Police carry out complex choreography in responding to campus protests: 'You need decisive action'

[admin]

As protests continue erupting at U.S. college campuses over the war in Gaza, law enforcement from coast to coast is being tasked with carrying out a complex choreography: How to protect the constitutional right to free speech, while navigating volatile and potentially unsafe social unrest. Dynamic scenes of massive encampments, vocal demonstrations and building occupation have now been playing out on private and public college properties – where police assistance has to be requested, not forcibly and unilaterally imposed. Protests broke out last month at colleges and universities across the country in connection with the war in Gaza, with many pro-Palestinian protesters calling for their colleges to divest of funds from Israeli military operations or companies benefitting from the war.