7 May 16th-May 22nd, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Campus Crackdown They called for a ceasefire. ASU called the cops. BY TJ L’HEUREUX W hen faced with a peaceful protest, the cops made mass arrests. If they can, they’ll justify it later. Across the country, colleges and univer- sities are facing a consequential test. As pro-Palestinian protests have roiled campus after campus, school administra- tors have called in the cops to crack down on student expression. While some protests have been less peaceful than others — students protesting what they’ve called Israel’s genocidal offensive in Gaza occupied and vandalized university build- ings at both Columbia and UCLA — there’s a common thread between them: An overwhelming response from police. Though tensions haven’t run as high in Arizona, the state’s three public universi- ties have been just as happy to sic police on their own students. At the University of Arizona in Tucson, police arrested about 70 protesters conducting a sit-in on campus, deploying physical force and chemical irritants on the orders of the school’s president, Robert Robbins. At Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, police arrested 24 people April 30, including 22 students. In an Instagram post, protesters could be heard chanting, “There’s no riot here, why are you in riot gear,” as police moved in. The largest number of arrests, however, were made at Arizona State University in Tempe. On April 26, protesters led by a group called Students Against Apartheid set up an encampment in the evening on the lawn outside Old Main. By the next morning, campus police in riot gear, aided by troopers from the Arizona Department of Public Safety and deputies from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, had arrested 72 of the protesters. The officers were less than tactful. An ABC15 camera caught ASU Police Chief Michael Thompson out of uniform and brandishing a knife as he destroyed protes- tors’ tents. The media outlet also obtained video of police forcibly removing the hijabs of several Muslim women — who “begged for ‘humanity,’” their attorney told the Arizona Republic — in an apparent civil rights violation reminiscent of one that recently cost New York City $17.5 million. One of the arrested protesters has been arraigned and cited for assault and disor- derly conduct, while the other 71 were scheduled for an arraignment on Tuesday — after the print deadline for Phoenix New Times — at University Lakes Justice Court. According to online court records, all 71 have been cited with class 3 misdemeanor trespassing and one is also charged with resisting arrest, a class 6 felony. Yet nearly two weeks after the arrests were made, none had been officially charged. As of May 10, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office “has not received any submittals from law enforcement,” a spokesperson for the office told New Times. Law enforcement has a year to refer misdemeanor arrests to the county attorney for charges, and seven years for felonies. If submittals are not made by the initial arraignment date, the arraignment is rescheduled. While the legal system may grind slowly, ASU apparently doesn’t. The university quickly excised arrested students from campus life, suspending them and barring them from finishing classes, communicating with professors and entering their own dorm rooms. On April 30, lawyers for 20 of the students — including one who was released due to a lack of probable cause — filed a First Amendment lawsuit in federal court against the Arizona Board of Regents. The students’ attorneys also filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to reverse what they called “enforced home- lessness and automatic class failure.” David Chami, one of the lawyers for the students, told New Times that by arresting and punishing the students, ASU was attempting “to crush their spirit and to strip them of their constitutional rights to free speech and to assemble.” “I think that it’s abhorrent and it’s against everything we’re supposed to stand for as Americans,” Chami added. After a hearing May 3, U.S. District Judge John J. Tuchi denied the motion. ‘Disproportionate response’ Chami was hardly alone in expressing alarm. At a gathering May 2 in Tempe, Michael Kintscher of United Campus Workers was among several students, alumni and faculty who spoke out against the university’s heavy-handed approach to policing speech. “The use of violence and institu- tional discipline to disrupt a peaceful peaceful student demonstration violates students’ constitutionally protected right to free speech and assembly on public property,” Kintscher said. The forced removal of hijabs — appar- ently committed by ASU police, although the agency has not responded to many outlets asking it to confirm its involvement — trampled the First Amendment in another way, said Azza Abuseif, the execu- tive director of the Muslim civil rights advocacy organization Council on American-Islamic Relations. “The First Amendment guarantees the free practice of religion. Police cannot suspend this right,” Abuseif said. “We condemn the reported actions of ASU police and call for a full investigation into this incident.” In an initial statement, the university said encampments are against school policy and claimed that only 15 of those arrested were ASU students. But protesters said that claim is false and was made several hours before police checked arrestees’ academic status. Twenty students are party to the lawsuit filed against the Board of Regents, and a group protesting the school’s response May 2 claimed that 27 students, along with several staff and alumni, were arrested. The 20 students suing the Board of Regents, and perhaps other students who were arrested, are now facing conse- quences from the university before their criminal cases have resolved. Suspended students had the right to appeal their punishments to the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities by May 3, and lawyers for the Board of Regents said in court filings that 10 of the students did so. It’s not clear if or how those appeals have been decided. Speaking to reporters at the gathering May 2, ASU alumnus Signs at Arizona State University’s Tempe campus on May 2 protesting Israel’s mass killing of civilians, women and children in Gaza. (Photo by TJ L’Heureux) Tarteel Alimam, an alumnus of Arizona State University, told reporters and supporters on May 2 that the punishment doled out by ASU to pro-Palestinian protesters was a “disproportionate response.” (Photo by TJ L’Heureux) | NEWS | | NEWS | >> p 8
