SJP accuses university police of ‘assault,’ injuring a student after 19 arrested
The University of Wisconsin-Madison launched an investigation last week into its Students for Justice in Palestine chapter after the group interrupted a Board of Regents meeting, leading to 19 arrests.
The student group is accusing university police of assaulting some of its members, but a spokesperson for the university denies the claims.
Anti-Israel student protestors disrupted the meeting Thursday to demand the university divest from all companies linked to Israel. The students “may have violated the rules in the RSO Code of Conduct through the ‘use of university facilities and grounds,’ ‘obstruct[ing] orderly conduct’ and ‘fail[ing] to comply’ with administration,” The Daily Cardinal reported.
In documents shared with the student newspaper, Investigating Officer Aaron Vieth stated that the student group could face “further sanctions, up to and including the termination of [registered student organization] status,” if it is found guilty of violating probation requirements already in effect for previous infringements and school policy.
Now, SJP must schedule an investigatory interview by Dec. 15. The group must also request a hearing within seven days, or Vieth’s “recommendation will become the university’s final decision,” the Cardinal reported.
In an Instagram post Friday, SJP stated that the students entered the room and initially stood silently with signs. Then, a protestor went to the front of the room and spoke out, demanding transparency and divestment.
“Administrators tried (and failed) to stop the protester from speaking, and after a few minutes, a barrage of campus police officers started flooding the room,” SJP stated.
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“[S]tudent activists from both Madison and Milwaukee were met with police violence for speaking out in support of Palestinian liberation. Despite the sanctions, the Wisconsin student movement only will only grow stronger in the struggle!” the group stated.
SJP also stated that one student was “pulled by their neck and dragged away…as they chanted ‘Free, Free Palestine.’”
Further, “cops physically intimidated students,” searched their pockets, and “zip tied and handcuffed them.”
“Most students were left with bruises and harsh indents on their wrists, multiple were bleeding, and one student was cut when cops removed their zip ties,” the group stated.
However, UWPD spokesperson Marc Lovicott said the officers “did not assault protesters and instead restrained them with handcuffs or ‘disposable flex-cuffs’ which are similar to large zip ties,” the Cardinal reported.
Lovicott confirmed that one officer accidentally scratched a student’s wrist, but UWPD staff immediately tended to the injury.
“This is a common tactic with this type of group we saw in May as well, where these just ridiculous, false claims are made,” Lovicott said.
“I think the videos on social media speak for themselves as to how we tried to get protesters to clear the room so the meeting could legally go on as was needed,” he said.
One UW-Madison sociology professor, Samer Alatout, who also serves as a faculty advisor for SJP, called the university’s response to the protest “absolutely disgraceful.”
The school is “mak[ing] the issue about student disruption while a genocide is raging on in Gaza,” the professor said.
SJP at UW-Madison was already on probation for violating “five organizational rules of conduct, stemming from actions related to the illegal encampment on Library Mall between April 29 and May 11, 2024,” according to an October news release from the school.
MORE: Pro-Palestinian group suspended until 2027 at U. Illinois
IMAGE: sjpuwmadison/Instagram
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