Law enforcement forcibly disbands pro-Palestine encampment at Emory —  students, faculty arrested

Law enforcement Thursday morning descended quickly and with little warning on Emory University’s main quadrangle in Atlanta, using pepper balls and tear gas to disperse an encampment of pro-Palestinian activists holding a banner reading “Divest From Death.” 

Students set up the encampment of at least a dozen tents at around 7:30 a.m. By 11 a.m., the Atlanta Police Department and Georgia State Patrol officers clad in riot gear had dispersed it. Law enforcement arrested “a couple dozen people,” according to the Emory Police Department, but they did not provide a specific number or say what, if any, charges have been filed. 

Demonstrators were given short notice to vacate by the Emory Police prior to the arrival of Atlanta police and Georgia State Patrol officers who used pepper balls and tear gas to disperse the crowd of demonstrators. One video shows that at least one person was tased. 

Video obtained by Atlanta Civic Circle shows two Emory professors being arrested: Caroline Fohlin, an economics professor, and Noelle McAfee, the chair of the philosophy department. 

A number of demonstrators were also affiliated with the Stop Cop City movement, which seeks to prevent the construction of a multi-million dollar police training facility in the South Atlanta Forest. Activists have linked the Cop City issue to the Palestinian cause, because Georgia law enforcement participate in an exchange program with Israeli law enforcement. 

One Emory professor, Pamela Scully, who witnessed the confrontation, called it “horrific” and likened it to what she’d witnessed police do to anti-apartheid student protests in South Africa.

Scully, who teaches transnational gender history, said Emory’s decision to deploy police on the students was a violation of the “sacred space” that a university is for protest. The use of force “demonstrates exactly what the students are concerned about [with] policing in America,” she said.

“Why are universities calling the police on protesting students? It’s symptomatic of the collapse of higher education: Leaders are now beholden to boards of trustees, donors, and parents paying ridiculous amounts of money,” Scully said. 

Emory, APD statements

The Atlanta Police Department said in a statement that Emory’s police department called them in after a “group of students and non-students were requested to disperse multiple times by Emory Police.”

“At Emory’s request, law enforcement began assisting Emory PD in securing the campus. When this happened, law enforcement officers were met with violence,” the statement continues, noting that APD did use “chemical irritants” but “did not deploy rubber bullets.”

The statement directed further questions to the Emory Police Department, which said that “the activists who initially gathered were not recognized as members of our community.”

This echoed an email to the Emory community, sent at 11:11 a.m., from Emory president Gregory Fenves, claiming the protestors were outsiders. “These individuals are largely not affiliated with Emory,” Fenves’ statement said.

Eyewitness account 

However these claims were contradicted by eyewitnesses and videos showing students and faculty being taken into custody. 

Valérie Loichot, chair of Emory’s French and Italian department, said she arrived on the main quad around 10 a.m., and witnessed the clash and many arrests including her own students and colleagues. “A lot of these protesters I recognized from my classes. They were Emory faculty, or graduate and undergraduate students.”

“[Police] tear-gassed indiscriminately, and things escalated fairly quickly,” Loichot said, describing the chaos. “I just started coughing, and I thought I was having an allergy … there was no warning.”

“I heard shouts of pain. I saw police dragged and immobilized protestors on the ground,” Loichot continued, saying she recognized one of the detained protesters as Emil’ Keme, an English and Indigenous studies professor.

“From what I saw from the people who were immobilized, or grounded, or dragged away, they were not physically violent towards the police forces and state troopers on the quad,” Loichot said. 

Loichot added that she’d never witnessed such a scene on campus in her over 20 years on Emory’s faculty. 

“I’ve participated in a lot of protests in a lot of countries and I’ve never witnessed such brutality of a police force against people clearly indicating they were faculty or students,” she said. “I never thought the first time I was tear gassed would be at this beloved place where I work.” 

Emory faculty are organizing a response to the day’s events, Loichot said. 

A group of at least a hundred activists remained on the quad into the afternoon and continued to peacefully demonstrate, chanting pro-Palestinian slogans and playing music.

No student groups from Emory appear to have publicly released specific demands for their administration.

While police were dispersing protestors at Emory, dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through Kennesaw State University’s campus at 11:30 a.m. today, waving Palestinian flags and demanding a permanent ceasefire and end to occupation in Palestine. Unlike at Emory, there was no visible police presence during the walkout at Kennesaw State. 

The student encampment at Emory follows coast-to-coast student-led protests, which started at Columbia University in New York on April 18. Students are variously demanding that their universities divest from Israel, shut down Israeli academic branches, and boycott Israeli academia. Many have similarly been met with police violence, notably at the University of Southern California earlier this week. 

At least 11 Georgia state legislators signed a statement saying they “are deeply alarmed by reports of excessive force used by Georgia State Patrol in responding to community members protesting on the campus of Emory University this morning.” The legislators said they “call on all state officials to deescalate and prevent further harm to our constituents.” 

“The use of extreme anti-riot tactics by Georgia State Patrol, including tasers and gas, is a dangerous escalation to protests which were by all accounts peaceful and nonviolent,” the statement says. 

“State leaders have recently begun treating protests as violent, a violation of RICO laws, or even ‘terrorism,’” it continues, adding: “State leaders have created an environment where state police feel free — or perhaps are directed — to respond to normal peaceful protests with violence.”

In an email to the Emory community Thursday evening, Emory vice president for public safety Cheryl Elliott issued a statement saying 28 people were arrested, including 20 from Emory — some of whom have been released. It said individuals were taken into custody for “criminal trespass,” but provided no other detail about potential charges.

“We are working with responding agencies to expedite the release of any Emory community members who remain in custody. Our primary goal today was clearing the Quad of a disruptive encampment while holding individuals accountable to the law,” the statement concluded.

Atlanta Civic Circle intern Claire Becknell contributed to this report.

This story was updated to add comment from Emory’s vice president for public safety.