‘A Dark Sad Day’: Wash U Chancellor Condemns Pro-Palestine Protests

Andrew Martin says 23 of the 100 people arrested on Saturday were students

Apr 29, 2024 at 11:54 am

A protestor and a police officer face off on the Wash U campus in St. Louis on Saturday, April 27. ZACHARY LINHARES

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In a newly released statement, Washington University’s chancellor calls Saturday “a dark sad day.” And he isn’t referring to the dozens of arrests of community members and students.

A total of 100 people were arrested on campus Saturday, including 23 Wash U students and at least four employees, according to Chancellor Andrew Martin. He says three police officers were injured during the arrests.

“A large group of individuals came to campus intending to disrupt, do harm and interfere with educational activities and campus life,” Martin writes. “When the group began to set up an encampment, which is in clear violation of our explicitly stated policies, we asked them to leave, multiple times. They did not leave voluntarily so we made the decision to peaceably remove them. Unfortunately they physically resisted.”

What followed included a presidential candidate being hit in the face by a bicycle, an elderly man being thrown face first into the ground and protesters being dragged away by their legs and flipped to their backs. The extent of the physical resistance RFT observed from the scene was protesters linking arms in a human chain and chanting.

“Everyone arrested is facing criminal charges for trespassing and, for some, potentially resisting arrest and assault,” Martin writes. “For those who are students, we also have initiated the university student conduct process. We are taking what happened very seriously.”

The St. Louis County Prosecutor’s Office has said they have not issued criminal charges against anyone involved in the protests. “Such charges may have been filed in a municipal court, or maybe this claim is predictive that charges will be filed, but no such charges have been filed in the 21st Circuit as of now,” a spokesman said this morning.

Penelope T., a student with Resist Wash U who organized the demonstration, says that every student who was arrested was also suspended and banned from campus.

“This means they needed to pack up their dorms and leave by 8 p.m. last night (Sunday),” she says. “This is a substantial number of students and for those living on campus means losing housing, access to food, medical and mental healthcare.”

Martin claims protestors behaved “aggressively.” He writes, “What happened yesterday was not a peaceful protest by our students. This was something else. …Some of the protesters were behaving aggressively, swinging flagpoles and sticks. Some were attempting to break into locked buildings or to deface property. There were chants that many in our community find threatening and antisemitic. When the group initially set up in front of Olin Library, our police dispatch received numerous calls from students who were inside the library, terrified that they were in harm’s way. When the group moved to Tisch Park, they began to set up another encampment and took to social media to invite others to join them. They refused to take down their tents as instructed multiple times by police. None of this is acceptable.”

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ZACHARY LINHARES

A police officer zip ties a protestor on the campus of Washington University on Saturday, April 27.

The Anti Defamation League, a non-profit dedicated to tracking antisemitism, has condemned protestors’ use of the term “Intifada,” which could be heard in chants at Wash U on Saturday. The term refers to two periods of uprising of the Palestinian people on the West Bank aimed at ending Israel’s occupation, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, which the ADL says included violence towards Jews in Israel.

“At Wash U, we fully support free expression,” Martin writes. “We encourage our students to use their voices to speak up about issues they’re passionate about. Our campus is a place for our community to advocate and debate, but to be clear, our expectation is that members of our community can protest and express their strongly held views with signs, chants, and speeches, so long as they don’t resort to actions that cause harm.”

Ward 7 Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier and Aldermanic President Megan Green were at the demonstration and attempted to de-escalate before arrests were made.

“I’ve been to a lot of protests over my lifetime,” Green said in a post to X (formerly Twitter) after the protest was broken up. “This was one of the most excessive uses of force I’ve ever seen. Six police departments responded to students chanting because they want the genocide in Gaza to stop and the university to divest from those supporting war.”

Green posted a photo to X showing a document she says that arrested faculty members were being made to sign. The document acknowledges that the arrestee has been banned from campus and will be arrested if they return.

Martin says in his statement that the university will not permit “outside interests” to establish encampments to promote “any political or social agenda.”

“We’ve all watched as protests have spiraled out of control on other campuses across the country in recent months. We are not letting this happen here,” Martin writes.

Protestors promise to keep coming back until their demands are met, which include divesting from genocide and cutting ties with Boeing, an academic boycott/ending relationships with Israeli educational institutions, ending policing/dropping the charges against protesters, stop buying land and start making payments in lieu of taxes to the City of St. Louis and University City, and condemning the attacks on Palestine.

“To those who plan to continue to come to campus with the intention of disrupting our education and research mission and violating our policies, please know we will respond proportionately each and every time,” Martin says. “You will not do this here.”