8 May 16th-May 22nd, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Tarteel Alimam decried the school’s “disproportionate response.” “To punish these students, to threaten their academic careers and jeopardize their futures would not only be unjust, but would also send a chilling message that dissent and activism are not welcome or tolerated within our academic institu- tions,” Alimam said. At other campus protests, police have adopted a similar “arrest first, justify it later” approach to quelling free speech. After a University of Texas protest, a judge dismissed charges against 57 arrested protesters because, as the Austin American-Statesman reported, “police ‘copied and pasted’ each probable cause affidavit for every person arrested.” Such shortcuts don’t fly, County Attorney Rachel Mitchell told reporters May 2. “You can’t lump people together,” Mitchell said. “You have to show that a particular individual committed particular acts that constitute a crime.” In deciding whether to charge ASU’s protesters, Mitchell said there will be “immediate higher-up involvement in reviewing the cases for charges” once ASU police file arrest paperwork. On that score, though, the county attor- ney’s office doesn’t have the best track record. In 2021, under Mitchell’s prede- cessor, charges against anti-police brutality protesters were fabricated by prosecutors and the Phoenix Police Department, who colluded to convince a grand jury the protesters were a gang that was as dangerous as the Bloods. The case fell apart. Why they’re protesting What drew protesters to Old Main — and to conduct campus sit-ins across the country — was the carnage of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and abducted at least 200 more, the war has raged for nearly seven months and resulted in the deaths of more than 34,000 Gazan civilians, two-thirds of whom have been women and children. Despite that, the U.S. government has continued to supply Israel with military aid. So, unable to sway their elected offi- cials, campus protesters are trying to exert what influence they have over their academic institutions. Aside from general calls for a ceasefire, protesters at ASU and elsewhere have called for their universities to sever finan- cial ties that might provide aid to Israel, including divesting from companies and funds that generate profits directly or indi- rectly as a result of the Israeli Defense Force’s campaign. ASU, for instance, has an endowment fund of more than $1.5 billion that it invests in stocks, bonds and other financial securities. Protesters are demanding that money isn’t used to invest in the perpetration of mass killing. “ASU is destroying our investments in our education for exercising our constitu- tional rights to speak up against genocide,” the students arrested wrote in a statement. They called on ASU to “divest from all of its financial ties to the state of Israel, as well as companies supplying the Israeli military for its brutal actions towards the people of Gaza.” The BDS movement — boycott, divest- ment and sanctions — dates back to 2005, though it has yet to generate much trac- tion. Thirty-eight states, including Arizona, have since passed laws prohib- iting state governments from investing in companies that support BDS or from doing business with contractors that support a boycott of Israel. But in the wake of recent protests, at least some colleges have signaled a willingness to discuss the subject of divestment. ASU, apparently, is not. They called the cops instead. “It is reprehensible that instead of choosing to come to the table to discuss their community’s concern, ASU’s admin- istration decided to respond with unneces- sary and overwhelming force,” the arrested students said. Stephen Lemons contributed to this report. ASU President Michael Crow is under fire for cracking the whip on free speech at ASU. (Photo by TJ L’Heureux) Campus Crackdown from p 7
