Dozens arrested at Emory after demonstration protesting Israel-Hamas war, ‘Cop City’ (2024)

Published: Apr. 25, 2024 at 11:30 AM EDT|Updated: 19 hours ago

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - More than two dozen people were arrested on Emory University’s campus Thursday morning as multiple groups gathered to protest the Israel-Hamas war and Atlanta Public Safety Training Center.

At least 28 people were taken into custody as protesters clashed with police and Georgia State Patrol. According to organizers, protesters were demanding “total divestment from Israeli apartheid and Cop City.”

Protestors pitched tents in the school’s Quad around 7:40 a.m. Some protesters were seen holding “Stop Cop City” signs referencing the upcoming police training center, while other areas showed items laid out on the lawn that resemble bloody bodies in reference to the ongoing war.

Emory said the school’s police department told the group to leave and called Atlanta police and state patrol for help.

At first, the university said the group wasn’t affiliated with Emory and was trying to disrupt the school before finals. But in a later statement, it clarified that 20 of the 28 arrested were a part of the Emory community.

The school is trying to expedite the release of Emory-affiliated people in custody, it said.

“Our primary goal today was clearing the Quad of a disruptive encampment while holding individuals accountable to the law,” Emory’s statement said.

Atlanta police said its officers were “met with violence” when they tried to clear the protestors. Officers used chemical irritants but did not use rubber bullets, according to the department. They said officers arrested those who didn’t follow orders to leave.

The department is reviewing body camera footage to see if any officers violated policy.

One protestor was hit with a Taser, according to Georgia State Patrol. The agency said the man resisted arrest, so troopers stunned him in the stomach and right thigh for about five seconds each while he was on the ground.

Troopers also used pepper balls “to control the unruly crowd,” state patrol said.

Among those detained was Noëlle McAfee, the chair of the university’s philosophy department. Atlanta News First has reached out to Emory for comment.

One Emory Ph.D. student said the incidents make him feel sad — not just for the university, but for the state of the country.

“What the hell is this? It’s freedom of speech,” the student said.

The protest has prompted comment from state leaders, too. Gerald Griggs, the Georgia NAACP president, posted on X that he’s requesting a meeting with Emory President Gregory Fenves “to discuss the events on the campus as soon as possible.”

Congressman Hank Johnson said he was “disturbed” to learn that Georgia State Patrol was on campus, arguing the troopers had no place there.

“And neither do outside agitators who seek to usurp the peaceful protests against the Netanyahu government’s killing of tens of thousands of innocent Gazans by giving life to a false narrative that the protest movement is violent and anti-Semitic,” he wrote in a statement. “... I fully support [the students’] right to peacefully protest on campus, and I call for the outside agitators to stay away from our college campuses.

Meanwhile, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr posted an approval of the school’s action.

“Nobody has the legal right to shut down our schools by camping out and making antisemitic threats,” he wrote on X.

Gov. Brian Kemp said he was thankful for the law enforcement officials who were called to campus.

“College campuses are designed to be places of learning and often civil discourse, but in Georgia, they will never be a safe haven for those who promote terrorism and extremism that threatens the safety of students,” he wrote in a statement.

Emory joins the ranks of several universities whose campuses have become the site of heated demonstrations and protests surrounding Israel and Gaza. The movement swept through the nation after more than 100 people were arrested at Columbia University in New York last Thursday.

In Georgia, Kennesaw State University students held a rally and walkout Thursday morning on campus in support of Gaza. Student protesters at Georgia Tech also gathered Wednesday night to call on their school to do more for Palestinians.

The protests came days after some Morehouse College students, faculty and alumni voiced their concern about President Joe Biden speaking at the school’s graduation commencement next month, arguing he hasn’t done enough to end the war.

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