Mike Kropf/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP
Demonstrators and law enforcement officers face off during a pro-Palestinian rally at Virginia Commonwealth University, April 29, 2024, in Richmond, Virginia.
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA – What started as a peaceful “liberated zone for Gaza,” and later an encampment, quickly turned into a police-escalated protest in the center of Virginia Commonwealth University’s campus one week ago, on Monday, April 29.
Multiple student organizations collaborated to create the zone around 8 a.m. in the “Compass,” an area of VCU near most classroom buildings, which experiences heavy foot traffic from students and local Richmond residents.
Around 4 p.m., after peacefully spending the day doing homework, singing, and chatting with fellow students, organizers provided bail fund training and emergency contact sheets for individuals there, in anticipation of a police presence.
The “liberated zone for Gaza” turned into an encampment at a 5 p.m. rally, after which protesters began setting up tents for the night and making it clear they would not be leaving without action on their demands for the school: disclosing all its institutional expenditures and divesting from companies and partnerships having to do with Israel.
At the start of Monday’s liberated zone and later encampment, there was no police presence.
But as afternoon turned into evening, Aaron Hart, vice president of student affairs, was seen telling students they were now in violation of VCU’s Reservation and Use of Space Policy.
At around 8:30, the university sent an alert declaring a “public assembly” and asking people to “avoid the area.” Just 30 minutes later, VCU declared the encampment a “violent protest” as campus, city, and state police arrived at the scene with riot gear and began to forcibly remove, pepper-spray, and detain protesters. Eventually, they tore down the encampment without allowing students to retrieve their belongings.
Students could be seen on the ground crying out for water after being pepper-sprayed. State police faced off against a line of protesters who chanted, “If you leave, we will leave” and “Peaceful protest,” shortly before 10 p.m.
Multiple students reported concussions and bruising after their interactions with police. Thirteen protesters were arrested and charged with unlawful assembly and trespassing and were released on Tuesday morning. Six of them were students.
VCU News released a statement shortly after the police action, claiming that the “gathering violated several university policies.”
The director of VCU public relations, Brian McNeill, forwarded two statements to the Prospect that were also sent out to all students and faculty, one from university president Michael Rao and the other a campus update. The first stated that “setting up structures on our campus lawn violated our policy” and that “conflict between police and protestors took place” after individuals did not leave the green space. The latter defined Monday’s protest as a “major event” that requires a space reservation.
Organizers made sure to stay on the grass and out of other students’ paths but lacked a reservation for the campus location, which led to the police action, according to the university.
Since the Hamas attacks on October 7 and the Israeli military’s response, students at Virginia Commonwealth University and Richmond residents alike have made clear their stance on the conflict. Every Sunday, the Richmond chapters of both Students for Justice in Palestine and American Muslims for Palestine lead a protest and walk around the city with residents. Richmond police officers have been active at the walks to monitor public safety.
The use of police resources to walk alongside protesters has put a strain on staffing for other public-safety needs in Richmond. On April 14, a 16-year-old boy was shot and killed in an event unrelated to the protests, and fewer than six officers were able to respond to the scene, because of the weekly protest.
Mike Kropf/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP
Demonstrators wait for police to arrive during the VCU rally on April 29.
Richmond police officer Mohammed Maher Hameed later reached out to pro-Palestine organizer Zaid Mahdawi to ask if he could offer the police department a “break” from the protests, to alleviate the strain on their resources.
Mahdawi, while advised by his lawyer not to speak with the media going forward, sent along the messages between himself and Officer Hameed, which hinted at a potential conversation with the attorney about Mahdawi’s recent arrest a few weeks ago following a separate protest, in exchange for cooperation.
Mahdawi told the Richmond Times-Dispatch, “The protests are our First Amendment right and we are in no way, shape or form stopping [them] from doing [their] jobs.”
The Richmond Police Department was not available for comment at the time of publication.
Dr. Kay Coghill, an adjunct professor in the gender, sexuality, and women’s studies and English departments at VCU, received live updates of last Monday night’s protest from students through a chat they created last semester to serve as a support system for student protests.
Coghill, who uses they/them pronouns, thinks the police do not need to be at peaceful protests, and that their resource allocation is a “personal problem.” They add, “You have to be a fucking idiot to think that you can control how many people are willing to protest an issue that is important to them.”
They are upset with how both the police and university handled the protest, adding that VCU claims to both prioritize safety and protect free speech, though they believe the administration clearly came down on one side when it sent in cops to dismantle the encampment.
Coghill hopes students “understand that there are people in the world who are standing in solidarity with them, who are here to support them, who want to make sure they have the resources they need.”
Support from university faculty and staff is crucial, Coghill said, while encouraging students to continue protesting. “The kids are all right, they have a grasp on reality and are doing something about what they’ve been seeing,” they concluded.
The student organizers seem to be ready to continue their work. Last Thursday, they held an “Reclaiming the Narrative” event on the same grass as the encampment and violence.
Grace Blair, a political science student at VCU with close ties to SJP organizers, said there are no official plans for future protests yet, but that the group is taking it “day by day” to prioritize everyone’s safety.
Blair was present at the liberated zone and later joined the protest after the police arrived. She was about 500 feet away from the contested area when she began coughing from pepper spray and smoke in the air. Blair recalled the campus tornado siren going off repeatedly, which she described as “really concerning.”
Blair told the Prospect that students were tired of being complicit with the university’s actions. “The presidents of these universities just take all of our money and don’t use it to protect us, as students, when they say they do and they don’t,” she said. “I think it’s just about time that they really understand how unhappy we are and this cannot continue to go on any longer.”
Student protests are historically renowned for their impact; many universities use the legacy of protest in their communications to prospective students as a marker of their commitment to free speech. At this rate, it is unlikely the protests will stop until demands are met by university administrations.
