An attorney representing three people who were arrested on Emory’s campus Thursday called out the university for their handling of the situation and for requesting the assistance of Georgia State Patrol.
“We think, the concern here is that whatever was happening, whether or not there were individuals that were disrupting life at Emory, I believe that Emory Police Department is more than equipped to handle the problems that were on campus,” attorney Suri Chadha Jimenez said. “The issue is when the university decides to invite outside agitators and they open their doors to Georgia State Patrol and then they lose control.”
Chadha Jimenez represented the three defendants, all charged with criminal trespass, at their first appearance hearing Friday, where they were all granted signature bonds before being released Friday afternoon. He said he was appreciative of the university attending the hearing and ensuring no bond restrictions were placed on students and staff.
However, he said there was no need for the university to call in Georgia State Patrol to deal with protesters.
“You see them tackle them like they are auditioning for the Super Bowl. They are tasing one of my clients multiple times,” Chadha Jimenez said. “These people are trained to do violence. That’s what their entire training is based on, there was absolutely no indication that there was de-escalation.”
In a statement released Thursday, Georgia Department of Public Safety said Georgia State Troopers and Motor Carrier Officers responded to “break up the encampment but were met with protestors who threw bottles and refused to leave.”
In the statement, GDPS said they took protesters into custody, but one of them “actively resisted arrest,”so a Taser was used to take the protester into custody. Video of a state troopers using a Taser went viral on social media.
Chadha Jimenez called out Georgia State Patrol for being one of the only agencies that does not use body cameras. He said, when it comes to state troopers, it’s always a defendant’s words against an officer’s words.
“We don’t have to rely on that anymore. In this particular case, we clearly see that the students and other members of the community are walking away, maybe too slow for the cops’ wishes, but they are dispersing,” he said. “These cops immediately escalated, and I see no reason to justify the level of violence they used.”
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