I showed up yesterday completely unprepared. No water, no emergency phone numbers, my school backpack on my back with my laptop in it. I thought it would be a small event on the green and the university admin would mostly ignore us. People talked about holding a seder, teaching classes.
I was surprised by the turnout, but the university was not. Over 150 cops showed up, state troopers, APD, university security, and others. They surrounded us on all sides and boxed us in tighter and tighter. Call me a coward, but me and the people with me got out of the box and away from the center at that point. There were a dozen troopers on horseback. They rode through groups of people shouting at them to move or the horse would hurt them. Some on motorcycles. Some with batons forming barriers and pushing people back (except for the moments the students pushed them back).
The governor called for us to be arrested, and I've heard over 79 people were. Indiscriminately: including people tying to disperse the group, including a cameraman for Fox. Students were shoved to the ground, bruising their faces and bloodying their noses. They were dragged by their hair and legs, one of them over a chain link fence. From what I've heard, the charges will likely be dropped, but we're waiting to see what action the university will take internally. If graduate student employees, professors, and staff will lose jobs (they already banned some grad students from TAing, effectively firing them, for implying support for palestine). If undergrads will be expelled (which the university suggested would happen).
The dispersal order said that we'd broken rules by obstructing pathways. The stated plan was to sit on the lawn, but police pushed everyone off the lawn and set up a perimeter around it, forcing them onto the sidewalks where they could be arrested. This protest was smaller than the crowds of people standing around for the eclipse, which the police felt no need to disperse. The university president, in his response, stated that he supports lawful protests, but this one broke the rules. Which rules? Well the university knew about the protest in advance and decided in advance that it wouldn't be allowed, period. So he's pro-protest, but this protest broke the rules of... existing at all.
Last night there was an email from the Dean of Students expressing concern for those "affected" and offering support. She made it very clear who this support was for by saying that if we felt unsafe, we should call the university police.
Today a notice was passed around at the protest laying out a new set of rules, and a matching list was sent to all university staff. It bans wearing masks, being on the lawns, being at entrances, being on walkways, making any noise, and being out after 10 pm. Organizers were already working around the ridiculous claims that the protest was too noisy and therefore distracting students in class by not using any amplification devices. Instead everything they said was repeated by the people around in waves so that the people at the back could hear.
Today was scheduled for a protest from the state employees' union against the sudden firing of 60 staff associated with DEI, following the state's ban on DEI offices and programs. The union officially ceded the day to protest for Palestine and against the events of yesterday. The DEI protest is rescheduled for Monday.
Today's resumption of the protest wasn't met with violence like yesterday. There was some police protest, but much lighter, and they didn't press us. After two hours, we dispersed peacefully on the organizers' orders. I've heard that there was even more turnout today than yesterday, although I never got a good look at the crowd from a distance either day. I am grateful that as far as I have been able to find out, none of my colleagues or students have been arrested.