University of Chicago police watch from a short distance as students and community members gather at an encampment on campus on May 1, 2024, in support of Gaza and the Palestinian people. Surrounded by the “Refaat Alareer library,” a makeshift food center, library and donation center on the University of Chicago’s Hyde Park campus, Andrew Basta said the school’s pro-Palestine protest has been a “beautiful” and “peaceful” part of nationwide campus activism.
But as of Wednesday evening, a peaceful detente remained between U. of C. officials, the protesters spread out in tents on the campus lawn and the handful of police watching nearby. That sense of calm can also be found on other local college campuses where protests are in progress. Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling said that as long as protests are peaceful and “there’s no violence,” the Police Department will “make sure that people who want to protest can do it and exercise their First Amendment.”
Sheila Bedi, a law professor at Northwestern, said she hopes Chicago-area universities continue to refrain from calling in law enforcement on students and that students are allowed to express their views safely on campus. She said it’s important to “reject the idea that what’s happening in Los Angeles or New York City is acceptable or is some sort of norm.”
“Police officers tend to escalate conflicts and potentially use violence or use force to enforce the rules, and that could really chill students from expressing themselves and from speaking out,” Greenberg said. “Let me be clear, there are anti-war protesters out there. There are people who are anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian, which is different than just being anti-war,” Pritzker said. “And there are some bad actors too. There are people yelling antisemitic epithets and have forever been bigoted, and we want to make sure that we’re keeping everybody safe.”At U. of C. Wednesday afternoon, a handful of campus police officers could be seen dipping in and out of the encampment site.
Chicago Public Schools students gather with other students and activists during a rally at a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Chicago on May 1, 2024.
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