Three Vanderbilt University students were arrested and 16 were suspended after a police officer was pushed at an anti-Israel demonstration this week. A fourth student was arrested at another time during the protest, after broken glass was found.
Video footage showed pro-Palestinian students pushing an officer in order to force entry into a campus building to protest the school’s decision to cancel a ballot proposition that would have banned funding for pro-Israel groups, according to a report by the Vanderbilt Hustler.
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Students Devron Burks, Jack Petocz, and Samuel Schulman were arrested for assault and bodily injury to another, a misdemeanor, with Petocz being held at a $2,000 bond, and Schulman and Burks being held at a $1,000 bond, according to police records obtained by the Vanderbilt Hustler.
In the video, Schulman and Burks can be seen at the front of the group of protestors trying to force their way into the school’s Kirkland Hall while an officer attempts to stop them. Petocz, meanwhile, can be seen near the back of the group, the student newspaper added.
Earlier, before the group of protestors forced their way into Kirkland Hall, a fourth student, Musab Nuh, was also arrested “after officers saw a shattered window at the building.” Nuh’s charges, however, were unlisted.
Student protestors had reportedly staged a sit-in to protest Vanderbilt administrators for hindering the anti-Israel proposition.
During the protest, students could be heard shouting, “Shame!” at a black police officer, and calling him “a coward.”
“You are black in America, and you’re not standing with the marginalized people of the world,” one student declared, according to the video, before adding, “What does that make you? A coward.”
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A Vanderbilt University spokesperson told the Tennessean that protesters “physically assaulted a Community Service Officer to gain entrance and proceeded to push staff members who offered to meet with them.”
The spokesperson added that the “student-led effort to pass a resolution proposing Vanderbilt Student Government adopt boycott, divestment and sanctions tactics did not move forward because of potential conflict with federal and state laws.”
Any activity related to boycotts from the university could make the school “ineligible for new state contracts and could have existing contracts voided,” the spokesperson added.
As Breitbart News reported, the October 7 terrorist attack against Israel and massacre of Jews by the Iranian-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas appears to have galvanized students across the United States into putting on pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel demonstrations on their college campuses.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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