As has been widely reported across both local and national news fronts, last Tuesday, Oct. 7, amid a “Flood Downtown for Palestine” rally, the Boston Police Department arrested 13 individuals—among these, one former and four current Emerson students. The charges are severe, including multiple criminal felony charges carrying the potential of up to three years in prison.
If you were to read the majority of these reports, as well as the statements instantly issued by Mayor Wu and Governor Healey, the narrative is simple, the “facts” not in question: the protestors were at fault and the police were the victims. The absence thus far of a strong outcry on campus in support of the students would suggest the acceptance of this narrative or, just as worryingly, general disinterest, compassion fatigue, or fear of getting involved.
For those whose minds remain open, I would like to proffer a few reasons why I believe it is so vitally important that we don’t turn attention away from this moment.
1. Shortly after the arrests, The Berkeley Beacon posted several videos showing police officers using force to subdue the protesters. In a statement published on Oct. 9, The Beacon acknowledged that “the videos make up the only narrative to counter the police report, which did not include any mention of the protester injuries that our reporters witnessed firsthand.” The Beacon footage was subsequently used by several media outlets. Yet local and national media coverage, as well as local and state authorities, continue to promote a narrative that is not corroborated by that visual evidence.
2. Unless we are to further capitulate to the eroding of the foundational democratic value of “due process,” can we not minimally agree that these individuals are innocent until proven guilty? Tufts University has already suspended one of its students arrested during the protests and, at the time of this writing, it appears that Emerson has taken “interim administrative measures” restricting students’ access to class and ability to submit coursework — a step likely to severely impact their ability to keep pace academically.
3. Dissent, protests, and “good trouble” have a long and important role to play in the struggle for a more just and egalitarian world. The temporary blocking of traffic and the confrontational shouting at perceived abusers of power are hardly uncommon events. And while such actions come with potential repercussions, it seems clear that the dramatically stricter consequences this time out—including bails set up to $10,000—are being motivated politically in an effort to signal to the Trump administration that Boston needs no federal assistance in being tough on protesters.
4. According to Kylah Clay of the National Lawyers Guild—and thankfully cited in The New York Times—the Boston police “brutalized antiwar marchers on Tuesday night, knocked cameras from the hands of young people recording their brutality, and left young protesters with injuries requiring medical care.” Certainly, any objective study of the history of the BPD acknowledges that this institution has faced numerous documented and long-standing allegations of brutality, racism, and corruption, including racially-biased policing and repeated patterns of excessive force. Why hasn’t the bodycam footage been released?
5. In the only official statement the Emerson administration has thus far made, they state, “To be clear, Emerson College condemns violence in all its forms.” While, as a personal aside, I question if that would include Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of “symbolic violence,” given the institution’s top-down hierarchical exercise of power, it is worth pointing out, and as previously reported in The Beacon, the organizers of the rally were calling for protesters to urge their universities to divest from companies with economic ties to Israel. To my knowledge, Emerson has yet to reveal whether or not the college’s economic portfolio includes investments in Israel or in companies providing weaponry to Israel, especially at this time when innumerable international (including Israeli) human rights organizations, independent UN experts, and scholars have declared Israel guilty of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Given the heavy hand of law enforcement, the judiciary, and media around these events, I can only imagine that these students of ours are terrified at present and have to be seriously concerned as to how this may impact the rest of their lives. And while it is heartening to still know that some within our community showed up to support the students during their arrest and initial court hearings, the uproar that followed the assault upon the student encampment seems nowhere to be seen this time out. Should a few blocks away from campus make a difference in our caring? Make no mistake about it. While you may be tempted to dismiss all this as headaches for a handful of rabble-rousers, the swift and extreme ratcheting up of such penalties, if not pushed back against forcibly and soon, bodes ill for the land—you included.
John Gianvito is a professor at Emerson’s School of Film, Television, and Media Arts.
