Cops crack down on U-M anti-war protesters

On Friday, May 3, Michigan State Police responded to a tense but peaceful protest by University of Michigan students outside the U-M Museum of Art (UMMA) with pepper spray and physical force.

Members of the U-M Board of Regents, who have refused to officially respond to student requests for a meeting to discuss university divestment from Israel since students set up an encampment on the U-M diag nearly two weeks ago, were believed to wait inside the museum building.

Student protesters were joined outside the museum by community supporters, including families with young children.

Multiple students, including Nat Leach, who plans to graduate next year, explained that the UMMA protest was an impromptu one.

Students began to gather outside UMMA after they observed Regents Paul W. Brown, Sarah Hubbard, and Jordan B. Acker walking there. (UMMA is located within one- to two-minutes’ walking distance from the student encampment.)

Protesters circled the museum’s entrances to demand a meeting with the regents.

Nat Leach, a protester and member of the Tahrir Coalition, which is made up of more than 80 U-M-based student organizations, says, “We saw Regent Hubbard through the glass — she waved and smiled and giggled at us.”

In a video posted to the Instagram page of the U-M chapter of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE), Regent Hubbard is clearly visible smiling and waving through the glass wall of UMMA as she films onlookers with her phone.

As Michigan State Police set up barricades, protesters beat on drums and chanted.

The scene remained peaceful until at least 9 p.m., as more state police arrived via bicycle.

Tensions escalated as the physical distance between police officers and protesters dwindled.

“We were surrounding the glass part of the UMMA,” says Leach, who was at home when the protest started, and learned about it on social media.

At that point, Leach says, police had shifted to using their bikes as an impromptu barricade and were “inching their bikes forward [as protesters] were inching back.”

“Then one state police [officer] picks up his bike, starts slamming it forward [into the crowd],” Leach says.

“I see two people next to me fall to the ground as I'm also being pushed into the people in front of me, where the wheel of the bike feels almost over my head,” Leach adds. “We were trying to just keep each other upright and not get pummeled onto the ground.”

Leach says they tried to move backwards “to maintain my situational awareness.”

When they regained their footing, they saw the same police officer reach out and grab a protester from the crowd — arbitrarily, Leach says — slam them against the glass wall of the building, and start to handcuff them.

“Definitely no Miranda rights,” Leach says.

Then Leach saw another officer “shaking his can of pepper spray like he’s about to spray. And I’m like, ‘He has pepper spray, back up,’ to the people next to me.”

By the time Leach turned back around, the officer had begun spraying.

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“Luckily, at that point, I had put my mask back on,” says Leach, who was standing far enough away that only a small amount of pepper spray landed on their skin. Others weren’t as lucky.

“This one girl basically just came running to me and collapsed, sobbing, screaming, crying. It became a frantic mad dash to get water,” Leach says. Like others on the scene, Leach used water to rinse pepper spray from protesters’ eyes.

Meanwhile, Leach says, “we know that the regents are inside, opting to do this instead of just speak with us.”

As police increased their use of physical force, protesters began to disperse, chanting, “Stay close / stay tight / we’re gonna be alright,” and “Who keeps us safe? / We keep us safe.”

According to Leach, many students “went from being pepper sprayed last night by their university to going to commencement [on Saturday].”

Students interrupted U-M’s commencement ceremony with additional protests, chanting, “Israel bombs / U of M pays / How many kids did you kill today?” during U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro’s speech and marching down the aisle of the stadium holding banners and Palestinian flags.

Leach insists that despite escalating tensions at university campuses across the country, University of Michigan protesters didn’t expect police officers here to use brute force.

“We hoped—” Leach starts before beginning their sentence again: “We want[ed] to remain optimistic that our own campus wouldn't brutalize us.”

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Police use pepper spray on anti-war protesters at University of Michigan [PHOTOS]

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