ACLU Blasts Wash U for Mass Arrests at Pro-Palestine Protest

The ACLU of Missouri issued a harsh critique of Washington University’s handling of a Pro-Palestine protest and encampment on Saturday, saying it “chills, curtails, and restricts expression despite the university’s claims of commitment to that very principle.”

A total of 100 people were arrested on campus during the protest on Saturday, April 27, including 23 Wash U students and at least four employees, according to Chancellor Andrew Martin. Six faculty members have now been banned from campus and forbidden from speaking with students and their colleagues even off campus.

“Washington University’s choice to stamp out pro-Palestine protests is a divorce from its long history of tolerance towards, and in some cases participated in, student activism on a range of issues that have redirected and reshaped the conscience of our Nation,” the ACLU of Missouri said in a statement . “In its efforts to silence students and other protestors, the university set up a direct confrontation between police officers and student activists.”

This confrontation led to a physical break up of the protest, the organization says.

During the peaceful protest, officers slammed protester s to the ground and then dragged and carried them away from an encampment.

Schools must recognize that the use of armed guards and police on campus is dangerous and should be a last resort, the ACLU says.

“No democratic government is above criticism from its citizens. Washington University and other campuses throughout the state are educating the next generation of people who will become leaders and scholars in their communities and should foster an environment to encourage the students to engage in our government and speak out when they believe its actions are contrary to our values both domestically and abroad,” the organization says. “Few places are more important for the exercise of free and open expression than where young people gather and are educated.”

St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell’s office said in a statement this morning that no application for charges against the protestors has been made.

“It's obviously impossible to comment meaningfully on cases with evidence we have not seen. We also can't predict when or what Washington University Police Department will do,” its statement said.

Martin previously said in a statement following the protest that “everyone arrested is facing criminal charges for trespassing and, for some, potentially resisting arrest and assault.”
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