Boston Mayor Brianna Wu backed the police officers who arrested pro-Palestinian Emerson College students, on Wednesday evening, as they protested from an encampment in an alleyway near their campus.
"We have to be a city where everybody is safe. That is my primary mission," said Wu according to WCVB. "That is my primary mission. I know that events happening around the world are incredibly painful. We have to be a community where everybody can express their views safely."
More than 100 students were arrested after spending three days camped inside an alleyway near their campus. The Boston Police and Fire departments informed the university, which in turn informed students, that they could face "imminent law enforcement action" if they remained in the alley.
"The Commissioners expressed that the tents occupying Boylston Place Alley violate city ordinances prohibiting tents in a public right-of-way," the university wrote earlier on Wednesday.
"They also noted alleged violations involving blocking pedestrian access to the alley, public noise violations, and ongoing reports of fire hazards posed by blocking doors and hydrants."
Wu reportedly spent Thursday morning watching bodycam footage of police officers arresting the student activists, while also working with the university and the protestors to ensure the protests were not causing fire hazards or public health concerns.
While Wu said she supported the police department's actions, some of the students alleged that the police response was disproportionate to the protestors' actions.
"I don't think that they needed to use full riot gear. I don't think that they needed to slam people into statutes and then slam people into the ground," a student named Oliver told WBZ while standing outside Boston Municipal Court. "You can arrest people without assaulting them."
Other students claim that the police did not give them enough time to disperse before they began arresting protestors.
"They kept being like, 'this is your last chance. If you are here you will be arrested.' But they didn't start saying things like that until after they had already started grabbing and dragging people out," another student told the outlet.
"It was not so much a last chance of not being arrested more so, a last chance of not being brutalized. There were people getting thrown down to the ground, arms put behind their back [and] dragged away."
