The forceful law enforcement response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Emory University and the University of Georgia was meant to send a clear signal: State leaders won’t tolerate the chaos that has unfolded on campuses in other states.
That’s according to Gov. Brian Kemp, who was unequivocal when asked Wednesday whether students who broke the law during the demonstrations should face suspensions or expulsion.
“They should. I mean, people need to pay the piper. If you’ve broken the law, if you’re damaging property, if you are assaulting especially police officers, you should have harsh penalties,” Kemp said after signing legislation in Forsyth.
“Send a message: we are not going to allow Georgia to become the next Columbia University.”
It was a reference to the mass demonstrations convulsing campuses in other states as protesters demand an end to U.S. military aid to Israel amid its ongoing war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
Administrators at Columbia have struggled for weeks to respond to a growing encampment on the elite school’s New York campus. On Tuesday, officers in riot gear arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters who had seized a building earlier in the week.
The chaos at Columbia is part of an escalation of protests nationwide, with police and activists also clashing in California, North Carolina, Texas and other flashpoints. At least 1,100 protesters have been taken into custody on U.S. campuses since April 18, according to a New York Times tally.
Georgia authorities moved quickly to break up protests at Emory and UGA, sometimes using pepper balls and chemical irritants. More than three dozen demonstrators in Georgia were arrested, and at least nine UGA students were suspended.
Civil rights advocates and key Democrats have criticized the use of force at the protests. State Sen. Elena Parent, whose district encompasses Emory University, said she was particularly concerned about a video that showed officers using a stun gun on a demonstrator they had pinned to the ground.
“The right to protest and free speech are foundational to our rights and freedoms,” she wrote in an open letter. “At the same time, safe places to learn and the university’s mission are essential to the community I represent.”
Kemp, who earlier pledged tough crackdowns on pro-Palestinian demonstrators who threatened to block roads and bridges, said many of the demonstrators at college campuses “are not peaceful.”
And he linked them to “instigators” that have rallied against the Atlanta public safety training center. The second-term Republican has made completion of the contentious project one of his top policy priorities this year.
“Those kinds of people, if they break the law, if they spit in officers’ faces like we’ve seen, they’re going to have a pretty bad day,” he said, “and they will be put in jail.”
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