Boston police forcibly remove pro-Palestinian tent encampment at Emerson College; more than 100 arrested

At Emerson, four officers were injured, said Sergeant Detective John Boyle, a police department spokesperson. He said no protestors who were in custody were injured. A spokesperson said Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox would not be available Thursday to discuss the department’s handling of the situation.

Boston Emergency Medical Services said four people were taken to area hospitals. The extent of their injuries was not immediately available.

Shortly before 2 a.m. on Thursday, seven police vans arrived in front of the walkway at the Boylston Street side of the encampment, according to the Berkeley Beacon, Emerson’s student newspaper. Officers began making arrests soon after. Photos taken at the scene showed that officers were wearing helmets and visors and some appeared to be wearing tactical gear.

Students had occupied the walkway for several days, and Boston police and fire officials warned the protesters Wednesday that the tents were in violation of city ordinances that ban unlawful camping and that “law enforcement action” was imminent.

Police arrested 108 people, officials said. Emerson College canceled classes Thursday “as we respond to, and process, the events of last night,” president Jay Bernhardt and interim vice president and provost Jan Roberts-Breslin said in a statement.

“We are gathering information about the arrests and will share this information as it becomes available,” Bernhardt said in a separate message to the campus community. Bernhardt said school officials know that passions are running high among student activists.

“Emerson College recognizes and respects the civic activism and passion that sparked the protest in Boylston Place Alley in support of Palestine while also holding and communicating concerns related to the numerous ordinance violations caused by their encampment,” Bernhardt said. “We also understand that clearing the encampment has significantly and adversely impacted our community.”

“We hope that our community can remain united during this moment of crisis through mutual caring, support, and respect for all the people and perspectives represented in our diverse Emerson community,” he added.

The demonstration joined a wave of protests nationally by students pressing universities to sever ties with Israel and condemn the rising death toll in Gaza, where more than 34,300 people have died, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Hamas militants launched an attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking some 250 hostages back to Gaza.

Adam Nuñez, a junior at Emerson, said he was on the “front line” of the encampment when police officers arrived at the Boylston Place alley, just a few feet from the state transportation building.

”I was pulled by my collar, pinned to a table, thrown to the floor, then dragged into the” state transportation building, Nuñez said Thursday morning.

About 30 minutes earlier, he had been booked at a police station after being held overnight. Nuñez described the scene of the arrests as “chaos.”

”It’s stressful,” Nuñez said. “But we know what we did, and we know that we’re on the right side of history.”

Another Emerson student, who asked not to be named, arrived at the encampment at 1 a.m. after students asked for support on social media. Around 2:20 a.m., she said police enclosed both ends of the alley “while she locked arms with the people around her.”

“They started yanking people, apparently there was blood in the alley,” the student said. “They put me in handcuffs. It felt like a war zone.”

The student was taken to a police station and released around 7 a.m. thanks to money from a bail fund set up by Emerson faculty and students.

After being booked at police stations across the city, protesters gathered outside Courtroom 17 on the fifth floor of Boston Municipal Court awaiting a court appearance. At 10:30 a.m., they were called in small groups to confer with Antonio Massa Viana, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild. Viana said each person would be called before a judge and given a date to return to court for arraignment.

Viana said he didn’t know what charges the demonstrators faced but that some will likely be charged with disturbing the peace and others with trespassing.

“We got to remember that this country is about speaking up for justice,” Viana said outside of the courthouse. “That’s what we teach people since they are really young, that people should go out there and speak for what they think is right.”

“You get a group of students who are peacefully assembling and the police comes in and takes them out,” he continued. “Does this represent the best of America?”

Suffolk District Attorney Kevin R. Hayden’s office declined to comment on how it will handle the cases.

Mayor Michelle Wu, asked about the arrests during an unrelated event, said city officials must prioritize the safety and well-being of everyone.

“Boston is a city where upholding the right to protest is very important to us,” Wu said. “And we have many, many events and protests that occur in the city on a regular basis that take place without incident.”

Wu said the issue wasn’t with the demonstration itself but the fire and safety hazards the encampment posed.

“Public access to this right of way was not accessible,” she said.

Police “worked for some period of time to communicate and be very clear about what the goal was, which was not to make arrests, which was not to have any interaction, except to ensure public safety and clear public access to that area and make sure that those fire hazards were removed,” Wu said.

Officials are reviewing body camera footage from officers who broke up the encampment, she said.

“There’s still a lot more to review here, and I know that world events, global events are incredibly painful and emotional for our community,” she said. ”We cannot let that destabilize the safety and well-being of our residents here in Boston, and we will continue to update throughout the day as more details become available.”

Earlier, a group of students gathered outside a police station downtown as they waited for their friends to be released by police.

”It’s just ridiculous,” said Josh Feldman, a sophomore. “There was no reason for this level of escalation.”

Feldman laid on the steps with his head resting on his backpack.

“It was so peaceful,” Feldman, 20, said. “Then officers started beating and dragging people across the ground.”

Inside the precinct, about 30 people packed the lobby as they waited for people to be released. When a student was released shortly before 9 a.m., the crowd exploded in cheers.

Boyle said three police officers sustained minor injuries, while a fourth officer’s were “more serious.” A State Police spokesman said troopers were sent to the encampment to “maintain security” at the state-owned transportation building and “assist any demonstrators not willing to be arrested.”

“When BPD initially began clearing demonstrators, the first contingent of Boston officers deployed were outnumbered by the amount of demonstrators who were resisting,” David Procopio said by email. “Several troopers assisted BPD for approximately five minutes to get the situation under control. As additional BPD officers arrived at the skirmish line, Troopers fell back into our primary mission of securing the building.”

State Police did not make any arrests, he said.

Across the city at Northeastern Unversity, meanwhile, activists said Thursday that campus police had arrested a pro-Palestinian demonstrator. A university spokesperson said by email that “one person, unaffiliated and with an active trespass, was spotted in a university building and was apprehended.” The person wasn’t named.

Police had shouted through microphones that anyone not affiliated with Northeastern would have to leave the area by 2:40 p.m. Police encircled protestors who sat on the ground in front of an encampment at Centennial Common, shouting “who do you serve?”

Police left the area shortly before 3 p.m., prompting cheers from onlookers.

“Whose campus, our campus,” students chanted.

Demonstrators, who had sat down as police approached the encampment, stood back up when they left, amplifying their chants with a speaker and a microphone.

The earlier police response at Emerson drew criticism on Thursday. Carol Rose, executive director of the

American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said in a statement that the police response “risked the safety and well-being of all in the area.”

“While authorities may enforce reasonable restrictions to ensure access to public ways and to avoid disruption to school activities and services, we are concerned that campuses and law enforcement nationwide are increasingly cracking down on political expression, rushing in police to arrest protestors, and authorizing aggressive treatment,” she said. ”There is a distinction between removing encampments to ensure safe access to a public right of way and using physical violence against students engaging in peaceful expression.”

Ruthzee Louijeune, president of the Boston City Council, said “any case against peaceful protesters should be dismissed.”

“I caution against heavy-handed responses to protest,” she said in a statement Thursday. “While there are legitimate public safety concerns, the presence of tents alone does not transform a peaceful protest into an unpeaceful one.”

On campus, students said the mood was subdued.

”it’s just, everyone’s silent” said Ryan Lansdowne, a first-year student studying sports communications. Lansdowne said he was shocked when he woke up, looked at his phone, and learned of the arrests. He had been supportive of the protest and proud of his peers’ activism.

“To see them get hit with so much violence was definitely shocking,” he said.

Freshman Graham White said he had expected police to intervene, but not so aggressively.

”It’s depressing,” White said. “Everyone just feels defeated.”

Travis Andersen, John R. Ellement, and Tonya Alanez of the Globe Staff and Globe correspondents Daniel Kool and Lila Hempel-Edgers contributed to this report.

Emily Sweeney can be reached at emily.sweeney@globe.com. Follow her @emilysweeney and on Instagram @emilysweeney22. Ava Berger can be reached at ava.berger@globe.com. Follow her @Ava_Berger_. Madeline Khaw can be reached at maddie.khaw@globe.com. Follow her @maddiekhaw.