What I Saw at the University of Virginia’s Protest Crackdown
On Saturday, dozens of police officers—many in riot gear—broke up a small pro-Palestine encampment at the University of Virginia.
The tent encampment had formed less than 24 hours prior. According to a letter from UVA President Jim Ryan, protesting students started what they called the “UVA liberation encampment for Gaza” on April 30 but complied with orders not to set up tents, which would violate university policy. However, following rain over Friday night, students put up several tents, leading university police to attempt to remove the encampment.
According to a statement from the university, university and local police arrived around 11:45 a.m. on Saturday to inform protesters that their demonstration was in violation of school policy and directed them to leave. But “police were met with aggression and protesters swung objects at officers. University police then requested the assistance of Virginia State Police to assist in declaring an unlawful assembly.”
Controversy has sprung up around the university’s tent policy after a section on tent permits that had explicitly exempted “recreational tents for camping” was apparently removed Saturday morning. UVA insists the change wasn’t an attempt to entrap protesters.
“University officials said camping tents or other recreational tents are not allowed on University property without permits under a policy that has been in place since 2005,” a Sunday statement reads. “However, the permit application—not the policy itself—contained contradictory language,” which was edited after a faculty member notified the administration.
When I arrived on UVA’s campus at around 1:15 p.m. on Saturday, police had already surrounded the encampment. The number of students actually in the encampment was dwarfed by the crowd that gathered to watch the standoff—a mixture of encampment supporters, pro-Israel counterprotesters, and rubberneckers.
I fell in that last group, jostling to get a good view of the standoff between police and protesters. Most people around me—myself included—spent much of the time recording the spectacle on their phones.
I can’t say for sure whether the alleged aggression police were met with earlier in the day justified the police response, but as far as I saw on Saturday, the protest
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