At around 7:30 a.m. Thursday, Northwestern student activists began arriving with tents at Deering Meadow to call for the university to disinvest in its partnerships with organizations supportive of the Israeli government’s actions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to protect students’ rights on campus.
Northwestern University Police Department officers began to move to the protesters in an attempt to dismantle tents; and, as seen on video provided by The Daily Northwestern and separate TV broadcasts, physical violence ensued between faculty standing with their students and the officers. Faculty can be heard in the video yelling “do not touch our students.”
The Community Alliance for Better Government calls on the Northwestern Police Department to cease physically violent attempts to disrupt this student protest. Additionally, CABG demands that the Evanston Police Department not utilize NIPAS (the Northern Illinois Police Alarm System) to prevent further protests.
On Oct. 31, 2020, Northwestern students led a protest in Evanston’s downtown area. EPD called in NIPAS to bolster its numbers. A physical assault of Northwestern students ensued, and police officers used chemical weapons on protesters to disperse them. Public records requests made by journalist Alex Harrison at the time revealed officers had discussed hiring hackers to drain bail/bond funds, shattering the kneecaps of student protesters and having “itchy trigger fingers.”
The behavior of officers from Evanston and other municipalities that day was horrifying and is why NIPAS should not be utilized to disperse protests. Evanston cannot make the same mistake again and needlessly endanger the lives of our community members.
This situation is evolving, and we will continue to monitor it to ensure rights are protected.
Sebastian Nalls, Community Alliance for Better Government president
Editor’s note: Alex Harrison is now a reporter on the RoundTable staff. He was a student journalist at Northwestern in 2020, during the police protests mentioned in this letter.
you will please notice that where the police have NOT been involved or invited on campus (eg Berkely and MIT) there are no problems –
some colleges have learned from the past and are enlightened
Strongly agree. The right to peacefully protest – anything – is Constitutionally guaranteed. Why is this being ignored?
Unfortunately Northwestern is a private university which means that it is not bound by the first amendment. The fact that they have their own police force is what ever it is but they constantly choose wether or not to cooperate with Evanstons police force depending on how they are best served in the mater. They have had a history of not involving evanston police in issues like sexual assault to be able to control the narrative / outcome.
A bit more about the topic from the ACLU’s website:
“Do I have First Amendment rights at my private institution?
Private Institutions
Generally, no. Private institutions generally are not bound by the First Amendment. So, private school students do not have the exact same rights to freedom of speech as students in public institutions. Rather, a private school student’s free speech rights are generally as outlined/described in the institution’s related rules and guidance. To locate your school’s rules and policies, you can try searching “code of conduct” on your school’s website or reaching out to your school’s administration, such as your office of student affairs or your registrar.”