Police in the US state of Georgia used excessive force while trying to disperse protesters at a pro-Palestine protest at Emory University in Atlanta.
A professor was knocked to the ground by a police officer, while another held her down as they handcuffed her with zip-ties.
advertisement On Thursday, the Georgia State Police arrested 28 people, including economics professor Caroline Fohlin.
While Fohlin is trying to protest the officer’s violence towards her, he shouts and asks her to “get on the ground”.
In the same video, a Georgia State Police trooper says “it was a peaceful protest until they started fighting troopers”.
The footage shows her being taken away by an Atlanta Police officer, while she tells the person filming the video to “call the philosophy department officer and tell them of my arrest”.
Besides Emory University, at least 33 protesters were arrested at Indiana University also on Thursday after they refused to halt their encampment demonstrations despite several warnings from the police.
The Indiana University Police Department said the protesters were warned on Thursday morning and afternoon to remove their structures, but to no avail.
In an attempt to scatter demonstrators during a pro-Palestine demonstration at Atlanta’s Emory University, Georgian police used excessive force. A policeman knocked a professor to the ground and used zip ties to handcuff her while another held her down.
The most recent use of violence occurs as demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza continue unabatedly on US college campuses, including prestigious Ivy League universities like Yale and Harvard. The demonstrations have grown more intense after more than a hundred people were arrested at Columbia University in New York last week.
Professor Caroline Fohlin of economics was among the twenty-eight individuals detained by the Georgia State Police on Thursday. The police violence has been dubbed a “act of terrorism” by the protest organizers.
Fohlin can be seen attempting to challenge police officers who are attempting to arrest a protester who is lying on the ground in a video that CNN has shared.
Another police officer approaches, snatches both of her hands, and tries to push her away when she asks, “What are you doing?”.
Fohlin yells at her and orders her to “get on the ground” as he tries to stop the officer from abusing her. He throws her to the ground and twists her hands behind her back before she can respond. It also shows another officer supporting her back with weight to keep her from standing up.
She keeps saying, “I am a professor,” but the two officers don’t listen to her. At one point, the second officer cuffs her with zip ties while kneeling on her back.
“It was a peaceful protest until they started fighting troopers,” a Georgia State Police trooper states in the same video.
A video of Noelle McAfee’s arrest, who chairs the university’s philosophy department, is making the rounds on social media.
As she is being taken away by an Atlanta Police officer, she is heard telling the person recording to “call the philosophy department officer and tell them of my arrest.”.
Additionally detained was a Fox 7 photographer in Austin, Texas. On camera, a policeman is seen removing him.
Declaring his name as Carlos, he informed the person taking the video that “they [police] were pushing me, and they said I hit an officer, but I didn’t.”.
They were pushing me while I was just covering things. I introduced myself as a press member. I wasn’t slapping anyone. ****.
CNN reported that the protest organizers at Emory University said in a statement following the violence that “the Georgia State Patrol, Atlanta Police Department, and Emory Police Department all bear responsibility for this overt act of terrorism.”.
The demonstrators are demanding “an end to the police’s brutality and the immediate release of all activists arrested,” according to the organizers, and they will “continue the call for Emory University to completely divest from all programs enabling Israeli apartheid.”.
Along with Emory University, Indiana University also saw at least 33 protesters arrested on Thursday for defying police warnings to end their encampment demonstrations.
The protesters were given repeated warnings to take down their structures on Thursday morning and afternoon, according to the Indiana University Police Department, but to no avail.
Nearly 550 arrests have been made in the last week, according to a count by the news agency Reuters.
Protesting students at Columbia University, the epicenter of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations, have threatened to keep up the agitation until the esteemed university consents to sever its connections with Israeli academic institutions and withdraw its funding from organizations associated with the Jewish people.
