Colleges & universities

Campus Protests: Police Dismantle Camps at Penn, MIT

Published MAY 11 2024

Story

Image credit: Scott Eisen/Getty Images News via Getty Images

The Facts

Police arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian activists and cleared protest tent encampments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania on Friday.
Reuters
According to Penn officials, 33 people, including nine Penn students, were detained on trespassing charges.
ap
At MIT, police arrested 10 protesters who reportedly remained encamped despite several warnings. The detainees were also charged with trespassing and released later; their arraignments are set for July.
Boston Herald
Hours later, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters marched towards the home of Penn's interim president in Philadelphia's University City. At least three people appeared to have jumped over his fence.
NBC10 Philadelphia
MIT, Penn, and Harvard have been under scrutiny for their handling of the debate on campus over the conflict in Gaza. In a congressional hearing in December, their leaders were ambiguous on whether calling for "Jewish genocide" would violate school policies.
The Wall Street Journal
Over 2.8K people have been arrested or detained on campuses nationwide since April 18, when the arrest of at least 108 pro-Palestine activists at Columbia University triggered a wave of college protests.
nytimes

Sources Split

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RIGHT

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The Spin

Right narrative

The main group behind these encampments, Students for Justice in Palestine, is funded largely by George Soros' charities and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, among other wealthy elites. Organizers are paid thousands of dollars to build these encampments and buy the tents, food, and other resources used in most of them. Foreign money was likely also behind these illegal campus occupations, which is why police were justifiably called in to shut them down.

New York Post

Left narrative

The "outside agitator" trope has been used to crack down on peaceful protests for decades. From the Ku Klux Klan lying about "communists" infiltrating the civil rights movement to alleged agitators during the 2020 BLM protests, these evidence-lacking accusations have always existed as an excuse to arrest activists. Today, however, the tactic of calling protesters antisemitic is thrown into the mix, which allows the pro-Israel side to smear anti-Zionists as anti-Jewish.

Intercept