2024-05-01 19:50:16
In the afternoon, police authorities detained students who had gathered on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin to set up camp as part of a protest calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
“What starts here changes the world. It starts with you and what you do every day.” So reads an encouraging sign welcoming students to the University of Texas at Austin. However, the actions that this educational center is carrying out tell a different story. A photo that circulated this week on social media shows a line of state police dressed in riot gear standing right behind that sign.
The number of students arrested by state and local law enforcement officers, including the Texas Department of Public Safety and the University of Texas Police Department, is unknown at this time. However, a reporter estimated that at least 20 people have been detained.
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While from the university he told a journalist that the protesters “physically confronted and verbally attacked” members of his staff who tried to seize the materials that the activists had in a camp set up on the south campus of the institution. At the same time, he mentioned that most of the protesters “are not affiliated with the university.”
For its part, the Travis County Prosecutor’s Office said it has dropped criminal charges against 57 students arrested at a demonstration at the University of Texas at Austin against Israel’s war in Gaza and in solidarity with their classmates on other campuses.
The protesters were arrested last Wednesday when more than 500 students walked out of classes to demand the university sever its relations with manufacturers that supply weapons to Israel.
You can read: Israel could suspend its invasion of Rafah, if there is an agreement with Hamas