Police arrested more than 3,100 protesters during the wave of anti-Israel encampments this spring, but many of the charges have since been dropped, The New York Times reported on Sunday.
Mass arrests began in April at Columbia University when police arrested more than 100 on April 18. A few thousand more were subsequently arrested at campuses around the country. Most were hit with charges of trespassing and disturbing the peace.
While some college administrators chose to negotiate with the demonstrators, promising scholarships to Gazans and other inducements, others hoped to quickly restore calm by calling in the police.
Police arrested demonstrators at more than 70 schools in at least 30 states, according to the Times.
“But in the months since, many of the charges have been dropped, even as some students are facing additional consequences, like being barred from their campuses or having their diplomas withheld,” the paper said.
Prosecutor Delia Garza in Travis County dropped criminal trespassing charges against more than 100 people arrested at the University of Texas at Austin. She said that jurors would have likely decided that students were exercising free-speech rights.
The university was disappointed by the decision. “Actions that violate laws and institutional rules should be met with consequences,” said University of Texas at Austin spokesman Mike Rosen.
At Indiana University Bloomington, the local prosecutor’s office dropped trespassing charges against nearly 60 people.
At the University of Virginia, police broke up an encampment on May 4. They arrested 27 people. The local prosecutor dropped charges against seven and offered a deal to the rest. Charges would be dismissed in August if they didn’t have outstanding criminal charges against them at that time.
