Three Violent Agitators Arrested At Vanderbilt Pro-Palestinian Protest
Jose Nino
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3 students at Vanderbilt University were arrested after video footage demonstrated pro-Palestinian protesters shoving a police officer on March 26, 2024 as they tried to forcibly enter a campus building, per The Vanderbilt Hustler — the university’s student newspaper.
The sit-in protest dealt with the university administrators’ move to scrap a ballot proposition that would have prohibited funding for pro-Israel organizations.
Security video footage published by Vanderbil shows protesters forcibly entering Kirkland Hall on March 26, pushing past a security officer who attempted to stop them from entering.
The building is home to the chancellor’s office and is closed because of construction, per the university.
The students sat in the hall until the early morning of March 27 when campus law enforcement forced 25 students to disperse, per The Vanderbilt Hustler report.
Three individuals were arrested and 16 received interim suspensions, the report highlighted .
The Hustler reports expanded on the story:“Two students — senior Devron Burks and first-year Jack Petocz — were arrested for assault and bodily injury to another, which is classified as a misdemeanor. Petocz is being held at a $2,000 bond and Burks at a $1,000 bond. A third student — sophomore Samuel Schulman — is listed as an inmate, but his record navigates to a server error as of 8 a.m.”
An additional student, junior Musab Mohamed Nuh, was arrested earlier in the protest “after officers saw a shattered window at the building,” according to the report.
The university informed The Tennessean in a statement that protesters “physically assaulted a Community Service Officer to gain entrance and proceeded to push staff members who offered to meet with them.”
The pro-Palestinian protesters said to The VanderbiltyHustler they intend to keep protesting outside the chancellor’s office building until administrators resurrect the proposition.
University leaders stated that they shelved the ballot proposition owing to alleged legal issues.
While protesters have valid reasons to manifest themselves against the US’s intimate relationship with Israel, they cannot engage in violent, unruly behavior that results in the damage of people or priority, or has them trespassing on private property. Law enforcement should do everything possible to maintain order here.
More rational elements in the Palestinian protest movement should stick to foreign policy messaging and do whatever they can to put the clamps on unruly members and potential provocateurs.
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