Yesterday the Encampment was fairly quiet, but after the President stopped negotiations with the protestors, an air of doom hung over the pro-Palestinian enclave. In this post I’ll put up some photos, videos, and remarks about the final day of the encampment, and then show what happened this morning.
Here are some photos from yesterday afternoon, the last day (hopefully) of the encampment. The afternoon photos are mine, but the video below is credited to another person.
A panorama of the area. Click to enlarge. The encampment is inside the fence to the right, and there were more than 100 tents there.
A press conference held yesterday on the steps of the administration building by the pro-demonstrator professors. They argued strenuously that we should leave up the encampment. After all, they argued, it’s free speech. Well, it’s also a violation of campus speech codes. 250 of these people signed a petition to the President defending the encampment. They lost.
Photos of the last day of the encampment:
I don’t think the University of Chicago Police Department would like this “Fuck UCPD” sign:
Here are three people being kicked out of the encampment yesterday, apparently for no reason except they “intruded”. Two of them were harassed by the protesters and given the bum’s rush, while the father of Jonathan (the student who took the film) went in to help them. All three were then hustled out with cries of “Fascists! Go home!”, as you can hear. Video by Jonathan Zeevi.
But the police left the Jewish banners and flags alone, as they were placed legally. Am Yisrael Chai!
The dismantling was already beginning when I walked to work about 5 a.m. There were campus cops all over the place, chanting and screaming by the Encampers, and loud shouts by the police clearing the area. Two cop cars were parked on the quad. I’ll let the Chicago Maroon give the details:
At approximately 4:25 a.m. on Tuesday morning, less than an hour after encampment organizers concluded their final rally of the evening, several dozen UCPD officers arrived at the main quad to remove the pro-Palestine encampment. The officers’ arrival came on the ninth day of the encampment, after UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP) launched an encampment on the quad outside of Swift Hall at 10 a.m. on Monday, following in the steps of pro-Palestinian groups at numerous other universities that have set up encampments in recent weeks.
Shortly before UCPD officers sweeped [sic] the encampment, two UCPD cars arrived on the main quad. Protesters were informed over a speaker that “the University of Chicago [did] not permit their assembly in this area,” and that they were “hereby notified that [they were] committing criminal trespass by remaining on… private property without permission.”
“Anyone who fails to comply will be criminally charged,” the speaker announced. “Students who fail to comply with this order will be subject to University discipline and immediately placed on leave of absence.”
Protesters, as they had largely returned to their tents to sleep for the night following the rally, had only minutes to comply with orders before UCPD officers entered the encampment. As UCPD officers overturned the encampment’s tents and barriers, protesters chanted in unison, repeating the phrases they had used during their daily rallies over the past week of the encampment. The Cook County Sheriff’s Office was also observed on the scene amidst the raid.
“More than 40,000 dead! You’re arresting kids instead!” Encampment members chanted in a video reviewed and verified by The Maroon from a protester inside the encampment during the sweep.
In an interview shared with The Maroon, an encampment member asserted that “[UCPD] did not give [encampment members] a clear plan for leaving.
“They came in maybe two minutes after the warning,” the encampment member said. “It’s clear that they waited until after the rally was over. We were at our most vulnerable.”
JAC: Isn’t that the best time to clear the encampment? We don’t want protestors fighting the cops, which is a recipe for violence and injury. The Maroon continues:
Protesters could be heard screaming by Maroon staff as the raid went on. At 4:55 a.m., UCPD ordered press, including Maroon staff, to leave the quad. It is currently unclear how many arrests may have been made, or if there were any injuries.
In a Telegram message, UCUP encouraged protesters who had not been at the encampment at the time of the raid to return to campus to demonstrate outside of the quad. Protesters gathered near the S. Ellis Ave entrance to the quad and chanted at the line of police donned in riot gear, who set up yellow barricades to separate themselves from the protesters.
Officers then handed out slips of paper with instructions on departing the encampment to the protesters who had gathered. The slips were entitled “Final Notice to Students Participating in Encampment on Main Quad,” and were not handed to protesters inside of the encampment in advance of the raid.
“The Deans on Call and University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) have informed you multiple times that your tents and other items are unauthorized. This is your final warning to leave the encampment.
If you fail to immediately leave, you will be arrested by law enforcement for criminal trespass under the Illinois Criminal Code.
Additionally, failure to immediately leave will result in disciplinary action as outlined in the Student Manual. You will also be immediately placed on emergency interim leave of absence from the University. A student who has been placed on emergency interim leave of absence must promptly vacate University housing, leave campus, cannot participate in student and academic program activities, or use any University facilities, and may not return until the student has been authorized to return from the leave and reenroll.”
The University could not be reached for comment.
This statement by the President was issued shortly after the Quad was cleared, explaining why the Encampment had to go.
A similar statement from our Dean of Students and the VP for Safety and Security:
These next photos and videos were taken by several readers of this site.
The protestors after they’d been pushed out of the quad onto Ellis Avenue. They tried to push back into the Quad, but the cops blocked their entry.
The throughway to the Quad that runs beneath the Administration Building, Levi Hall:
The peeved protestors, deprived of their tents and billboards, shouting at the cops blocking their re-entry into the quad:
More: protestors demanding that the cops answer, “Why are you here?” But of course we know whey they’re here: to enforce campus regulations.
“We love you,” they’re crying, though it’s very strange. They’re trying to push back into the quad, but the cops push back using a yellow plastic fence.
Protestors on one side of the fence; cops on the other.
Here, I’m told, are the infamous Weatherpeople, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn (circled), who were leaders of the Weather Underground (Ayers was a cofounder). They were arrested years ago, but only Dohrn served a bit of time, They got jobs in Chicago, and lately have been hanging around the Encampment to support its members.
The end, a cleared Quad:
Bye, bye, tents!:
I guess not all the protestors took their tents with them, even though they were allowed to.
And here’s a local report from ABC7 News, mentioning punishment of students (but only those who fail to leave).
What’s next? I doubt that these protesters, who are angry and persistent, will give up. But they won’t be allowed to camp on the campus any longer, and for a while we may have to show University ID cards to get onto campus.
We’re all wondering if there will be punishments for students and “outsiders.” The cops didn’t apparently ask for IDs as they expelled the Encampers, so I’m not sure how the University will identify those Encampers for punishment. As the President said above, “Where appropriate disciplinary action will proceed.” I’m not convinced, given the history of these protests, that this will occur. But certainly Students for Justice in Palestine, which was a big part of the Encampment and which was already on a warning from the University, should have its status as a Recognized Student Organization revoked.
Student protests will undoubtedly continue, the Jewish students will try to hold their own in the face of the antisemitism that was part of the Encampment, and that’s one form of division that seems irreparable, especially if Israel eliminates Hamas. (Our students should not suffer because of anything Israel does!)
With the faculty divided as well, will things ever get back to normal here? I’m not sure, as antipathy is rife. And our University has certainly had its brand tarnished.
The Jinx Press site has a bunch of tweets, apparently taken by Encampers. Here are a couple (Jinx is clearly pro-Encampment):
Trashing the camp, shouting, tossing debris at press and bystanders pic.twitter.com/cJYaSL1r3I
— Jinx Press (@JinxPress) May 7, 2024
8am on Tuesday and every trace of the encampment has been cleared. pic.twitter.com/f1AQi2Yfnu
— Jinx Press (@JinxPress) May 7, 2024
It took just three hours from when the UCPD started taking down the camp until the quad was cleared. Kudos to the cops for handling this well and avoiding injury, and also to those workers who had to clean up the mess the protesters left behind.
See, I would have started by dropping off two large dumpsters in the quad. Have you ever heard the boom those things make? Let that be the wake up call, then throw it all out (as they did).
Once again, when the protestors complain, it isn’t clear whether they know their complaints are fallacious or whether they actually believe what they say.
As to the professors undermining the university’s attempts to defend its property, would they regard occupations of their own personal residential property without their consent as falling within the bounds of free speech? Or would they direct their private security contractors to eject the trespassers with armed force?
It is easy to be generous with other people’s property.
It was definitely free speech at that presser they gave yesterday. You can tell it was free speech because they brought a podium with them. So yes if the student protestors brought a podium to a professor’s back yard it would totally be free speech. For Palestine.
/s
I had the same thought….I’d love to see some far right protestors just camp out on the front lawns of some of these professors and see how long that would be tolerated. Free speech…right?
I am very relieved that this happened without some sort of disaster!
I am very struck by the telling contrast between the bend-over-backwards tolerance of these demonstrations, rife as they were with anti-semitism, and any demonstration of intolerance from the farther right.
Couldn’t the abandoned tents be donated?
A bit sinister, what?
I vaguely remember, so I had to look them up for details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground
That is very sinister. And worrying.
They’re pretty old now, 79 and 82 according to Wikipedia. It seems they haven’t mellowed over the years.
Bravo!
Your coverage of this has been amazing.
Luckily the encampment was removed without significant violence. I expected worse, but am relieved at the outcome. No. This is not the end of the matter, but it should serve as a lesson to the administration that it can’t let things escalate this far again. Violations of time, place, and manner regulations need to be addresses immediately.
Congrats!!! At USC, we also got our campus back — LAPD cleared the encampment on Sunday morning:
https://voicesagainstantisemitism.substack.com/p/newsletter-may-6-2024
A peeved group of radical faculty is already scheming–planning to organize new disruptions. I hope our university sticks to the rules, dishes out the punishments to misbehaving students and faculty, and responds without delays to new illegal protests.
If faculty are involved in planning to, or actively participating in, deliberately breaking university regulations, wouldn’t that be a sacking offence (tenure or not)?
At my university this would be a close call. The president’s office favours student activism, JEDI, genderwang, and Kendian antiracism. So do some leaders of the faculty union (yes we’re unionized). But it’s not clear where they stand exactly on pro-Pal protests that have clear elements of antisemitism. And both the president and the union have paid at least lip service to the need for respectful dialogue within the bounds of university rules (similar to the time/place/manner rules at many US universities). So a lot would depend on exactly which university regulations were (planned to be) broken and how egregious the violation might be.
Congrats to you, too! I trust that USC didn’t bargain with the protestors!
Well done, and glad it ended without serious injury. Unfortunately I fear the decision to do it in a way that allowed them to leave without positively identifying any of the camp residents means no serious disciplinary action is envisaged by the university, which would be consistent with the “hope it all goes away” stance they’ve taken thus far. When the protestors all find a way to gather somewhere else and break more regulations it’s a decision the university is going to rue.
Possibly the university administration has also learnt something – break off negotiations – or not negotiate at all, make a serious threat with a show of force, act promptly before any resistance can be immediately organised to the show of force as happened at the end, and protestors fold quickly.
I was amused by the picture of cops ‘viciously tearing down’ barricades – what would non-vicious tearing down look like?
Good. The less publicity these idiots get the better: the media is utterly remiss in telling the entire story, or even part of it.
*For that, see my column: https://democracychronicles.org/author/david-anderson/
(couldn’t resist a plug!)
Assuming this bs fails apart Israel will have a freer hand to take care of business.
Pity there’s no other distractions about. Maybe if a cop punches a black person in the face or something we can be distracted by some of our cities burning down. Again.
D.A.
NYC
I had thought that action should have been taken from the very start by the University, but thank goodness the University acted and they succeeded with remarkably little disruption. I do hope that they have identifiable photos of students and especially faculty to take disciplinary action. One faculty member, Amen Abdelhadi was quoted in the student newspaper that, “I hope that the University knows that students aren’t going anywhere. This is just the beginning.” I hope that the University will seriously investigate her involvement and take disciplinary action.
Eman Abdelhadi, Assistant Professor of Comparative Human Development at the Department of Comparative Human Development, whatever this is to mean. No wonder that tuition has reached the stratosphere – it is expensive to keep a legion of such brilliant scholars on payroll.
Mmm.
You know, if someone had something really important to say, was in an inappropriate place saying it and was told to move, they could simply find an appropriate place and repeat the ideas on their mind.
But that didn’t happen, did it. The tents ain’t cheap, either – ought to donate them somewhere, a kid might appreciate it. Did they actually sleep in them?
[…]
Oh look! The sympathetic characters are out at Harvard speaking! Ooo, the Met! Let’s go!
Sweep that quad for any gifts Ayers left.
#Prairie Fire (look it up)
One more thing – following Baudrillard’s analysis of The Gulf War – all the results are in :
The 2024 U. Chicago Campus Protest Will Not Take Place. Check.
The 2024 U. Chicago Campus Protest : Is it really taking place? No.
And to conclude :
The 2024 U. Chicago Campus Protest did not take place
Reference:
The Gulf War did not take place
Jean Baudrillard
1991
Indiana U. Press
Trans. Patton, 1995
Luck. Lucky that no one was seriously injured in the confrontations each day and in the final sweep this morning. Before congratulations grow too loud, let’s look at some of the outcomes from the delays. An antisemitic seed was grown into an ugly flowering garden with the creation of an us vs them environment: Jews=Zionists not allowed inside rope/fence line and bullied and intimidated outside it. Safety rules that include not blocking sidewalk ingress and egress were not enforced; so what university rules are real and which ones are optional? And who decides when they are optional? There could have been clear direction to protesters as to what was acceptable (e.g. stay on grass and off sidewalks; speech is encouraged..say what you want or display any words you want on signs, but punish bullying, confrontation, and intimidation. An informative Oxford Union style panel discussion on Israel could have been developed by faculty and administration to engage the university community in the complexities of the issue, but we ended with a week of people simply yelling at and past each other and not speaking with each other…or at least that is how it appears from 1000 miles to the southeast of Chicago from available digital media. The trustees (all 50+ of them!) and president should be ashamed of their ineptitude. The students, faculty, and staff of this historic institution deserve better.
Thank you for the wonderful updates, photos and videos, Jerry. Much appreciated. All the best!
A big +1, Jerry
The obvious question (to me) is ‘why now’? I think the answer is that it will soon be too late. Israel appears to be moving into Rafah. The end of Hamas is near. Hamas appears to think so. Hamas is acting desperate of late. The Hamas missile strike from Rafah was an act of desperation (and deadly). Hamas has publicly claimed ‘ceasefire’ deals that didn’t exist. After Hamas is destroyed, civilian deaths will end. The other factor is that the deaths of 2024/10/7 are wearing off (should they be?).
As everyone has said, thank you for the excellent coverage of this ordeal in real time. I’m so glad no one was hurt and your remark that “Our students should not suffer because of anything Israel does!” is the absolute truth! I have a nervous stomach anticipating what the protesters’ response will be to Israel moving into Rafah in earnest. Campuses and cities (worldwide) need to prepare for that eventuality.
‘ “We love you,” they’re crying, though it’s very strange.’
I hear “Shame on you”.
Wow, it’s like the yanny / laurel illusion. You can hear it either way, but I agree that it sounds more like “Shame on you”.