide,” Raja said.
Demonstrators who gathered outside of the UConn Police Department to support the arrested said organizers were still deciding whether or not to reestablish an encampment on campus.
Some said that students intend to launch a hunger strike if the university suspends the protesters.
Muneeb Syed, a junior who serves as the president of the Muslim Student Association emphasized that camping was never the focus of the demonstrations.
“We’re now going to start thinking about what is our next strategy,” Syed said. “We want to see what are the options that we have in hand and what can we do to best maximize our voices to get those demands.”
Sayed said he wants the administration to know that the protesters are “here to stay.”
The arrested students exited the police station one at a time over the course of hours. Each time a student walked out of the doors, the crowd of students, faculty and others clapped and cheered. Cars that passed by beeped their horns in support. By 2 p.m. organizers said that 11 of 23 arrested had been released.
Yale University, where students started an encampment days before UConn’s, also cracked down on protesters, clearing the encampment at Campus Cross and threatening students with arrest and suspension if they stood in the way, according to Yale Daily News.
The UConn students, calling themselves UConn Divest coalition, said the goal of the encampment is “to protest UConn’s complicity in the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and its shameful contributions to militarism around the globe, and to advocate for a liberated Palestine.”
The group said they will not leave campus until UConn agrees to an enumerated a list of demands, that the university “disclose and divest from occupation and genocide;” “sever ties to the war industry;” “sever ties to the settler-colonial state of Israel;” and “end repression of Palestinian and Pro-Palestinian activists.”
The group points in particular to Raytheon Technologies (RTX), Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and calls for Alumni Trustee Bryan Pollard, associate general counsel for RTX, to be removed from the Board of Trustees.
“While this encampment is unprecedented at UConn, our goal today is not solely to ‘make history’ but to end UConn’s complicity in the genocide of our siblings in Gaza,” UConn Divest said in a statement when the encampment was first established. “We center Gaza in our hearts and mind.”
Israeli officials and their supporters have repeatedly denied accusations of genocide, arguing that the nation’s attacks on Gaza are necessary to defend Israel after Hamas terrorists that killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 100 hostages on Oct. 7.
UConn students followed Yale in launching an ongoing protest encampment on April 24, occupying the space between the rec center and business school on the Storrs campus and calling it the “UCommune” at Dove Tower. They initially attempted to pitch tents, which were taken by police and one person, a graduate student, was arrested. Protesters subsequently slept outside in freezing cold temperatures in sleeping bags, awaking to study, share food, discussions and even yoga throughout the day.
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When rain fell two nights ago, protesters again pitched tents in violation of the school’s stated policy on the protest.
Student organizers said 23 protesters were arrested.
Sen. Saud Anwar issued a statement calling on UConn President Radenka Maric, who has yet to speak on the issue, to drop the charges against students and allow the exercise of the First Amendment.
“I was discouraged to hear that peaceful student protesters have been arrested at UConn. Our First Amendment protects the right of Americans to peacefully speak freely without fear of government retaliation,” Anwar said in a statement. “The charges against non-violent student protesters should be dropped and I hope UConn President Maric will protect her students’ right to peacefully protest. Regardless of our individual views on any number of issues, as Americans we must always fight for each other’s right to free speech.”
At Columbia University, where a student encampment on April 18 sparked a rash of demonstrations across the country and the world, the campus was put on lockdown after protesters began occupying a campus building Tuesday morning. The school ordered protesters to deconstruct and leave the encampment there on Monday and has begun suspending students, according to NPR.
At around 8 a.m. student demonstrators at Yale announced that the police had “taken over the encampment.” Photos and videos posted by protesters on social media showed police tape closing off the encampment and the area surrounding Cross Campus.
Students at the universities are demonstrating in support of Palestinians being killed, displaced and enduring famine as a result of Israel’s war against Hamas, calling the onslaught a genocide. Wesleyan University students also established a demonstration on the Middletown campus on April 28.
University administrators have refused to negotiate with student organizers. University officials met with student representatives Monday afternoon, but Reitz said it was only for a “care and concern” check-in.
“The purpose was to ask them how they were doing and make sure they had a clear understanding of the university’s policies and practices, especially since there were follow-up questions after UConn’s initial communication on Friday,” Reitz said. “The students were told in advance that it was a “care and concern” check-in, and not a meeting to negotiate anything. Despite this, the students who attended stated they were there to negotiate their “demands.” University staff reiterated that was not the purpose of the meeting, and the students departed.”
In a Yale University statement April 17, the university said it would not disinvest from military weaponry because “authorized sales did not meet the threshold of grave social injury, a prerequisite for divestment, because this manufacturing supports socially necessary uses, such as law enforcement and national security.”
Likewise, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik said that university “will not divest from Israel,” according to the Columbia Daily Specter.
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