Virginia Cops Slammed for College Protest Crackdown

Virginia police have been slammed for violently cracking down on a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Virginia, with commenters saying the law enforcement response was more than harsh than that during the infamous 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.

Police arrested 25 demonstrators during a confrontation at the university in Charlottesville, The Associated Press reported, in the latest escalation over students' protests against Israel's ongoing offensive in Gaza.

Students at UVA had begun their protest on a lawn outside the school chapel on Tuesday. Video from local news stations showed police in riot gear lined up on the campus on Saturday after protesters began erecting tents on Friday.

Officers in headgear and carrying shields began to clear the clear the encampment on Saturday afternoon. Videos on social media showed protesters were pushed to the ground, dragged by their arms and sprayed with chemical irritants.

A spokesperson for the Virginia State Police told Newsweek that pepper spray was "the only chemical aerosol" deployed against protesters.

University President Jim Ryan said in a message to the school community that when Tim Longo, the chief of the university police department, approached the students "reminding them once again of their university policy violations and pleading for a peaceful resolution," the request was ignored. Ryan said the university has a "long-standing prohibition on erecting tents absent a permit."

Ryan said that "when UPD's attempts to resolve the situation were met with physical confrontation and attempted assault, it became necessary to rely on assistance from the Virginia State Police."

Police "declared an unlawful assembly, issued no-trespass orders to those who refused to disperse, and arrested those who continued to refuse dispersal," he added.

Ryan said he recognized that some would disagree with the decision to call in police, adding that the "entire episode was upsetting, frightening and sad" and "an aberration."

The student protesters said that police had responded violently to a peaceful protest.

Officers "brought these weapons to a peaceful encampment," the UVA Encampment for Gaza account wrote on X, formerly Twitter, alongside a photo of an officer carrying an assault-type rifle. "They beat us. They maced us. They brutalized us."

Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Virginia shared a video on Instagram showing state police pointing guns at protesters, noting that it came on the anniversary of the Kent State massacre—when the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed college students during an anti-war protest at Kent State University in 1970, killing four and injuring nine.

They wrote that white nationalists and neo-Nazis who had marched on the university's campus in 2017 were not met with a similar police response.

"Dozens of riot police were deployed to a small Gaza solidarity encampment," the post's caption said. "In 2017, hundreds of neo-Nazis and antisemites descended on UVA campus in a deadly convergence entitled 'Unite the Right,' where Heather Heyer was murdered. The fascists' only opponents were militant antifascists. Now, UVA admin is unleashing riot police on peaceful anti-genocide protesters."

Heyer was killed and 19 others were injured when a car plowed into counter-protesters who had taken to the streets to decry the white nationalist rally.

Newsweek has contacted UVA and Virginia State Police for comment via email.

Others also took to social media to condemn police for treating student protesters more harshly than those involved in the 2017 rally.

"Happening at UVA in Charlottesville, police in riot gear are moving in to arrest protesters," Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at the Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic, wrote on X alongside a video showing officers dragging a person away from the encampment. "Remember when neo-Nazis openly chanted 'Jews will not replace us' and the police did nothing?"

Joshua P. Hill wrote: "Seeing the outpouring of cops in Charlottesville when UVA students protest genocide vs. the absence of (uniformed) cops when Nazis rallied in Charlottesville for Unite the Right makes things very clear. This is who cops are. This is what the ruling class is."

In another post, Hill wrote: "Never forget that Virginia cops did more to stop students protesting genocide in Charlottesville than they did to stop Nazis from marching and murdering in Charlottesville."

Molly Conger wrote: "This is the university of Virginia. they let Nazis march, but they won't let you protest genocide."

Saturday's crackdown at UVA comes as students have been demonstrating on college campuses nationwide since the arrest of more than 100 protesters at Columbia University on April 18.

Students have erected tent encampments to call on their schools to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say are profiting from Israel's offensive in Gaza, which followed Hamas' attack on southern Israel on October 7.

Militants killed about 1,200 people and took roughly 250 hostages. Since then, Israel has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, around two-thirds of them women and children, the AP reports, citing the local health ministry.

Columbia and other universities have brought in police to dismantle the encampments, resulting in mass arrests, while some universities have struck agreements with protest organizers to end the demonstrations.

Police have arrested more than 2,400 people on 47 campuses since April 18, according to a tally by the AP.

Update 5/5/2024, 10:40 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to add a comment from the Virginia State Police.