Unregulated protest continues on college, demands divestment
On Monday evening, days after authorities detained 82 students and faculty members and distributed money to protesters, a fresh, smaller, and less organized pro-Palestinian camp remained at Virginia Tech.
The wooden camp’s students who carried Arab flags and signs told The College Fix that their protests were relaxing.
Three students claimed to have stayed the night next to the garden after the arrests in order to maintain the camp’s nature. Later on Monday, people joined their opposition. Students claimed that their little party had no affiliation with any well-known school organizations that support Palestine. None of them were willing to share their full titles.
About 40 students from various pro-Palestine school groups band together on Friday to start an camp on the Graduate Life Center garden, calling for Virginia Tech’s withdrawal from the Israel-Hamas war and a permanent peace in Gaza. They described what had recently happened to The Fix.
The students stayed the entire weekends, and on Sunday night, their demonstrations started to elicit more enthusiasm. The Virginia Tech Police Department used their cars and caution tape to create a boundary around the garden around 9 p.m. to keep the camp from the growing group that was gathering outside of it.
Zander, one of the three Virginia Tech individuals who slept across the grass on Sunday night, claimed he arrived at the same time as the officers began to obstruct people. He described seeing the authorities for the first time that day and imagined what they were planning.
A number of police officers begin ejecting, and they all have zipties, and it’s obvious that they will begin attempting to make detention. And then they began quietly picking people off one by one for the rest of the day, according to Zander.
Arrested pupils were packed into bright roofless trucks, some detailed with Virginia Tech’s brand, people unmarked. Some students told The Fix that while the officers were detained their classmates, some yelled and chanted at them, but they continued to pursue their aim, which was a peaceful protest.
Ayah, a second student, claimed the demonstrators were anticipating being met with police presence and also expressed concern that they might become tear gassed when VTPD officers began putting on protecting goggles in the evening. Despite the relaxing nature of the demonstration, she claimed that police were likely unsure of how to deal with a crowd of this size.
” We were fully prepared to have endured that kind of thing, but it would n’t have been because of one of us”, Ayah said. ” None of us would’ve incited everything that would’ve caused them to tear gas us. It’s just that there was so many of us, they did n’t know how to deal with it”.
Kenzie, who slept on the grass Monday after the detention, stressed that everything the individuals did Sunday evening was calm.
” The level of people being below was about 1 a. m. and it was at least- quickly over 1, 000 people. Individuals were packed in”, Kenzie told The Fix. That is all we were doing, I want to make it very clear. Nothing else did something that would’ve been considered mob behavior, like we all really stood that”.
After one and a half a.m., the Virginia State Police were called to the class, but the majority of the detention had now occurred, according to the kids. The movement’s motivations were most apparent early on Monday night, but three hapless students slept on the lawn and rebuilt the weekend’s torn-down camp after that day.
The fresh camp remained under near- regular VTPD monitoring, with a policeman auto watching while The Fix visited.
University President Tim Sands expressed shock at the method our soldiers were treated during the Sunday opposition in a statement released on Monday.
” I’m also greatly disappointed that our group members choose abusive and unlawful behavior over purposeful discussion and discussion that should be a part of Virginia Tech’s practice,” Sands said.
The student activists told The Fix they had no plans to leave their camp as music from violins and drums rang out from the crowd, which were surrounded by the town’s two Palestine banners and banner that read,” From the water to the valley, Palestine will live forever”!
Further: Officers conduct large arrests at UT- Austin pro- Arab opposition — once
IMAGES: Andi Shae Napier, Anela Picotte
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