118 arrested as police forcibly clear Emerson encampment protesting war in Gaza

Update: A Boston Police Department report obtained Friday says 118 people were arrested.

Boston police said they arrested more than 100 people near Emerson College overnight Wednesday as officers forcibly cleared a tent encampment. Demonstrators had set up their tents in solidarity with a broader movement by U.S. college students calling on universities to sever ties with Israel and support a ceasefire in Gaza.

Officers arrested 108 people in and around the Boylston Place alleyway, a spokesperson for the police department confirmed Thursday morning.

Those arrested were not booked or released from police custody until late Thursday afternoon. None were arraigned in Boston Municipal Court, as was initially expected, because courthouse judges were away at a conference, according to a court clerk and lawyers for the protesters.

Emerson organizers and volunteers with the Massachusetts chapter of the National Lawyers Guild spent much of the day locating students who were arrested and organizing legal representation for them. The group said two of its legal observers witnessed the raid on the encampment.

Urszula Masny-Latos, the group's executive director, said arraignments now were set for next week.

The encampment first went up late Sunday. On Wednesday, college leaders warned students that city fire and police officials had contacted Emerson to say protesters were violating city ordinances by keeping the tents in an area that exists as a public right-of-way.

A video recorded from a window above the narrow alley where the Emerson encampment stood showed protesters bracing for an encounter with police. They clustered into tight groups in the alley and inside an adjacent building, using umbrellas as shields, according to the video by a witness at the scene, which was shared with WBUR.

Helmeted police entered the encampment from the nearby state transportation building and pulled umbrellas away from protesters. They pulled at demonstrators' arms, shoulders and clothing in an attempt to take them into custody.

Some protesters were pulled to the ground. Other were dragged away. Meanwhile, dozens of other police marched in formation into the alley, holding long sticks. Officers in the video could be seen breaking up groups of protesters inside the building as well.

Sergeant Detective John Boyle, a spokesman for the police, said none of the protesters in custody reported injuries. He said four officers were injured as they cleared the encampment. One officer's injuries were more serious than the others, but all were non-life-threatening.

On Thursday morning, hundreds of students at Northeastern University set up an encampment in solidarity. Officials warned students to clear the area before police got involved.

Students formed a human chain, and chanted. Both campus police and city police were on the scene Thursday afternoon.

In a statement, Emerson administrators said its staff was on scene Wednesday night "focused on supporting our students through this highly stressful situation and seeking to de-escalate the conflict." School officials said they also came to see the arrested students at police precincts and courthouses Thursday.

"We hope that our community can remain united during this moment of crisis through mutual caring, support, and respect for all the people and perspectives represented in our diverse Emerson community," Emerson College President Jay Bernhardt said in a statement. He added the school would receive students back on campus when they're released from custody.

Before the arrests, Emerson officials sent a message to students that law enforcement might remove them if they did not vacate.

"Emerson College remains steadfast in its support of community members’ right to peacefully protest," read an open letter released by college leadership Wednesday. "However, we must also emphasize that we cannot prevent the enforcement of Boston city ordinances or Massachusetts state law."

In that letter, Emerson leaders also said they'd received reports of “targeted harassment and intimidation of Jewish supporters of Israel” and said the “behavior is unacceptable on our campus.”

Mayor Michelle Wu, speaking at an event in Roslindale on Thursday, said that the city had informed the school and protest organizers that the tents in the alleyway posed a "safety and health hazard, fire hazard, and public access hazard."

Wu said every officer at the event had body cameras on and that she had reviewed some of that footage from the arrests. Wu said the footage shows that police were trying to communicate with protesters to protect their right to protest while ensuring public access.

"I know that world events, global events are incredibly painful and emotional for our community," Wu said. "We cannot let that destabilize the safety and well-being of our residents here in Boston."

She said city and police officials will continue to review footage of the arrests.

In an interview Thursday morning, Boston City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune said it's important to balance safety concerns with students' free speech rights.

"Students have a right to protest, and protest peacefully," she said. "It's really important that we don't trample on that right."

In a social media post Thursday morning, City Councilor Ed Flynn came down hard on the protesters' encampments, saying, "Public access can’t be blocked. Violations of city ordinances must be addressed. Tents in public right of ways must come down immediately."

Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said in a statement that her organization was “concerned” about the actions of law enforcement during the arrests.

"There is a distinction between removing encampments to ensure safe access to a public right of way and using physical violence against students engaging in peaceful expression." Rose said in a statement. "City and campus officials should take great care to distinguish between the two; if the alley is considered a public way for purposes of Boston’s anti-tent ordinance, then it is also a public way for purposes of free speech.”

Beyond the demonstrations at Greater Boston campuses — including at Tufts, MIT and Harvard — college students across the country took part in similar protests to oppose the war in Gaza and draw attention to the plight of the Palestinians.

Ron Liebowitz, president of Brandeis University, on Wednesday penned an open letter saying the school would extend its transfer student application deadline to the end of May in response to the protests.

He wrote that Brandeis is "committed to protecting the safety of all its students, and, in the current atmosphere, we are proud of the supports we have in place to allow Jewish students to thrive."

Police arrested dozens of student protesters at Columbia University in New York last week over an encampment on the campus lawn. In Connecticut, the Yale Police Department told NPR at least 40 Palestinian demonstrators were arrested over the weekend.

With additional reporting from WBUR's Max Larkin, Jesse Costa, Lisa Creamer and Simón Rios

This story was updated with the precise number of arrests, to reflect disclosure in police report.