As Pro-Palestinian rallies, protests, and demonstrations continue across the country, the students at The University at Buffalo and Buffalo State University held similar rallies in Western New York.
The Muslim Public Affairs Council of Western New York is deeply disturbed by the targeting of Pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the University of Buffalo North Campus on Wednesday (May 1, 2024).
The forced removal of the students by Police seems to be a clear violation of their First Amendment rights, especially since they were exercising their rights peacefully as evidenced by circulating videos and reports by the media.
The University issued a statement stating “The university recognizes and respects students’ right to protest. It is our expectation that protests occur lawfully in public spaces, and protestors will not disrupt or prevent the orderly conduct of classes, lectures, events, and meetings”.
From all indications, the students were doing exactly that:
They were rallying peacefully and ‘lawfully in public spaces’, They did not ‘disrupt or prevent the orderly conduct of classes’, They did not ‘disrupt or prevent the orderly conduct of lectures’, They did not ‘disrupt or prevent the orderly conduct of events’, They did not ‘disrupt or prevent the orderly conduct of meetings’.
By all accounts, they were within UB’s Picketing and Assembly Policies.
The students even dismantled and removed the tents without any argument after they were reportedly advised by staff from Student Life and UB Police that the tents violated UB and SUNY policy.
Despite the show of power and intimidation by the authorities, the media reported that the situation was completely peaceful till the Police started forcibly dragging and removing students from the public space.
The Police also watched Muslim participants as they were offering the evening prayers quietly at 8.20 PM. And, within perhaps 30 seconds, the Police stormed the protest site and pounced on everyone without giving students any opportunity to leave the premises or any chance for conversation and questions before arrests were made.
By its admission, in the statement issued on May 1, 2024, the authorities stated “UB Police were assisted Wednesday evening by the New York State Police, Erie County Sheriff’s Office, and Amherst Police, among other assisting agencies”. Those “other assisting agencies” included the Police force from Buffalo, Kenmore, and Tonawanda as well as 15 police vehicles that were parked as a show of force presumably to intimidate the peaceful demonstrators.
Why this heavy-handedness?
Was it a part of the pre-planned strategy from State University to prevent students from expressing their views?
Why was there such a large Police force when there were less than 100 peaceful individuals in the demonstration?
The University authorities owe to the students, the faculty, the staff, and the Community that supports it an answer to these and related questions.
We are waiting patiently.
