The 108 protesters arrested overnight at Emerson College in Boston were set to be arraigned on a “series of charges,” including disturbing the peace and unlawful assembly, a Boston police spokesman told MassLive Thursday morning.
Boston police began taking the pro-Palestinian protesters into custody around 1:45 a.m. Thursday at an encampment established by the student organization Students for Justice in Palestine in the Boylston Place alleyway in downtown Boston.
All the protesters are set to be arraigned in Boston Municipal Court Thursday.
Boyle said four police officers were injured during the arrests, and one officer was seriously injured but it is non-life-threatening. The other three officers had minor injuries, he said.
None of the arrested protesters reported any injuries, Boyle said.
Videos posted to social media show dozens of Boston police officers, many of them dressed in riot gear, arriving to the encampment around 1:45 a.m. Thursday, where a line of students holding umbrellas sought to block their entry. Police began ripping the umbrellas out of students’ hands and trying to physically disperse the crowd, videos show.
The alley where students had set up camp, Boylston Place, is a public right of way, and Emerson officials said students were violating several city ordinances by camping out there. On Wednesday, senior leaders at the college warned students of “imminent law enforcement action” to address the violations.
Specifically, school officials said, the tents occupying the alley violate city ordinances prohibiting tents in a right-of-way, public noise violations, fire hazards posed by blocking doors and hydrants and blocking pedestrian access to the alley.
“These are not Emerson College rules but laws and ordinances enforced by the city and the commonwealth,” a statement from senior leaders at the college, including President Jay Bernhardt, reads.
Thursday marks the second time in as many months that Emerson students have been arrested protesting Israel’s actions during the war in Gaza and agitating for a free Palestine. On March 22, 12 students were arrested while protesting outside Bernhardt’s inauguration.
