Chicago police clear pro-Palestinian encampment on DePaul campus

Chicago police cleared out a at DePaul University’s Lincoln Park campus early Thursday morning after school officials said they had reached an impasse with the protesters.The encampment, which had been in place since April 30, was the last remaining in the Chicago area. Last week, campus police at the University of Chicago , ending an eight-day demonstration.All demonstrators had been moved from the on the main quad by midday, while a peaceful rally was held nearby. Crews from the university had removed tents, flags and other equipment, and officers were no longer wearing riot gear.Protesters held signs that read: “You can’t pray for ‘both sides’ while arming one,” “Divest from genocide” and “Jews against genocide.” During a news conference at DePaul, Chicago Police Patrol Chief Jon Hein told reporters that officers “assisted in the removal of the encampment” at the university’s request.Hein noted that demonstrators voluntarily left the encampment after the university and police officials asked them to disperse. He wouldn’t say whether there was a specific threat that prompted the move.Two people were arrested outside of the encampment for obstructing traffic and were taken to the Near North District for processing, Hein said. Hein denied reports that officers forcibly removed demonstrators from their tents and that one had been attacked by police. “There was no confrontations. As we approached, all the subjects voluntarily left the area,” he said.Simran Bains, a senior student organizer, said one of those arrested was a Muslim woman whose hijab was torn off during the arrest and the other was a DePaul student who was pulled to the ground by his helmet, Bains said. The woman was not part of the encampment.“She was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Bains said. The protesters got no warning of the clearing of the encampment, but had heard rumors about some police involvement, Bains said.“I can’t even describe what was in the air, but we just had a feeling,” she said. Students haven’t met with university leaders since Saturday, despite proposing a meeting Monday that administrators didn’t show up to, Bains said. In a statement Thursday, University President Robert Manuel said the university and the coalition were “unable to agree to terms.”“It became apparent that the student leaders did not have the ability to represent everyone or make decisions in our final meeting with the DePaul Divestment Coalition and their attorney on May 11,” Manuel said, adding, "... the student leaders demonstrated a complete lack of understanding or concern for the impact the encampment was having on the rest of the population in our university community.”The university received more than 1,000 complaints about the encampment over the past 17 days and “took steps to address these concerns,” Manuel said.“But we can no longer maintain this balance. We had no choice but to act, before we lost the ability to provide for the safety of the Jewish members of our community, to preserve the rights of all other students, and to maintain university operations,” Manuel said of the decision to clear the encampment.Organizers will continue pushing for Palestinian rights and DePaul’s divestment from Israeli supporters and forces, Bains said. “What we are facing now is 1/100th of what the people of Palestine have been facing for decades,” Bains said.About 7 a.m., though dozens of officers remained on the scene dismantling the last of the encampment, the situation appeared peaceful. Officers on bikes lined Fullerton Avenue and motorists were able to get past. About 100 protesters stood across the street from the main quad, many of whom chanted: “Free Palestine” and “Robert, Robert you can’t hide, you are funding genocide” in reference to Manuel.Many protesters carried Palestinian flags or were wearing keffiyehs, which are Arab head scarfs. I’m at DePaul University this morning where police are clearing the last pro-Palestinian encampment in Chicago. There’s a heavy police presence and protesters chanting on Fullerton while cops clean out the encampment on the quad. A message from the Office of the President about Sunday’s protests was emailed to the university community. For the full message, visit the Towards Understanding and Dialogue website: Ash, a 23-year-old protester who lives in the area and had been staying at the encampment for a week, said he woke up to people screaming that cops had come to the quad around 5:30 a.m.“My first thought was to be prepared for if the police were to escalate our rally,” he said.He estimated around 100 tents and more than 100 people were at the encampment when it was leveled. “By the time we were waking up we were already in the encampment,” said Ash, who added he’d seen social media content about families in Gaza that inspired him to attend rallies at DePaul and join the encampment.“It’s hard to see videos of people talking about their towns being reduced to rubble,” Ash said. “It’s hard to see things like that and not be outraged.”At some point before noon, several protesters began marching, and some of them stepped into the street to block traffic. They were immediately blocked by police officers, Ash said. “The fact that all it took was some people in the street for them to bring out the batons was scary,” he said.No one was struck with batons, he added.Crews posted a sign on a fence outside the quad reading: “Quad closed until further notice” and another one warning: “No trespassing.”Brian Comer, president of the Sheffield Neighborhood Association, said the group became concerned about safety when counterprotesters showed up at the encampment days ago and asked the university to take the encampment down. Though that protest ended peacefully, Comer said he was worried about a different outcome of more clashes.“It became very clear that this could be a tinder box for something besides free speech,” Comer said. “The second one person is injured, it’s too late.” In a statement on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Anti-Defamation League Midwest Regional Director David Goldenberg said they “appreciate” that the university cleared the encampment. Additional pro-Israel groups have also opposed the encampments across the country, including Metro Chicago Hillel, which has started a petition to call on university administrators to clear them.“Free speech and the respectful exchange of ideas in the classroom and in peaceful public protests are fundamental to a college education,” . “What is happening on too many college and university campuses today is not that,” the petition said. By late morning Ethan Cruise, a senior at DePaul who was in the encampment when it was cleared, peered through the fence to see the emptied quad.“It’s infuriating,” Cruise said of the sight. “That anger can be used.”Cruise described the encampment as peaceful and collaborative, calling it “one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever been a part of.” Inside the encampment, students took part in activities, prayers, Shabbat dinner, music performances and book clubs, Cruise said.“It was powerful,” he said. “It was an honor to be a part of the encampment.”At an initially unrelated news conference about marches on the Democratic National Convention outside City Hall Thursday morning, leaders with the Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine and at least one alderperson denounced the police action at DePaul. They say it was in line with the “criminalization” of protests against injustice seen across the country — and specifically on college campuses.“What we saw today at DePaul University reminds us of the vicious police attacks on students at Columbia, UCLA, University of Texas at Austin, Ohio State and so many others,” said U.S. Palestinian Community Network Chair Hatem Abudayyeh. “That’s what it’s like for a community of color, fighting for its national liberation, to be criminalized by school administrations, by law enforcement and by municipalities,” Abudayyeh said during the briefing. A DePaul University personnel hangs a sign that reads, “Quad Closed Until Further Notice. Do Not Enter” on the fence of DePaul University in Lincoln Park, hours after Chicago police cleared the pro-Palestinian encampment on campus early Thursday, May 16, 2024.Pat Nabong/Sun-Times