UT Dallas Students Show Gov and System
How Police Protest Tactics Fuel Movement

Capitol Inside
May 1, 2024

Pro-Palestine protesters sent a message to Governor Greg Abbott on Wednesday on the failure of police force and jailings as a deterrent when they demonstrated throughout the day at the University of Texas Dallas campus before the state police arrived in force to take down an encampment that sprung up during the night.

The protest at the school that's based in the Dallas suburb of Richardson drew more than 100 students and comrades including an unspecified number who were carted to jail by police under the direction of the Texas Department of Public Safety with assistance from campus officers.

The unrest at UTD erupted just hours after the leader of the University of Texas System board of regents endorsed the tactics that officials at the flagship campus have employed complete with a vow that school officials would not back down from the strategy that aims to minimize potential disruptions to the learning atmosphere. But the events today at UT Dallas appeared to be a lesson in how the approach is having the opposite effect by pouring gasoline into a fire that the iron-fisted response to protests at UT Austin was designed to extinguish.

The protest erupted at UT-Dallas just hours after UT System board chairman Kevin Eltife promised that the schools would not back down from the use of police to quell protests on campus if they continue.

"Nothing is more important than the safety of our students, and we will not hesitate again to use all resources available to us to keep them safe and our UT campuses open," Eltife said in a statement on Tuesday night.

Acting at Abbott's command with an invitation for police intervention from UT President Jay Hartzell, the Department of Public Safety and the Austin police arrested a total of 136 students and comrades at the campus in Austin last week with violent tactics that objective eyewitnesses said were unprovoked and unjustified.

Abbott stayed mum throughout the morning and afternoon on the University of Texas at Dallas demonstration that was peaceful like the first protest at UT-Austin had been until the DPS arrived and began arresting students and others for trespassing after the police gave an order to disperse.

UT school officials have sought to defend their actions on the grounds that over half the people arrested there on Wednesday last week and Monday were not enrolled at the campus in Austin.

UT said that the group of 57 protestors who were jailed last week included three dozen who were not students there. More than half of those arrested on Monday fit that description. UT officials also have sought to excuse their actions by giving the impression that protestors were stockpiling rocks and guns for a violent battle with police in a conspiracy theory that seemed far-fetched at best.

The school's focus on outside agitators is a page from the same playbook that Abbott and the DPS used when they tried to blame violence at social justice rallies in Texas cities in the summer of 2020 on out-of-state Antifa radicals opposed to fascism. But a higher percentage of protestors who aren't UT students appeared to be inevitable at the demonstration on Monday in light of the massive advertising that the theatrics on campus last week guaranteed.

Here are statements in the past 24 hours from UT spokesman Brian Davis and Eltife the lead system regent.

“The University of Texas learned Tuesday that, of the 79 people arrested on our campus Monday, 45 had no affiliation with UT Austin," Davis said on Tuesday. "These numbers validate our concern that much of the disruption on campus over the past week has been orchestrated by people from outside the University, including groups with ties to escalating protests at other universities around the country. To date, from protesters, weapons have been confiscated in the form of guns, buckets of large rocks, bricks, steel enforced wood planks, mallets, and chains. Staff have been physically assaulted and threatened, and police have been headbutted and hit with horse excrement, while their police cars have had tires slashed with knives. This is calculated, intentional and, we believe, orchestrated, and led by those outside our university community. We will continue to safeguard the free speech and assembly rights of everyone on our campus, while we protect our University and students, who are preparing for their final exams.”

Eltife - a close Abbott ally who represented East Texas in the state Senate - reiterrated the school's position.

"As I have previously stated, any attempt to shut down or disrupt UT operations will not be tolerated. There is no rationale whatsoever that justifies the endangerment of our students and campus environments. Massive crowds of students, along with outside groups with absolutely no connection to UT, have intentionally caused disturbances with plans to harm our campus community.  In fact,the majority of  arrests to date have occurred with agitators who are not UT students. These activities will not be allowed.

"While free speech is fundamental to our educational institutions, it is violated when it includes threats to campus safety and security or refusal to comply with institutional policies and laws. At UT Austin, I have been working closely with President Hartzell on decisions to protect its entire campus community, and we will not acquiesce to those protections under any circumstance.

"I appreciate our campus police officers, and we cannot thank the Texas Department of Public Safety enough for all their assistance. We will continue to call upon the DPS to secure our campus when needed. Moreover, we will make every effort to see that students who violate campus policies and outside individuals and groups who violate state law are fully prosecuted.

"Nothing is more important than the safety of our students, and we will not hesitate again to use all resources available to us to keep them safe and our UT campuses open," Eltife said.

more to come ...
 

 

 

 
 
 
 

 

 

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