It became clear this was coming last week when the school’s president announced that the encampment could not continue. This morning the University of Chicago became the latest school to have a pro-Palestinian encampment cleared out by the police.
Word apparently got out late last night that a 3 am clearing of the camp was possible. Some of the protesters left and took their belongings but those who remained called people to rally at the camp in anticipation of the raid. By 4 am nothing had happened and the rally was ended. Police arrived at 4:30 and ordered those who remained to leave. Minutes later they started removing the tents and other junk.
BREAKING: Police have just raided the encampment at the University of Chicago pic.twitter.com/mRjAvNTcO6
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) May 7, 2024
The newly awake protesters had a special chant ready about police making arrests:
“More than 40,000 dead, you’re arresting kids instead!” chants from protesters as police dismantle the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at the University of Chicago this morning pic.twitter.com/1EeelphjxB
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) May 7, 2024
No arrests were made though. Just a lot of junk removed.
By the time the sun came up the camp had been cleared.
Protesters facing off with police at the University of Chicago this morning after officers moved in to clear the pro-Palestine encampment set up on campus pic.twitter.com/mOabU3l2LU
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) May 7, 2024
Students were given a final notice warning them that they could be arrested if they refused to leave (but again no one was).
“Final Notice to Students Participating in Encampment on Main Quad” passed out by UCPD to protesters remaining here next to a police line pic.twitter.com/NAcblN5TL3
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) May 7, 2024
There was some shoving as police tried to move the crowd back.
Protesters push back against barricades as police attempt to move the crowd back here at the University of Chicago pic.twitter.com/abgPZiPIE9
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) May 7, 2024
The school’s president released a statement this morning titled “Ending the Encampment.”
Last Monday and Friday, I shared how we would approach making decisions about the encampment. Protest is a strongly protected form of speech in the UChicago culture, and the demonstrators had multiple opportunities to express their views. But many aspects of the protests also interfered with the free expression, learning, and work of others. Safety concerns have mounted over the last few days, and the risks were increasing too rapidly for the status quo to hold. This morning, the University intervened to end the encampment.
The protesters were given an opportunity to disassemble their structures and depart the encampment, and there have been no arrests. Where appropriate, disciplinary action will proceed.
Over multiple days, including through the weekend, we engaged with the representatives of the encampment to work toward a resolution. There were areas where we were able to achieve common ground, but ultimately a number of the intractable and inflexible aspects of their demands were fundamentally incompatible with the University’s principled dedication to institutional neutrality. As such, we could not come to a resolution.
The University remains a place where dissenting voices have many avenues to express themselves, but we cannot enable an environment where the expression of some dominates and disrupts the healthy functioning of the community for the rest.
Organizers sent out a message on Instagram calling on their supporters to “flood” the campus. Interesting choice of words. The militants who murdered Israelis on 10/7 called their operation the Al-Aqsa Flood.
Around 8 am the quad was reopened after all the junk had been removed.
The quad at the University of Chicago being cleared this morning after police dismantled the pro-Palestine encampment on campus pic.twitter.com/T45KEfLUR1
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) May 7, 2024
Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn were apparently on hand all morning.
Bernardine Dohrn, a former leader of Weather Underground, arrived at the encampment with Bill Ayers, a former militant organizer who co-founded far-left militant group Weather Underground in 1969, at 5:30 a.m., after receiving a call from a student encampment participant.
Dohrn, who has spent several days during the week at the encampment, thinks that “universities should be a place of argument and dispute and conversation and education. And the idea of bringing the police in here is absolutely against everything that the school should stand for.”
As an alumna of the College and UChicago Law, “I’m furious about it. And I’m totally with the students,” she said.
Ayers told the Maroon that a “smart college administrator should first of all, defend the idea of the University. And secondly, congratulate the students for bringing this issue up in the way that they have peacefully, lovingly.”
If those two aging creeps aren’t the definition of outside agitators, I don’t know what is. But despite their encouragement, all that’s left of the encampment now are light spots where tents were killing the grass.
The quad this morning after the police clearing of the pro-Palestine encampment at the University of Chicago pic.twitter.com/eVHHUnUyQD
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) May 7, 2024
Of course we’ve seen this before where police clear a camp and then protesters return. Will it happen later today at UChicago? We’ll have to wait and see.