By Paulina Gajewski, Jaida Dent, Serena Edwards, and Emily Nixon
Contributing reporters: Emily Suhr
Following the NYPD’s response to a pro-Palestine demonstration that took place on May 8, several student groups and organizations have denounced the call for police intervention.
On Monday, May 12, the BC Student Union (BCSU) planned a general assembly meeting on the East Quad. Their purpose, according to a statement provided to The Vanguard, was to “gather as a community, discuss the NYPD and CUNY’s violence against students on May 8th, and grow our movement to defend free speech and safety on campus.”
The event was declared an unauthorized event by the Office of Student Affairs. Student clubs who shared information about the event received an email mentioning that any clubs participating in the event would violate the BC Events Policy.
According to the statement, several CUNY Public Safety officers interrogated students and faculty, asking if they were protesting. Prior to the meeting, the NYPD had unloaded barricades onto Bedford Avenue according to footage captured by The Vanguard.
“The college offered an alternate meeting space that would have required students to cross a street full of armed NYPD officers, which was unsafe given the violence that occurred the week before,” the Student Union mentioned in the statement. The general assembly was ultimately called off.
The BCSU general assembly meeting followed several statements by student clubs and organizations denouncing the NYPD’s presence and action on May 8. The organizations include: Black Solidarity Day Committee, Brooklyn College Dream Team, Brooklyn College Pre-Law Society, Brooklyn College Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), the Policing and Social Justice Project (PSJP), Undergraduate Student Government (USG), Computer Science Club, Geology Society, Historical Society, Korean Culture Club, Math Club, Minority Association of Pre-Health Students, Psychology Club, Public Health and Medicine Club, Puerto Rican Alliance (PRA), Riverrun, Sociology Club, Student Organization for Every Disability United For Progress (SOFEDUP), and the Women’s Month Committee.
Days prior to the general assembly meeting, BCSU posted a petition for people to sign demanding action from CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. The petition demanded four points: “full amnesty now,” “don’t surveil, don’t comply,” “defend free speech,” and “protect our safety.”
The May 8 demonstration started around noon, as a sizable group of students had gathered in the grass on the East Quad with signs and banners detailing their demands to CUNY: “Divest,” “Boycott,” “Solidarity,” “Demilitarize,” and “A People’s Cuny.” Concurrently, an adjunct grade-in, planned by the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) at CUNY, was also being set up on the quad. Members of the grade-in dispersed, and some joined the student protest, according to footage captured by The Vanguard.
The protest quickly garnered spectators, as well as counter-protests from pro-Israel students.
Students would show support by hanging two banners from the windows in Boylan Hall. One sign stated, “350,000+ murdered in Gaza. CUNY is complicit in genocide!” The signs would soon be removed from the windows by Campus Security, according to footage captured by The Vanguard.
A secondary protest group began to gather outside the Bedford Avenue entrance. Meanwhile, on the Quad, the demonstrators began to set up tents. CUNY security officers responded by moving closer to the protestors and demanding for the tents’ removal.
At approximately 3:45 p.m., Campus Security and BC administration began to pass out flyers stating that demonstrators were trespassing and in violation of CUNY’s Henderson Rules, and risked arrest if they did not disperse or go to class, according to footage captured by The Vanguard.
The Henderson Rules are a series of regulations that determine the maintenance of public order. President Anderson cited the rule for noncompliance in a letter sent to BC faculty and staff on Friday, May 9. As of this article’s publication, the wider BC community has not received a statement.
“Individuals are liable for failure to comply with lawful directions issued by representatives of the University/college when they are acting in their official capacities.”
On May 16, PSJP published a statement on Instagram titled “On the Right to Assemble at BC.” According to their statement, “It is clear that both the Henderson Rules governing demonstrations on CUNY campuses and the Brooklyn College rules on events are overly broad and give the administration too much discretion in banning events on campus for reasons other than public safety.” The statement also demanded that the administration update the event policy and CUNY Henderson rules.
Campus Security was stationed at the entrance of Boylan Hall, and students who wished to enter the building had to provide their BC ID. Students were also told to clear out of the library, and were not permitted to enter. Students and faculty were also denied entry into the East Quad by the Bedford Gate. According to eyewitness testimony, police began to initiate tactics to control the protesters.
“We saw a police officer shove a student, we saw campus security taking down tents, and we saw the group of protesters being moved around a bit by security and the officer,” an anonymous BC student told The Vanguard. “After we left the Quad to go back to class, that’s when we started hearing from other students that more cops were coming and that they were closing the gates and the library.”
A statement from USG condemned the lockdown of the buildings on the campus and those surrounding it in their statement. “NYPD’s lack of proper facilitation of this situation is unacceptable […].”
Though the protest continued, demonstrators involved began to take down their tents as a means of showing their willingness to comply with what BC was telling them.
“And to see that at some point our student leaders were telling us, like, ‘Hey, the President of Brooklyn College has agreed to negotiate with us.’ […] So we took down some tents to show that we were, like, willing to negotiate as well,” said Kylian Amato, a City College student who attended BC’s protest.
As the BC campus was placed on lockdown, students received emails from the Office of the Registrar noting that “Due to unexpected circumstances, the campus is now closed for today.” Students who attempted to enter the campus were denied, and students, faculty, and staff who wished to return to their buildings were told to exit the campus.
“The lack of information was the most unnerving,” stated Liv Yarrow, a professor in the Classics department, in her eyewitness blog entry. “It left me not knowing what to do or if my actions would be construed as contrary to police orders, or how I or those left on campus were expected to leave with reports of violence outside multiple entrances and exits.”
According to Anderson’s letter, protestors re-erected their tents, “[…] despite being instructed to dismantle them, remove them from campus, and disperse repeatedly by college officials.” Additional officers from NYPD were called in, including the Strategic Response Unit (SRG), a unit of the NYPD that is used to police protests, equipped with riot gear and zip ties for arrests. Approximately one hundred NYPD officers pushed the few dozen, unarmed demonstrators off of campus and onto Bedford Avenue, according to footage captured by The Vanguard.
“It felt like I was in one of those scenes in, you know, a movie or something where you have the soldiers advancing on the front lines or something,” Mobina Hashmi, a professor in the Television, Radio and Emerging Media (TREM) department, told The Vanguard.
Seven of the 14 individuals who were taken into custody were arrested, and seven individuals were issued summonses, a spokesperson from the Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information, told The Vanguard.
In their statement, USG condemned CUNY’s use of a police response, along with the arrests.
“The presence of law enforcement in riot gear and the use of physical force against students represent a failure of institutional responsibility and a violation of student trust,” the statement read. This sentiment was echoed in several posts from clubs, who “condemned the use of police violence and the suppression of peaceful protests” on Instagram.
Amato, who was taken into custody during the protest, shared his eyewitness testimony in an interview with The Vanguard.
“[A protester] was punched in the head multiple, multiple times,” Amato told The Vanguard. “Then the goggles that he had on his head, too, they punched that. I can only imagine that hurt. After a point, those goggles were knocked off of his head. And I saw later that he was like, laying down flat on the floor after a point. What warranted all of that? I have no idea.”
To other students, the sheer force and number of officers attacking students only led to more violence being initiated.
“[I saw] 50+ armed NYPD officers storming protesters pushing people out,” Shovanna Grosvenor, a BC student, told The Vanguard. “And that didn’t end well, because as everyone was leaving school grounds, things got physical, where I saw several officers punching and pushing students to the ground and arresting them.”
Additional protests were made outside Tanger Hillel, a center whose mission is to “ strengthen Jewish identity among the college’s Jewish students; to sustain and develop their commitment to Israel […].” Members of the center expressed feeling unsafe as the protest unfolded outside.
“Targeting Tanger Hillel, the Jewish student center, is not a peaceful protest. It is harassment, intimidation, and an antisemitic act of aggression,” read a statement from Tanger Hillel on May 9. “We are grateful to President Anderson, the Brooklyn College and CUNY Public Safety, and the NYPD for their swift response and commitment to student safety.”
The next morning, students, faculty, and staff received an email mentioning that the campus would close at 2 p.m., and following classes would be closed for the rest of the day.
“CUNY has a zero-tolerance policy for encampments,” Anderson stated in the letter. “The Brooklyn College Events Protocol, for example, states, ‘Structures and Equipment: Temporary, semi-permanent, or permanent structures–such as stages, booths, canopies, tents, bouncy houses or other party rentals, or any constructions–are prohibited unless an organization obtains explicit permission.’ Protesters here had no permission to erect tents on the East Quad.”
On Sunday, May 11, the Brooklyn College Office of Communications sent out an email reiterating that faculty, staff, and students must present a valid BC ID in order to enter the campus.
This is a developing story. The Vanguard will provide updates as they are made available.