PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Protesters packed up their belongings and left a pro-Palestinian encampment at Drexel University Thursday after the school announced its decision to ask police to clear the encampment.
University President John Fry said in a statement that he decided to have campus police and public safety officers join the Philadelphia police. clean the camp as peacefully as possible. Media reported that police warned protesters to leave the encampment and that the protesters left.
Fry said the university is committed to protecting the right of community members to peacefully assemble and express their opinions, but that it has the responsibility and authority to regulate gatherings on campus in order to ensure safety and fulfill the mission of educating students.
“An unauthorized encampment involving large numbers of people unaffiliated with Drexel entering our campus is illegal,” Fry said. “The words and chants emanating from this demonstration, underlined by the disgusting “demands” of the demonstrators, must now end.
Protesters gathered their belongings as dozens of police officers on bicycles arrived around 5:20 a.m. In less than half an hour, there were only a few items left on the Korman Family Quad where the camp of 35 tents had been, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
“Most of the campers collected their belongings and left of their own accord,” said Philadelphia Police Sgt. » declared Eric Gripp.
In a statement published online On Thursday morning, protest organizers said they had launched a “strategic retreat” to ensure “the safe passage of all people and resources out of the liberated area.” They said neither city nor campus police gave warning to evacuate the encampment, but that “we warned ourselves.”
Organizers also stated that “we achieved our goal of disruption: a university-wide lockdown imposed by cowardly leaders and excessive police presence exhausted university resources for six days.” The group also pledged to stay active, writing: “We will not back down, we will come back and we will come back stronger.” »
The encampment had persisted despite Fry’s threat earlier this week to have it cleared. Fry said Tuesday that classes would be held virtually for a third day Wednesday after administrators attempted to open a line of communication with protesters but were rebuffed. Media reports said the university announced Wednesday evening that the campus would resume normal operations on Thursday.
In his statement Thursday morning, Fry said previous requests to disperse protesters had been ignored, but he was asking Drexel affiliates to leave the encampment so police could “escort any remaining trespassers off our campus.”
A wave of pro-Palestinian tent encampments on campus has led to more than 3,000 arrests at national scale.
Harvard University held its beginning Thursday after a week-long pro-Palestinian encampment. Hundreds of students in graduation gowns walked out chanting “Free and Free Palestine” a day after the school announced that 13 Harvard students who participated in a protest encampment would not be able to receive diplomas alongside their classmates.
Also Thursday, leaders of Northwestern University and Rutgers University testified before the House Education and Workforce Committee where they defended their decision to end pro-Palestinian encampments through negotiations rather than police force. School leaders told committee members they were capable of defusing any danger without ceding ground to protesters.
Northwestern President Michael Schill and Rutgers’ Jonathan Holloway were called before the commission as part of a series of Republican-led hearings examining how universities have responded to allegations of anti-Semitism . Gene Block, chancellor of University of California, Los Angeleswhich has come under scrutiny for the police’s delayed response to violence between pro-Palestinian protesters and counter-protesters.
A new pro-Palestinian encampment has appeared on the UCLA campus, as Bock testified Thursday. The encampment was abandoned when law enforcement arrived at midday and declared the gathering illegal. A small group of protesters then staged a sit-in inside a nearby building before police evacuated them.
News Source : apnews.com
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