UNM Gaza Solidarity Encampment still in place after arrests

Every protester arrested Tuesday morning during a protest inside the University of New Mexico Student Union Building was released by the evening, and the outdoor encampment at the university’s main campus showed no signs of stopping.

Early in the morning, two UNM Police Department officers booked 16 protesters into the Metropolitan Detention Center outside Albuquerque, the largest jail in New Mexico.

UNMPD is accusing all 16 protesters of criminal trespassing and wrongful use of public property after allegedly refusing to leave the Student Union Building when directed to do so by university administrators and police, according to a review of the court records.

The protesters’ cases have been assigned to 10 different metro court judges, records show. The judges assigned to their cases released all 16 people “on their own personal recognizance,” meaning they had no reason to hold them in custody and let them go with conditions.

No lawyers have officially appeared to represent any of the protesters as of Tuesday night, court records show.

Protesters had been marching on campus on the UNM Solidarity Encampment’s ninth day, a protest inspired by similar ones on college campuses across the country that call for American universities to dump their investments in the state of Israel and cut off academic ties with Israeli universities built on Palestinians’ land.

UNM students’ call to dump Israel investments inspired by struggle against apartheid South Africa

UNM PD filed criminal complaints in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court containing nearly identical descriptions of what happened, with the only difference being the names of the people charged.

“At some point during the march the protesters decided to occupy the Student Union building,” the police wrote in the complaints. “They did this without the approval or consent of any leadership from UNM.”

When the protesters refused to leave, campus police and New Mexico State Police “began to remove subjects from the property, detaining them for criminal processing,” they wrote.

Source New Mexico was inside the SUB when the arrests happened, and saw State Police in riot gear tackle one demonstrator, and spray another with a chemical agent in the face.

Police charge 16 protesters after forcing Gaza solidarity camp from UNM Student Union Building

In a statement on Tuesday, the protest camp’s social media account said police injured multiple protesters, including a young person who is pregnant.

“Rather than committing to beginning the process of divestment, President (Garnett) Stokes and UNM Leadership would rather see students violently brutalized by police,” the protesters said.

They said tactics like early morning raids remind them that the Israel Defense Forces “almost exclusively kidnaps Palestinians from their homes late at night.”

“We know that the IOF trains law enforcement agencies across the U.S., and that the tactics deployed against us are tested on Palestinian bodies first.”

Herman Lovato, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, which oversees the New Mexico State Police, referred all questions to the UNM Police Department.

Cinnamon Blair, a spokesperson for the university, said she could not answer questions about how many police officers responded to the protest because that would be “safety sensitive information.”

At least 25 police officers in riot gear and regular uniforms could be seen inside the SUB.

Five protesters who were arrested are UNM students, Blair said. The Dean of Students Office will investigate whether they violated their student code of conduct, she said.

The university administration on Tuesday afternoon issued a campus-wide message saying the arrests were a “carefully considered, difficult choice.”

“The takeover of the UNM Student Union Building is not acceptable,” the administrators said. “The vandalism of the building, a precious gathering place on our campus, is not acceptable. Barricading its doors and blocking its stairs are not acceptable. Intimidating students who are simply trying to study and learn, is not acceptable.”

The protesters said the administration is “play(ing) the victim like Israel.”

“Chalk wipes off,” the protesters said. “The blood of children won’t wash off the hands of this administration so easily.”

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has ultimate authority over the New Mexico State Police. She said Tuesday she supports the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of speech on campus, and said police must allow for it, but protests must not violate the law and university policy.

“Protestors should respect campus property, as well as the rights of students and faculty to access university buildings and other amenities,” Lujan Grisham said. “I am hopeful that UNM faculty and students can work together with law enforcement to ensure students’ First Amendment rights in a way that protects property and the rights of all students, faculty, and campus visitors.”

On Tuesday evening, the protesters remained at the Duck Pond, and announced a vigil for their members who were arrested.

“We’re still here, and we aren’t going anywhere,” they said.