Police began clearing GWU protest encampment

Police began clearing GWU protest encampment

D.C. police began clearing the pro-Palestinian encampment at George Washington University early Wednesday morning and made several arrests, authorities said, hours before the mayor and police chief are set to testify on Capitol Hill about why they had previously declined to take action.

A D.C. police spokesman, Thomas Lynch, said the encampment had grown in recent days, and “became more volatile.” On Tuesday night, demonstrators marched to the university president’s residence.

Police moved in shortly after 3 a.m. Lynch said demonstrators clashed with police at least once, though it was not immediately clear if anyone was hurt. The operation was still ongoing around 5 a.m., and the number of arrests and a breakdown of charges was not immediately available. It could not be determined how many were students.

The move on the encampment came just hours before the District’s mayor and police chief are set to testify Wednesday on Capitol Hill about why they had for nearly two weeks declined requests from the university to clear a pro-Palestinian encampment from the school’s grounds.

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee on Oversight and Accountability, summoned Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and Chief Pamela A. Smith to testify at 1 p.m., vowing to question the city’s lack of response to the ongoing campus protest despite the university’s repeated requests for help. It was not immediately clear if the move on the demonstration would upend the hearing.

Bowser and Smith plan to attend the hearing, a city spokesperson said Tuesday, before the move on the encampment. Both had been expected to defend their decision-making, which was based on concern about the optics of moving against a small number of peaceful protesters, though Wednesday’s move is likely to change their plans considerably. The first request from university officials came soon after the demonstration began April 25.

Many demonstrators left after the warnings, first by the university police and then by D.C. police Wednesday, a D.C. police spokesman said.

Members of Congress and university officials had been ratcheting up pressure on the city to move against the demonstrators since the encampment began.

On Monday, a House Democrat joined in the criticism of Bowser and Smith, casting the refusal by D.C. police to clear the encampment as a refusal to confront antisemitism.

“It is well past time for District officials to intervene and protect all students on campus,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), in a letter being circulated among lawmakers for signatures.

At other campuses across the country, police departments have responded to requests from school officials with force. In exchanges that were captured in videos and widely disseminated online, officers in riot gear have deployed chemical irritants to disperse crowds. More than 2,300 protesters have been arrested nationwide, according to a tally by The Washington Post.

Republican politicians have cited the clashes in asserting that the country is in turmoil under President Biden. Some members of Congress, including Comer, made that point last week from a lawn on GWU’s campus, where they criticized the demonstrators and the District’s decision to let their encampment continue.

D.C. police had previously said the GWU encampment, which has drawn students and activists from across the region, had remained largely peaceful. The protesters did not occupy any university buildings to make their point, but they toppled police barricades last week and, over the weekend, drew a campus police response after they hung a Palestinian flag on a university flagpole.

Demonstrators had set up stations for dishwashing and free food, and planted a garden with lavender, mint, parsley and za’atar. Some have for chanted for GWU to cut ties to Israel. Some have chanted for the end of the Jewish state.

GWU President Ellen M. Granberg had been an outspoken critic of the encampment. Over a week ago, she suspended several students who remained in the encampment. And in a statement Sunday, she described the demonstration as unauthorized and “not a peaceful protest” protected by the First Amendment or school policies.

Granberg compared the encampment to others at colleges and universities across the country, writing that it “has grown into what can only be classified as an illegal and potentially dangerous occupation of GW property.” She said demonstrators had intimidated students “with antisemitic images and hateful rhetoric.”

Granberg said university police officers and staff had been pushed and harassed and that “it is clear this is no longer a GW student demonstration. It has been co-opted by individuals who are largely unaffiliated with our community and do not have our community’s best interest in mind.”

Early Tuesday, the GWU’s Student Government Association released a statement saying its members “firmly stand behind our students and their right to free speech, assembly, and peaceful protests.” Demonstrators called Granberg’s letter “deeply misleading” and said she had rejected requests to meet with them, according to the school’s student newspaper, the GW Hatchet.

Granberg did not directly address the D.C. police department’s refusal to clear the encampment but said the university police force, whose officers have arrest powers, are “not equipped” to manage the demonstration.

A university spokeswoman referred to Granberg’s statement when asked to comment on Wednesday’s hearing.

In a letter to residents on Friday, Bowser said “our community has been measured with our words and actions,” which she described as a juxtaposition to demonstrations on campuses across the country, where “tensions and rhetoric have reached a fever pitch.” D.C. police said that tenor changed over the weekend.

Bowser also praised the city’s D.C. police for its handling of the demonstrations and said decisions on how and whether to intervene are up to Chief Smith.

“When MPD is called to help, they will always help,” the mayor wrote. “And the Chief and her team at MPD will always have the final say on public safety matters, especially how our resources are deployed.”

Omari Daniels and Meagan Flynn contributed to this report.

This is a developing story and will be updated.