The pro-Hamas protests spreading across college campuses around the nation recently reached Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, with more than 100 activists gathered on campus.
Local reports stated that police arrested at least 28 protesters on Thursday. The Georgia Department of Public Safety noted that the Emory Police Department would issue any and all charges. The Atlanta Police Department also assisted in breaking up the protest.
Videos posted online capturing the unruly demonstrations appeared to show law enforcement using tasers and pepper balls to disperse the crowd.
The rowdy group used large protest signs to shove law enforcement officers. Some activists appeared to throw their signs at police.
Caroline Fohlin, a professor at the university, was among those detained by police. A video of the arrest showed Fohlin refusing to get on the ground and yelling at arresting officers, “I’m a professor!”
An individual, presumably partaking in the anti-Israel protest, can be heard shouting at the police, “You people are fascists! You are Hitler!”
Philosophy Department Chair and president-elect of the Emory University Senate, Noëlle McAfee, was also among those detained.
James Hoesterey, an assistant professor of religion at the university, was seen tearing down caution tape put up around a lawn, according to a video posted to social media. Pro-Israel students confronted the professor, who then called the university “fascists.”
In another video, law enforcement officers appeared to use pepper balls to break up the crowd by firing toward the ground. Others, frustrated by the shutdown of the protest, claimed that rubber bullets were fired at students.
from PublicFreakout
Emory University said in a statement to Fox News, “Several dozen protesters trespassed into Emory University’s campus early Thursday morning and set up tents on the Quad.”
“These individuals are not members of our community. They are activists attempting to disrupt our university as our students finish classes and prepare for finals. Emory does not tolerate vandalism or other criminal activity on campus. The Emory Police Department ordered the group to leave and contacted Atlanta Police and Georgia State Patrol for assistance,” the statement continued.
Following the morning arrests, some protesters returned to campus in the evening, congregating at the university’s Candler School of Theology building, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The demonstrators, carrying Palestinian flags and holding protest signs, chanted, “Move cops, get out the way.”
Emory Police Department Commander Thomas Manns told the news outlet, “The ones that were arrested, there wasn’t anything peaceful about what was going on.”
The state patrol said, “During the encampment protest response, Troopers deployed pepper balls to control the unruly crowd but did not use tear gas.”
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Emory university, Atlanta, Georgia, Pro-hamas, Anti-israel, -pro-palestine, Israel hamas war, Hamas protests, Palestine protests, News