UNC-Chapel Hill police charged 36 members of a pro-Palestinian "Gaza solidarity encampment" Tuesday morning after warning the group to remove its tents from campus or face possible arrest, suspension or expulsion from the university. University officials confirmed Tuesday evening that 30 people -- including 10 students -- were cited for trespassing and released on site after they refused to leave the encampment at Polk Place, the university's main quad. Twenty of those cited are not affiliated with the university. Six more demonstrators were charged and taken to the Orange County jail for booking, after which they were released on a written promise to appear in court. At least one person was charged with assault on a government official and resist, delay and obstruct, according to UNC police reports.
The arrests were part of a tension-filled day between demonstrators and law enforcement, with the protest escalating to physical struggles around a flagpole in the center of Polk Place when an American flag was taken down and a Palestinian flag was hung in its place. Protesters also threw water on Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts and the officers as they worked to rehang the flag.
Some protesters attempted to push past the police but did not appear to be successful.
UNC canceled classes Tuesday afternoon for the rest of the day, on the university's last day of classes for the semester. The school said it would also suspend all non-mandatory operations.
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Sofie, an SJP organizer who did not give her last name, said Monday morning that the group planned to stay in the encampment until the university complies with its demands. "We're going to be out here until the university discloses, divests and actually ends complicity in the genocide against the Palestinian people carried out by the U.S. and Israel, Sofie said. In a news release Tuesday, the university said campus police "calmly approached the group" at 6 a.m. and detained people who refused to leave. "During that time, the protesters attempted to block the UNC Police vehicles by standing in front of them and throwing items at officers," the UNC release stated.
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Members of the encampment who were willing to risk arrest, indicated by wearing a red wristband, gathered near the group's tents, while those not willing to do so remained at a distance.
Dividing the protest cadres into color-coded groups segregated based on how many laws they're willing to break, and how much violence they are prepared to use, is an antifa/Black Bloc practice.
Those wearing orange wristbands were willing to serve as "jail support."
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At noon, the demonstrators began marching to South Building, on the other end of the quad. The group, hundreds strong, chanted "Free, free Palestine," and "long live the intifada," among other chants.
The protesters were allowed to do their stupid pro-terrorism exercises so long as they did not interfere with the actual business of the schools. Just like the scorpion that must always sting the frog whose back it rides on, they quickly showed their true natures as destroyers and began invading and "taking over" classrooms.
The SJP is urging professors to withhold grades for any students unless these terrorists are granted amnesty.
They really appreciate the Palestinian Way of taking hostages and issuing demands. Maybe they should all move to that most shitty of all shithole countries.
[A] group of 800 professors at the school are signing a letter demanding that the school reverse all of the suspensions.
The student encampment located on Polk Place was an example of the kind of peaceful free expression that our university claims to uphold. Free speech is often challenging; it can make people uncomfortable, and it can grow heated. But until that speech crosses the line into violence or obstruction, it must be protected, even at the cost of discomfort or patches of grass yellowed by tents. The administration's decision to call in police from across the state to storm our students' encampment at 5:30 in the morning on Tuesday, April 30, created a militarized and unsafe climate on the UNC campus. It subjected the very students it is charged with protecting to violence and trauma...The university must immediately dismiss all suspensions and other charges against students involved in the protest, return the confiscated belongings of our students, remove the fence around the flagpole in the quad, and re-open Campus Y in recognition of its central importance to our university community.
In short, they want amnesty for everyone involved in the protests. There were no threat included in the letter signed by the professors but the UNC Chapter of SJP is trying to add one. If amnesty isn't granted, they want professors to withhold students' grades.
UNC SJP is seeking to use withheld grades to pressure administrators to reverse student discipline. The group said in a news release that instructors are "withholding grades and demanding the UNC-CH administration grant all protesters amnesty."
At least one professor has indicated he is going to do this until the school meets his (or her) demands.
UNC claims they'll sanction any professor who actually attempts to damage students by withholding their grades.
Fire them.
North Carolina must rewrite the law ending tenure for any professor who refuses to do his job for any reason, if that university takes any state aid.
And then: Fire them.
We cannot live in a society in which the left is always threatening the rest of us into giving them special privileges and immunities, as if they were an imperial noble caste.