While Emory University, Boston’s Emerson College and the University of Southern California have grabbed national headlines for law enforcement officers clashing with campus protesters, the police force in the nation’s capital opted to avoid the situation.
From The Washington Post’s report by Peter Hermann: D.C. police rejected pleas from George Washington University officials to clear pro-Palestinian demonstrators out of an on-campus encampment early Friday morning, saying they worried about the optics of moving against a small number of peaceful protesters, according to two officials familiar with the talks.
Officers had assembled around 3 a.m. and were prepared to enter the encampment, but senior leaders in the police chief’s and mayor’s office ordered them to stand down, the officials said. The demonstrators were small in number and largely peaceful, and the city officials told their university counterparts they wanted to avoid images of violent altercations between police and protesters flashing across TV screens across the country. The George Washington campus is just west of downtown Washington, five blocks from the White House.
As of Friday night, D.C. police had not sought to arrest anyone in the encampment, though university officials surrounded it with barricades and were not allowing new people to join.
A spokeswoman for George Washington University did not answer questions about school officials’ discussions with law enforcement authorities. The school said in a statement, “After demonstrators refused multiple instructions to relocate, GWPD requested additional support from the DC Metropolitan Police to ensure the safety and security of all our community members through a measured and orderly approach.”
In D.C., the protesters are on private university property, and absent seeing a crime being committed, D.C. police said they need to be invited to take action on the campus. To do that, school officials would have to declare the demonstrators illegal trespassers who refuse to leave, or cite other possible crimes.
