Students have now been arrested at three different Florida universities while participating in Pro-Palestine protests.
So far, students have been arrested at protests at Florida State University, the University of Florida and the University of South Florida. Protests have also occurred at the University of North Florida and the University of Central Florida, but those have been arrest-free.
Protestors and their supporters are demonstrating against what they argue is a genocide occurring against Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas war, while critics have called the protests anti-Semitic and harmful to other students on campuses.
As of Wednesday morning, 24 people have been arrested across the three campuses.
At USF Tuesday, tear gas was used against protesters. Ten of the about 100 demonstrators gathered were arrested. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office released drone footage of the protest being dispersed.
In a press conference that evening, USF chief of police Christopher Daniel said the arrests were made after some protesters brought out shields.
“At one point, the protestors formed a tight circle, interlocking their arms in unison as a show of force. Another protestor began handing out wooden shields and umbrellas, and they used those wooden shields and umbrellas to fortify their stance in the circle. At this time, the protest was no longer peaceful,” he said.
At FSU, five protestors were arrested by university police Tuesday after they pitched tents. Protestors were warned earlier in the week that pitching tents and camping on the campus would get them arrested.
Those arrested were members of the suspended student group Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society. The group was suspended from campus after disrupting a November FSU Board of Trustees meeting with pro-Palestine chants.
In a video posted to the group’s social media, they began to chant as officers approached them to make the arrest.
In Gainesville, nine protesters were arrested on UF’s campus Monday. One of the protesters has been charged with battery after allegedly spitting on an officer. The rest are facing various trespassing and resisting arrest charges.
Their arrests came after a few of the protestors brought chairs to sit on, according to Vivienne Serret, a journalist with Fresh Take Florida who has covered the UF protest on the ground. Chairs are one of the several items the university announced students were prohibited from bringing and using on campus grounds when the protests started last week.
Serret says the arrests on Monday haven’t slowed down the demonstrations on the campus.
“What I've been able to see and hear, just by interviewing some of the protesters, I do not believe they will be ending their forms of protesting anytime soon,” she said.
Governor Ron DeSantis has praised the crackdown on the protestors, saying he believes they have gotten out of hand.
“As much as I disagree with their opinions. You know, they have a right to do that. But you don't have a right to commandeer the university. You don't have a right to disrupt, to harass, to intimidate and do all those other things,” he said.
The arrests are part of a nationwide crackdown by law enforcement against student protestors. Over 300 protestors were arrested in New York City Tuesday night after the New York Police Department raided Columbia University and the City College of New York with permission from the institutions. A tally of arrests nationally by the Appeal estimates the total number of pro-Palestine protestors arrested nationally at over 1,300.