For the Many condemns police violence against student protestors

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 1, 2024

SUBJECT: For the Many condemns police violence against student protestors

CONTACT: Jenny Kutner, jenny@forthemany.org, (713) 417-3610

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. –  On May 1st, following police actions against nonviolent student protestors on the campuses of Columbia University and City College in New York City, Executive Director Jonathan Bix issued the following statement on behalf of grassroots organization For the Many: 

“For the Many strongly condemns the mass arrests and police violence we have seen this week against student activists at Columbia University, City College, and several other campuses, where a broad coalition of young people has been peacefully protesting Israel’s brutal attacks on Gaza. As an organization with student volunteers on college campuses throughout the Hudson Valley, we stand with the students and faculty calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. 

“The right to protest is sacred. It is abominable to watch university officials collude with police to viciously suppress that right. Tuesday’s militarized response to nonviolent campus protests demonstrates the reprehensible lengths those in power will go to protect the status quo. It also reveals their hypocrisy: school administrators have cited concerns about antisemitism and Jewish students’ safety as a justification for organizing a police raid, ignoring the fact that a great many of the targeted activists are Jewish students. The conflation of anti-war activism and antisemitism has now imperiled Jewish students’ safety in a very real way. 

“These nonviolent activists should be commended for remaining firm in their demands for peace and justice despite institutional intimidation and threats of physical aggression. Instead, students have been tear-gassed, kettled, and beaten with batons at the behest of their own universities. It is a despicable response—and a reflection of just how powerful our movement has become.

“The university and government officials who wish to quash these protests are doing so because they are intimidated by our solidarity. They know that when our movement is united, they are vulnerable. That’s why we will continue to stand in solidarity with the student protestors and with the Palestinian people.”