A total of 108 arrests were made and four officers were injured, said Sgt. said Detective John Boyle of the Boston Police Department in an email. According to him, no injuries were reported among the demonstrators.
Other images from the scene showed onlookers screaming as police herded students away or pushed them to the ground, a sea of tents behind them. The college did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday morning.
The activist group Emerson Students for Justice in Palestine accused police of “throwing” protesters to the ground and called on Boston Mayor Michelle Wu to do more to protect “her constituents of color.”
Meanwhile, more than a dozen student activists began setting up an encampment at Northwestern University early Thursday, and more than 60 students began a sit-in at Princeton University, according to campus newspapers .
At Harvard Yard, an encampment entered its second day on Thursday. The protests have been peaceful so far, student newspaper The Crimson reported.
Pro-Palestinian protests have rocked dozens of universities, including Columbia University, New York University and California State Polytechnic Humboldt. University officials have aggressively suppressed campus protests against the war between Israel and Gaza, leading to arrests and tense clashes with authorities.
New skirmishes broke out Wednesday at the University of Texas at Austin, where state troopers dressed in riot gear arrested at least 34 protesters under the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott (R), according to police. state order, after hundreds of students walked out of class to demand that the school divest from companies that do business with Israel.
At the University of Southern California, police officers scuffled with protesters while seeking to disperse a demonstration. Los Angeles police said Wednesday evening that 93 people were arrested, with no injuries reported, and that protesters then dispersed.
USC’s main campus remains closed until further notice, the university said. The move comes after Columbia announced it would require many courses on its main campus to be hybrid when possible for the remainder of the semester. Cal Poly Humboldt said it closed its campus over the weekend because of the protests and said work would continue to be remote.
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