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Originally posted by HRK:

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Originally posted by Rightwire:
I'd say they're all safe from paper wads and rubber bands. Maybe even the errant water balloon.

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Originally posted by Lunasee:

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Originally posted by HRK:

Obviously they don't know the difference between cover and concealment. Good. LOL

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Originally posted by Greymann:
https://twitter.com/Bubblebath...XNHocKaQXHqqfIA&s=19

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Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Yeah. You working the Democratic convention in August?

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WTOP.com: DC police clear out GWU pro-Palestinian encampment, 33 protesters arrested
Emily Venezky | emily.venezky@wtop.com

May 8, 2024, 7:50 AM

D.C. police took down a pro-Palestinian encampment at George Washington University early Wednesday morning and arrested 33 protesters, D.C. police Chief Pamela Smith confirmed during a press conference.

Police tell WTOP officers began clearing University Yard at around 3 a.m. after law enforcement officials gave multiple warnings to clear the encampment. Protesters that refused to leave the site were taken into custody.

D.C. police said in a statement that the District “supports individuals peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights,” and the department had been trying to “deescalate tensions” at the encampment since protests began on April 25.

“A gradual escalation in the volatility of the protest” led to the clearing of the encampment, the statement read.

About five police vans were filled with arrested protesters by 5 a.m. Police could not confirm how many students, specifically, were arrested.

After setting up a bike barricade around the block of University Yard in the early morning, police started setting up metal barricades at around 7 a.m.

Tuesday evening, protesters carrying signs that read, “Free Palestine” and “Hands off Rafah,” marched to GWU President Ellen Granberg’s home on campus. Police were called to maintain the crowd. No arrests were made at the time.
Police block off G Street as officers clear the encampment at the University Yard protest. (WTOP/Luke Lukert)

Yasin Shami, a protest organizer who was on the yard when police broke up the encampment, said dozens of police in riot gear “stormed in from all corners.” He said officers pulled students from their tents and pushed them all into a large group before dividing the crowd.

“Some of the students were brave enough to stay despite the dispersal orders having been booked.” Shami said. “They came in, fully geared up to brutalize some students, which is exactly what happened.”

He also said the police intervention was “political,” referencing how Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. police Chief Pamela Smith planned to testify at a House Oversight hearing Wednesday on the District’s response to the GW encampment.

“Apparently, they wanted to have a Columbia or UT Austin or UCLA type of brutal crackdown,” Shami said, referring to the hearing. “It’s all politics and the students are the ones who are paying the price right now. But the focus should be on them and what they’re willing to withstand to stand up for what’s right, despite all this that you see.”

Two student protesters that were in the encampment early Wednesday morning said demonstrators that did not want to be arrested and left after the first verbal warning were pushed over a block away from the yard, so they couldn’t “get a glimpse of inside.”

“We go around the block to try to get a better glimpse, over on the streets that are further away from campus. We assumed that’s where they’d be taking the students that they arrested,” one student said. “They were waiting for us, a bunch of like 15 police officers kind of came out of nowhere with bikes to create, like a makeshift barricade.”

The students said a group of about 50 protesters started to amass on the street, linking arms so police couldn’t arrest anyone.

“We weren’t trying to push them or anything. We were just standing in place and then immediately they started grabbing their bikes and stabbing us with their bike handles like pushing, shoving people. And then it got very hectic,” the student said. More police officers started to appear, hitting protesters and using pepper spray, according to the students.

“I got sprayed with pepper spray,” one student said. “I ended up just kind of waddling backwards, completely blind because my eyes were stinging… this happened like three hours ago, still my arm is still stinging.”

The students said they were pushed out of the intersection and their group of injured protesters disbanded.

See live video of the encampment clearing via news partners 7News below:

The encampment clearing comes as protests at the university have just reached the two-week mark.

Last week, over 20 former and current D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners signed a letter calling on Mayor Muriel Bowser to pledge that she will not call on city police to take action against student protesters.

In the April 29 letter, the commissioners said the “protesters’ First Amendment rights should be protected,” and the Metropolitan Police Department should not engage in any actions to clear them out of the encampment on George Washington University’s campus, and should instead let them leave on their own terms. The group of commissioners wanted to make their stance clear, regardless of if they have legislative powers or not.

“I think that Washingtonians recognize that [protesting] is part of what makes D.C. special. It’s in our strong culture of folks using their First Amendment rights and standing up for what they believe in,” said Ward 3 Commissioner Hayden Dise, who was a signatory on the letter. “Don’t suspend students for protesting and don’t arrest them for being peaceful.”

Republican lawmakers from around the country visited the encampment last Wednesday and had a very different message, calling for D.C. police to take action or even send in the National Guard to clear demonstrators out.

Tensions have continued to ratchet up in standoffs with protesters on campuses across the U.S. — and increasingly, in Europe — nearly three weeks into a movement launched by a protest at Columbia University. Some colleges cracked down immediately on protests against the Israel-Hamas war. Among those that have tolerated the tent encampments, some have begun to lose patience and call in police over concerns about disruptions to campus life, safety and the involvement of nonstudents.

Since April 18, just over 2,600 people have been arrested on 50 campuses, figures based on AP reporting and statements from universities and law enforcement agencies.

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Originally posted by Sig2340:
Only six of the 33 arrested at GWU in DC were students!

Hmmmmmm.

Agitprop is alive and well in America.

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FOXNEWS.COM: Anti-Israel teen, 16, arrested for defacing WW1 memorial

A teenage anti-Israel agitator who police say defaced a World War I memorial in New York City earlier this week has been arrested and charged after his father turned him in to police Thursday night, the NYPD says.

The 16-year-old boy is accused of defacing the 107th United States Infantry monument, located along Central Park on the Upper East Side, by spray-painting "Gaza" in red across the base of the structure.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry, last night posted an image on X, formerly Twitter, of the young vandal in handcuffs sitting on a bench inside a police station. His face is blurred out.



...

The teen has been charged with two counts of criminal mischief in the third degree, which are felonies, and two counts of making graffiti, a class A misdemeanor, police say.

ROSAL

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Originally posted by Sig2340:

I'd like to buy that father a beer.

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Originally posted by V-Tail:

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Originally posted by Sig2340:

I'd like to buy that father a beer.

Agreed. Also, make the kid clean the monument with a toothbrush as part of his sentence.