Members of a pro-Palestinian encampment removed from Wayne State’s campus Thursday morning continue to protest as university police stand by in riot gear.
After the encampment retreated around 5:30 a.m. Thursday, a group of about 50 protesters gathered on the sidewalk at Anthony Wayne Drive and Williams Mall to continue chanting, while WSU police put up tape and stood stood before them in riot gear. The group began peacefully protesting around the block from the encampment on the State Hall lawn at 8:15 a.m., shortly after police arrested a protester who broke away from the group and attempted to remove the recording of the police.
Rep. American. Rashida Tlaib, who represents Detroit, joined the protest around 8:30 a.m., angrily lashing out at a police officer who accused her of ripping off a protester’s hijab or headscarf. The woman was one of four people arrested by police during the protests, although the reason was clear.
“Did you rip off a hijab?” They are children! she told campus police. “… No amount of training will teach you not to remove your headscarf. Know the diversity on your campus. »
The encampment was dismantled early Thursday. Wayne State President Kimberly Andrews Espy said university police told the occupants around 5:30 a.m. that they needed to gather their belongings and leave. Police asked the occupants to leave and then used “an amplified audio system” to ensure the announcement was heard, a university spokesperson said.
“After continued consultations with the Board of Governors, university leadership and community leaders – and after many good faith efforts to reach a different conclusion – this was the right time to take this necessary action ” Espy said in a statement Thursday. . Morning.
Espy said the encampment has presented legal, health, safety and operational challenges for the university community since protesters created it on May 23.
“The encampment also created an environment of exclusion, in which some members of our campus community felt unwelcome and unable to fully participate in campus life,” Espy said.
Ali Hassan, president of the Wayne State University Muslim Coalition who was part of the camp, declined to comment on the camp’s withdrawal until a news conference later that morning.
By 7:40 a.m., nothing remained of the encampment on the State Hall lawn except a painted rock reading “Free Palestine.”
One protester accused the university of sending its police officers on the occupants “at 5:30 p.m., when they were most vulnerable.”
Espy said campus operations will remain remote Thursday.
“We will announce tomorrow’s operations later today,” she said.
The group of protesters set up camp on the lawn of Wayne State’s State Hall on May 23. This came days after a similar camp set up at the University of Michigan in late April was removed.
Protesters at Wayne State vowed to keep the encampment in place until the university responds to multiple demands, including that it fully disclose its investments, including investments in index funds not included in the reports public; its divestment from the SSgA S&P 500 Index, which includes arms makers such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman and General Dynamics; and guarantee that university police officials will not travel to Israel as they did in 2019.
Protesters also said they want the school to develop policies to protect student protesters; Establish legal and financial protections for Palestinian students, particularly those on international visas; create scholarships for Palestinians and Gazans to study at WSU; and call for a ceasefire in Gaza as a university and recognize that the United States and Israel are committing genocide against the Palestinians.
Before the camp was removed, Espy spoke to university leaders and camp leaders, emphasizing that the group was an intrusion.
“In every conversation, we reiterated that the occupiers were trespassing on university property and we requested that the encampment be removed,” she said in a statement. “No individual or group is permitted to claim campus property for its own use and deny others access to that property.”
On Tuesday, Wayne State University officials said the school was immediately moving to remote operations because the pro-Palestinian encampment posed “an ongoing public safety concern.” Protesters called the decision “ridiculous.”
On Monday, Tlaib called on the university president and the Board of Regents to negotiate a settlement.
cramirez@detroitnews.com
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