Dozens of people were arrested Friday as police in riot gear clashed with pro-Palestine demonstrators on Denver’s Auraria Campus during the second day of a protest encampment on the grassy Tivoli Quad.
Students had pitched more than a dozen tents Thursday in what has been called a Gaza solidarity camp, pledging to stay until officials meet their demand that the University of Colorado divest from any activities and funding related to Israel.
The protest on the Auraria Campus is part of a national movement that has spread to college campuses across the country after an encampment protesting Israel’s war in Gaza was broken up last week at Columbia University in New York City.
On Friday, the Auraria Campus — home to the CU Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver and Community College of Denver — sent out an alert telling people to avoid the Tivoli Quad “due to civil unrest” at 12:30 p.m. Officials then closed off vehicle access to the campus.
“Failure to disperse will subject each of you to arrest and prosecution,” police officers could be heard telling protesters in a video posted by the Colorado Palestine Coalition on Instagram. “If you remain, reasonable and necessary force will be used to remove you.”
Campus police and officers from the Denver Police Department moved in during the early afternoon, informing demonstrators that they were violating Auraria’s policy prohibiting camping.
Chants of “long live Palestine” and “free Palestine” continued to fill the quad just before 2:30 p.m. as police handcuffed and carried away demonstrators.
“You push me one more time, you’re going to jail,” a Denver police officer told assembled students as officers carried a protester off the quad by her arms and legs.
In a statement, campus officials said Auraria and Denver police arrested approximately 40 people on trespassing charges.
Organizers disputed those numbers and said police arrested at least 80 people, said Monique Lucero, a demonstrator and Denver resident.
Lucero said she was disgusted by the police response.
“We have people starving on Stout Street and these guys have the new 2024 gear and they’re using it against students,” she said. “These are grown adults fighting against students.”
“We fully support the right of students to assemble peacefully,” an Auraria spokesperson wrote in a statement Friday. “Still, it’s essential to note that Auraria Campus policy prohibits camping on the premises because of health, safety and security considerations. Participants set up an encampment and were repeatedly notified that they did not comply with the policy.”
Police continued arresting protesters for more than an hour after tents were taken down Friday afternoon. Demonstrators sitting on the grass were carried out by officers onto a waiting Denver Sheriff Department jail bus, and people linked arms and surrounded police in an attempt to prevent more arrests.
Tensions between protesters and police escalated as more people were arrested, at times leading to shoving matches between officers and demonstrators, with people falling to the ground. Between chants in support of Palestine, protesters also heckled police officers, calling them fascists, Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.
Other protesters tried to engage officers in conversation but were largely ignored.
Police continued arresting people in response to protesters who initially disregarded the camping policy and then joined arms to step between the tents and police to prevent their removal, campus spokesperson Devra Ashby said in an email.
Mayor addresses demonstrators
Officers retreated toward Walnut Street and left the area by 2:45 p.m., but dozens of police returned at 5 p.m. and faced a diminished crowd of protesters.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and Denver police Chief Ron Thomas walked out to speak to the crowd at 7:30 p.m., 20 minutes after the Colorado Palestine Coalition posted a video on the messaging app Telegram showing the two officials arriving on campus to speak with CU Denver Chancellor Michelle Marks.
Johnston told the assembled demonstrators that they would be allowed to remain on the quad and continue protesting if they took down their tents and removed them from campus in the next 30 minutes.
“We have no desire to make any arrests,” Johnston said. “If the tents do not come down, then we will need to remove those.”
Protesters asked Johnston to address their demands, to which he said he had no capacity to do so because he didn’t oversee the campus. A small group followed Johnston and Thomas to a waiting car on 11th Street, some trying to engage them in conversation while others yelled insults.
Protesters and tents remained in the quad despite steady rain as of 8:15 p.m. Friday
CU Denver student body President-elect Savannah Brooks said she was proud of her classmates and concerned for their safety after witnessing the police response Friday afternoon.
“I do not agree with our university’s recent response to the protests, and I intend to have discussions with our higher administration to express my grievances as a student leader,” Brooks said in a text.
Several state legislators, Denver City Council members and a University of Colorado regent issued an open letter Friday afternoon calling for immunity for the protesters who were arrested and for Auraria Campus leaders to stop any further arrests of demonstrators who are camping.
Protests spread around country
Protests against Israel’s conduct in the war against Hamas in Gaza had been bubbling for months at Columbia, but kicked into a higher gear after more than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on the university’s upper Manhattan campus were arrested last week.
Dozens more protesters have been arrested at other campuses since, and many now face charges of trespassing or disorderly conduct. Monday in Connecticut, police arrested 48 protesters at Yale University after they refused to leave an encampment on a plaza at the center of campus.
Earlier this week, a demonstration at the University of Michigan’s campus center had grown to nearly 40 tents, and nine anti-war protesters at the University of Minnesota were arrested after police took down an encampment in front of the library. Hundreds rallied to the Minnesota campus in the afternoon to demand their release.
After a tent encampment popped up Thursday at Indiana University Bloomington, police with shields and batons shoved into protesters and arrested 34. Hours later at the University of Connecticut, police tore down tents and arrested one person.
And at Ohio State University, police clashed with protesters just hours after they gathered Thursday evening. Those who refused to leave after warnings were arrested and charged with criminal trespass, university spokesperson Benjamin Johnson said, citing rules barring overnight events. He said a preliminary report indicated there were 36 arrests, including 16 students and 20 people unaffiliated with the university.
“More witnesses to what’s happening”
On the Denver campus, CU student Silvia LeVarn said she had started watching the protest from her dorm room across the street the night before before joining the demonstration when police showed up Friday.
LeVarn said the protest was mostly quiet before police arrived at 12:45 p.m., when demonstrators started chanting and the crowd seemed to triple in size. She said she didn’t fully support some of the chants coming from the crowd toward police, like calling them fascists.
“I came down to support the students because I thought the more people here, the more witnesses to what’s happening and if something goes wrong, I want to support people who are using their right to free speech,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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