TEXAS, CALIFORNIA UNLEASH POLICE, NAT’L PALESTINIAN PROTESTS ACCELERATE
“OVERWHELMING POLICE RESONSE TO … PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATION SHOULD BE CONCERNING TO ALL WHO BELIEVE IN OUR CONSTITUTION.”
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This is a developing report. Check back for additional news.
Authorities in Texas and California unleashed brutal police crackdowns on pro-Palestinian protesters as a revolt ignited by students at Columbia University in New York rocketed 'round the world on Wednesday.
The frontline of today's fight was on the flagship campus of the University of Texas at Austin. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ordered Texas State Troopers, backed by Troopers on horses, to attack a "peaceful, pro-Palestinian protest," the local newspaper, the Austin-American Statesmen, reported.
Unlike at Columbia, Yale and NYU, where university officials cited tents protesters had erected as the reason for summoning police to arrest students, the students at UTA had merely gathered for a rally calling for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip.
Bystander video published on social media captured Austin Police and Texas State Police surrounding and trapping—"kettling"— hundreds of protesters then charging into them with police batons.
A cameraman for the local FOX News affiliate, News 7, was attacked by the Troopers from behind, thrown to the ground and arrested.
"They were pushing me. And they say that I hit an officer. I didn't hit an officer. They were pushing me," the journalist said in a perp walk interview.
More than 50 were arrested. Police cleared the campus of all protesters shortly after 6:00 pm. Protesters returned and reoccupied a campus lawn.
Travis County District Attorney Delia Garza issued a statement saying the "overwhelming police response to what appears to have been a peaceful demonstration should be concerning to all who believe in our constitution."
But Gov. Abbott declared in a public statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, "These protesters belong in jail."
"Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled," he added.
Supporters of Israel often say or suggest any criticism of Israel is automatically anti-semitic. Palestinian supporters, which include Jews, call it a propaganda tactic to demonize them and the Palestinian cause.
Meanwhile in California, Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass dispatched LAPD riot police to clear a pro-Palestinian protest camp set up at dawn on the grounds of the University of Southern California.
The private school canceled a planned graduation day speech by Valedictorian Asna Tabassum based on bogus objections from Pro-Israeli factions. They claimed Tabassum made a social media post that was allegedly anti-Semitic.
USC Pres. Carol Folt allowed the groups to exercise what First Amendment scholars call a Heckler's Veto and said it received threats to the campus because of her planned speech. Pres. Folt later banned planned commencement speeches by American film director/writer Jon M. Chu and tennis legend Billie Jean King.
On Wednesday, protesters at the pro-Palestinian USC camp singled out USC President Carol Folt for personal criticism: “Carol, Carol, you can’t hide! You’re supporting genocide!”
They also chanted “Disclose! Divest! We will not stop, we will not rest!,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
One protester was arrested when he appeared to interfere with police as they advanced on the protest camp. When police put him in a police car and tried to drive him away, male and female protesters, some wearing traditional Arab head-scarves called "keffiyehs," locked arms and surrounding the police car.
"Let him go! Let him go! Let him go!, they chanted.
That's when Mayor Bass sent in the LAPD riot cops. At least 30 were arrested.
Columbia University quad, Apr. 24, 2024. Photo credits: JB Nicholas.
On the other side of the country in New York City, The Free Lance visited the pro-Palestinian protest camp at Columbia University on Tuesday.
The rebellion now sweeping college campuses and cities across America started seven days ago at Columbia.
During a Congressional hearing into alleged anti-semitism on Columbia's campus last Wednesday, Columbia Pres. Nemat "Mincouhe" Shafik sacrificed academic freedom and agreed to punish Columbia professors for supporting Palestinian rights in response to demands from representatives.
The Communique editorialized Pres. Shafik willingly participated in the most appalling and shamefully un-American political spectacle since the 1954 Army-McCarthy Hearings into alleged Communists and "subversives."
Within hours, students seized a part of Columbia's quad—its public square for students on its private campus—and set up tents draped with pro-Palestinian protest signs and Palestinian flags.
The next morning, Pres. Shafik alleged the camp was a "clear and present danger" and summoned the NYPD to arrest students.
Even the NYPD thought it was not justified and seemingly disavowed that the students were, in fact, a danger to anyone.
"So let me put this in perspective, the students that were arrested were peaceful, offered no resistance whatsoever, just saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner," NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said at a news conference after the arrests.
The National Students for Justice in Palestine, the umbrella group for more than 300-plus chapters in colleges across America, responded to the Columbia students' action by issuing a nationwide call to action last Friday.
"We call on all SJPs across the nation to seize the university and force the administration to divest, for the people of Gaza!"
So far, students responded with protests at Yale, at Brown, at Harvard, at MIT, Boston University and Harvard University, at Princeton, Northwestern University, Miami University in Ohio, at Temple University, the New School for Social Research, Tufts, Emerson, New York University, the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina and the University of Alberta, in Canada.
Now, the pro-Palestinian protests have spread to campuses in Cairo, Egypt, Paris, France and Sydney, Australia, the New York Times reports.
At Columbia, faculty and alumni joined the students last Friday, vowing to “fight” to take back “our university.”
On Tuesday evening, The Free Lance observed a pro-Israel protester dressed in an Israeli flag suit engaged in orderly debate with pro-Palestinian protesters at the entrance to the students' protest camp.
The Free Lance freely walked around campus and did not detect any anti-Semitism at all. A makeshift pro-Israel monument of posters and flags is steps away from the pro-Israel encampment, though no one was attending to it at the time this reporter walked past. About 300 people occupied tents inside the protest camp and the area immediately around it.
Columbia and its sister school Barnard have sprawling, urban campuses of many buildings. Only its central part is capable of being secured by closing gates. This includes the steps of its iconic Low Library and the fields between those steps and the Roman-columned Bartlett library. This core part is now closed to the public.
This reporter was able to get inside because of his New York City-issued press credential.
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La), Speaker of the House of Representatives, visited Columbia Wednesday. Pres. Shafik allowed him to hold a news conference on the steps of the Low Library after meeting with her and, he said, Jewish students. He claimed they told him they suffered abuse.
“We just can’t allow this kind of hatred and antisemitism to flourish on our campuses, and it must be stopped in its tracks," Speaker Johnson said.
The speaker was heckled by protesters in the crowd as he spoke. “Mike you suck! Mike you suck!” they chanted.
"We encouraged her," the House Speaker managed to say between jeers, referring to Pres. Shafik, "to take immediate action and stamp this out."
Students "who are perpetrating this violence should be arrested," he explained. "I am here today joining my colleagues, and calling on President Shafik to resign if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos.”
Pres. Shafik has given the students until Friday to negotiate a solution that does not involve her summoning the NYPD to the campus to arrest students for protesting.
If she doesn't, Speaker Johnson said Pres. Biden should deploy the National Guard to "bring order to these campuses.”
By the end of the night, the LAPD returned to the USC campus to forcibly remove protesters. Almost 100 were arrested in total.
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