Posted on 05/01/2024 4:16:39 AM PDT by texanyankee
Seventy-nine people were arrested in connection to the pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas on Monday, according to the Travis County sheriff’s office.
Seventy-eight of those arrested were charged with criminal trespass, and one person received an additional charge of obstructing a highway or passageway, said Kristen Dark, sheriff's office public information officer. One person was also charged with interfering with public duties, Dark said.
Unlike last week, the University of Texas Police Department was not the lone arresting agency. Dark said the Austin Police Department is listed as the arresting agency for four protesters.
The 57 people arrested at last Wednesday's protest all faced criminal trespassing charges, though all of those charges were dropped.
Though dozens of people gathered at the campus's South Mall for a pro-Palestinian "teach-in" on Tuesday afternoon, the scene was far more peaceful than the protest the previous day.
Another protest is planned for Wednesday.
n a statement sent by UT spokesperson Brian Davis Tuesday evening, the university said weapons — including guns — were confiscated "from protesters" on Monday.
"To date, from protesters, weapons have been confiscated in the form of guns, buckets of large rocks, bricks, steel enforced wood planks, mallets, and chains," the statement read. "Staff have been physically assaulted and threatened, and police have been headbutted and hit with horse excrement, while their police cars have had tires slashed with knives."
Videos on social media showed police being rough with protesters, including by dragging them, and one video showed an officer repeatedly hitting someone.
The statement reiterated that the majority of people arrested Monday had no UT affiliation, which the university said confirmed its worry about the influence of outside groups.
"This is calculated, intentional and, we believe, orchestrated, and led by those outside our university community," the statement said.
The statement comes ahead of a protest planned by multiple groups at noon Wednesday on the lawn. Protesters have asserted and chanted that their intentions are peaceful, but the news of weapons follows the university's statement Monday that "baseball-size rocks" were found placed seemingly "strategically" at the protest.
The university declined to elaborate when asked how many weapons were found, when they were found and other questions.
By late afternoon, people who’d been arrested during Monday’s protest began to trickle out of the Travis County Jail as they were released.
Sam Law, a doctoral student at UT, felt relief when he was released around 5:30 p.m., he said.
“The University of Texas seemed to drag their feet bureaucratically as long as possible to make this as torturous a process as possible,” Law said.
When people were held in a larger cell, the spirits largely seemed high, with people singing, he said. After that, the arrested protesters were put in separate cells, he said.
Austin Community College student Zach Johnson also felt largely fine after he was released Tuesday evening but worried for some other people who said they had asthma or diabetes, he said. Those people weren’t given access to the medical care they needed, he said.
Johnson went to the UT campus Monday because of a speaker planned at the day’s event but then noticed people putting up tents and joined the protest, he said.
As protesters came out of the jail one by one, pro-Palestinian students waited in the plaza in front of the jail playing music, chatting and reading. Some of them ordered pizza. Every so often, they’d gather to chant, “One, two, three, four, open up the jail door.”
Student Citlali Soto-Ferate came to support fellow protesters, especially since she’d been arrested during protests at UT April 24. When she was waiting to be released, she felt better by hearing protesters chanting outside.
“I have to pay it forward,” Soto-Ferate said.
BTTT
To: CIB-173RDABN
“The entire Democrat party will have blood on their hands when these terrorist decide it is time to start killing Americans.”
I honestly believe they will not care if it comes to that.
Marxists.
17 posted on 5/1/2024, 5:58:40 AM by Jonny7797
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: CIB-173RDABN
“The entire Democrat party will have blood on their hands when these terrorist decide it is time to start killing Americans.”
$5 says they’ll blame it on Trump.
18 posted on 5/1/2024, 6:01:29 AM by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
\/
and blame amyone not full fledged commie or muzzie.
not a bug
the feature
the plan
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