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After arrests, emotions still raw for Emerson protesters as arraignments continue

Some Emerson College students accused police of using excessive force while clearing an encampment set up by pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

By Ross Cristantiello

May 1, 2024

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As the doors of a courtroom on the fifth floor of the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse in Boston opened, a crowd of student activists from Emerson College and their allies gathered close. 

A group of pro-Palestinian students who had been arrested for refusing to leave an encampment last week was about to exit the courtroom, where they were arraigned Wednesday morning.

“Are we going to clap?” one member of the crowd could be heard asking. 

“Not sure. Maybe we’ll just snap,” someone next to them replied. 

Tentative applause greeted the students as they emerged. It quickly swelled, erupting into a cacophony of supportive whoops and whistles. Dozens of people were congregated outside the courtroom, many wearing keffiyehs. Some exchanged hugs with close friends. Others introduced themselves to peers for the first time. Lawyers, parents, and Emerson staff members conferred with the students. People handed out fruit snacks and bottles of water. 

The hubbub died down, and the next group of students facing charges prepared to enter the courtroom. About 20 minutes later, they received their own round of applause. 

All in all, 118 student protesters were arrested by Boston Police when officers swept into Boylston Place Alley during the early morning hours of April 25, according to the college. They are being arraigned over multiple days this week in Boston Municipal Court on charges including trespassing and disturbing the peace. 

‘Beaten and bloodied’

Students that witnessed the arrests accused officers of using excessive violence. 

“People were absolutely beaten and bloodied,” Amrita Bala, a sophomore who helped organize the encampment as a member of Emerson Students for Justice in Palestine, said. 

Bala said she suffered a mild concussion and that multiple students were injured. Sadia AboHussien, a senior and another SJP organizer, described seeing police “ping pong” her classmates back and forth before pinning them on the ground. Some had their faces dragged along the concrete, others had cuts from the zip ties used to detain them.

Student journalists with The Berkeley Beacon reported seeing blood on the ground. 

“That’s the type of stuff that you read about in history textbooks,” AboHussien said. 

Rayan Afif, a freshman who was on the front line of the group of demonstrators as they clashed with police, directly blamed BPD officers for giving her a concussion. She described spending eight hours in a jail cell after being arrested, fading in and out of consciousness. She has been in a “haze” over the last few days, taking multiple trips to the emergency room for help managing bouts of shaking and fainting, she said. 

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, BPD officials said four officers sustained injuries of their own, and that no protesters reported injuries in their custody. However, the on-scene commander asked a dispatcher to tell him which hospitals two protesters were taken to while officers were still clearing out the alley, according to recordings obtained by The Boston Globe.

BPD spokespeople did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.  

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said she made the decision to clear the encampment in tandem with Police Commissioner Michael Cox. She cited “public safety and fire hazards” in a statement to the Globe. 

“I am really, really upset with the college and the way the Boston police handled this. These are kids, these are nonviolent kids who are just expressing their opinion. The physical violence used against them was absolutely unjustified,” said Mohan, a parent of one of the students who was arrested. He asked to only be identified by his first name. 

The Emerson students are part of a growing movement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, for an expansion of Palestinian rights, and for their universities to cut ties with the Israeli military and Israeli companies. Since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and killed roughly 1,200 people, Israel’s subsequent military actions in Gaza have killed more than 34,000 people, according to local authorities. Israel has been accused of orchestrating a genocide in the enclave, and some experts say famine has already set in. 

Student activists are working to keep the wider narrative focused on the plight of Palestinians, while simultaneously highlighting the crackdowns on encampments in the US. 

“The whole reason for any of these encampments is ‘free Palestine.’ We need to make sure everybody has eyes on that. We know exactly why we were there, why we stayed, and what we set up that space to be. I really don’t want people to forget that that’s why we were there,” Bala said. 

‘Common ground’

Nationally, the wave of pro-Palestininan demonstrations have been met with allegations of antisemitism. Emerson student protesters say they are working to make it clear that criticisms of the Israeli government are not inherently antisemitic, and that advocating for Palestinian rights is in the best interest of anyone who wants a lasting peace in the Middle East. 

“Palestinian liberation includes Jewish liberation. A free Palestine means that Jewish people are safe, that Palestinians are safe,” Afif said. 

This spirit was on display inside the encampment during the four days that it existed, according to multiple students who participated. The pro-Palestinian demonstrators include many Jews who accuse Israeli leaders of ignoring the religion’s core teachings. The Emerson encampment was open to anyone who wanted to engage with the protesters peacefully, and no one was blocked from walking through the area, SJP members said. 

“We did everything that was instinctual, which was to collaborate, to be together, to share, to invite each other in,” AboHussien said. 

Jews stood vigil around Muslims as they prayed, AboHussien said. People from multiple religious backgrounds participated in a Passover seder. Some who had no affiliation with Emerson came to engage in conversations on topics like gender, queerness, antisemitism, and Islamophobia. 

“There was so much grief, and there was so much joy, and there was grief in the joy and joy in the grief. It was incredibly beautiful. It’s so heartbreaking how it was taken from us,” Afif said of the encampment. 

AboHussien expressed hope that a shared aversion to violence and dehumanization of any kind could lead to some form of peace. 

“We share this common frustration with reality, with this violence, with these attacks on peoples’ identities. There’s common ground there,” she said. 

On Monday, Emerson administrators held a moderated town hall event where much of the discussion centered on the arrests. More than 100 people spoke, according to the Beacon. This was a much-needed step in the right direction, Bala said, but many more such discussions are necessary. 

Emerson will not bring disciplinary charges against the protesters, according to Bernhardt, and it will “encourage the district attorney not to pursue charges related to encampment violations.” Students at the courthouse Wednesday said they were expecting to be ordered to complete community service. Members of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild are representing student protesters from Emerson and Northeastern University.

In the wake of the arrests, Emerson’s student government unanimously passed a resolution calling for Bernhardt’s resignation. The college’s Board of Trustees has since backed Bernhardt and said it does not have plans to remove him.

Thirteen people were arrested during Bernhardt’s inauguration in March. That protest was also organized by SJP to call attention to Emerson’s tuition hikes and “silence on the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

Outside the courtroom Wednesday, Bala spoke about returning to the scene of the encampment for the first time since police cleared it. The entrance to the theater where the town hall was held is in the same alleyway. 

She was struck by its sterility. 

“They power washed away all the blood, all the chalk, all the art.”