D.C. police early began clearing the pro-Palestinian encampment at George Washington University early Wednesday morning and made several arrests, authorities said, hours before the mayor and police chief are set to testify on Capitol Hill about why they had previously declined to take action.
A D.C. police spokesman, Thomas Lynch, said the encampment had grown in recent days, and “became more volatile.” On Tuesday night, demonstrators marched to the university president’s residence.
Police moved in shortly after 3 a.m. Lynch said demonstrators clashed with police at least once, though it was not immediately clear if anyone was hurt. The operation was still ongoing around 5 a.m., and the number of arrests and a breakdown of charges was not immediately available. It could not be determined how many were students.
The move on the encampment came just hours before the district’s mayor and police chief are set to testify Wednesday on Capitol Hill about why they had for nearly two weeks declined requests from the university to clear a pro-Palestinian encampment from the school’s grounds.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee on Oversight and Accountability, summoned Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and Chief Pamela A. Smith to testify at 1 p.m., vowing to question the city’s lack of response to the ongoing campus protest despite the university’s repeated requests for help. It was not immediately clear if the move on the demonstration would upend the hearing.
Bowser and Smith plan to attend the hearing, a city spokesperson said Tuesday, before the move on the encampment. Both had been expected to defend their decision-making, which was based on concern about the optics of moving against a small number of peaceful protesters, though Wednesday’s move is likely to change their plans considerably. The first request from university officials came soon after the demonstration began April 25.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Faith N
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.offthepress.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.