Is Silence Safety?

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Scroll to the the bottom for later updates and minor edits.

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Yesterday I chose to stand and observe campus protests because I believe in free speech and tolerance in all public spaces but especially educational spaces. I abhor the use of police force in these instances. I was not there to support either the pro Palestinian or pro Israeli protestors and was insulted by both for my actions. Those insults are another form of free speech and I celebrate their ability to publicly criticize me and others..

Let me start where I ended up yesterday as a faculty observer to peaceful student protests.

I stood back as the riot police corralled the everyone on the quad towards the front gates of campus. The gates were narrow. The closer the tail end of the observers and random bystanders got to the gates the more aggressive the police became even as we were complying and asking for clarification on the directions we were being given. To my left, less than a meter from me, a student was arrested for no reason apparent to me or those others walking nearby. He was walking peacefully with officers and faculty to the gates. I asked what he had done. No answer. The police formed a circle to block those with cameras from recording him being forced to the ground.

On the other side of the gates we were witnessing intense violence and overcrowding. The chaos was terrifying. People were being hurt. As it be came clear I was going to shoved in that mob, I started stating loudly that I was not going out there and it was not safe. I was told to stand aside. They then started to arrest another male faculty member recording events and trying to return to his office. I started yelling his name at the top of voice. They released him. Next I saw a hijabi student whom I believe to have been a random bystander being forced through the narrow gates in to the mob violence. I started shouting “don’t send her out there! it is not safe!”. The officer who had let me remain on campus along with my colleagues, then told me:

“if you keep shouting I cannot protect you”

I stayed silent then. I feel complicit for doing so. I used my privilege to protect myself.

Outside the gates chaos led to what I hear to be some 14 student arrests, maybe more maybe less. Ambulances had to be called. The police used a taser on at least one person. Pictures in the media focus on this violence. The bloody faces.

A colleague texted about shielded a group of students and then riding the subway with them until they were well clear.

Another colleague has written me about not being able to get off campus with their students.

Yet another colleague was being messaged by their students who had tried to come to class that they could not get on campus and were now caught unawares in the chaos right between the subway entrance and gates. He tried to go and help and was turned back.

I waited in my office. Messaging with colleagues outside.

Eventually, I retrieved property for those who could not return and decided to ‘brave’ crossing campus to get to my car. As I exited the building I ran into security clearing the building and telling students to leave the ground floor. Still no official mass announcement had been sent directing community members how to behave or what was happening. We have the ability to text and email everyone in an emergency. The lack of information was the most unnerving. It left me not knowing what to do or if my actions would be construed as contrary to police orders or how I or those left on campus were expected to leave with reports of violence outside multiple entrances and exits.

How did we get to this point?

When I got to campus at about 10 am, my faculty had alerted me to unusual security measures and asked me to follow up with administration. I did so and received a message that the security concern was not specific to Classics.

During common hours, time set aside for no classes so clubs and meetings can happen, a smallish group of students set up a small protest on the lawn. I’d estimate about 20-30 participants, certainly less than 50. This protest included banners and the erecting of tents. The erection of temporary structures are forbidden under the recent local campus policy approved by a council consisting of admin, faculty, and students. I am told but did not witness campus security was ordered to remove the tents. This is said to have created a minor scuffle between students and campus security but certainly heightened tensions, but campus security moved back and the small protest continued peacefully. Reports of NYPD community liaison officers in the President’s office led to some union leaders to go to the office to offer any aid to defuse the situation. They say they were rebuffed. Following this many faculty and other community members began to actively observe the event from windows and the areas around the quad. There was much discussion about the danger of police violence against students. There was a small peaceful counter protest of 3-6 students. The two groups exchanged harsh words but also danced to the same chants. The chatter was about how beautifully normal all this behavior was for a college campus. Students peacefully expressing themselves.

The campus library announced on social media an ‘internet outage’ and that the building would be closed for the remainder of the day. There is a wide belief this was a manufactured excuse to prevent any attempt to occupy the building. However, at no time did I see any protestor move towards any building or even off the grass where they might block free flow of non participants. I similarly heard of no such actions or attempts from those present when I was not.

In the mid afternoon I attended a student research conference to support my mentees. This event was in the president’s own board room over looking the quad. The conference and presentations continued without interruption. The protest did not interfere with normal academic activities.. I checked in with colleagues and returned to my office to do paperwork.

A few minutes before 5 colleagues let me know that it appeared that police numbers were rising and that faculty had gathered to form a line between protesters and police to try make a statement that force was not necessary. The faculty all agreed that our only goal was to protect the students but that we would follow all police orders as and when they were articulated. The goal was peaceful dispersal.

As I stood with the faculty, I also periodically went to talk to senior colleagues in the campus administration. I witnessed them negotiating with the students representing the protestors and also liaising with the NYPD. Things I heard said by those administrators and NYPD representatives:

Taking the tents down was insufficient. [This seemed to be a change from earlier messaging.]

The campus president did not want the NYPD involved: this was the University Chancellor’s decision. [I’ve since credibly heard that the Governor was also involved.]

The NYPD liaison made clear in my hearing that a full dispersal was going to happen regardless of what the campus administration wanted because that is what had been ordered.

I saw deep fear on those administrator’s faces. Fear for our students. I saw individuals who were doing everything in their power to deescalate and felt powerless to do so.

As the riot police entered through the Bedford gates faculty formed a long line. The student protestors asked us to step aside so they could march. We did so. They began marching in the direction of the gates on Campus Road and Hillel Strreet but were turned back by CUNY security and penned in by the NYPD riot police, or perhaps I should say the strategic response unit. The NYPD then got behind the protesters and fanned out into a long line and began moving everyone towards the Bedford gate as described above and no one was allowed to go into the buildings. I believe most people swept up and ejected from campus were bystanders and observers not protesters, including students just trying to get to class.

The recorded message said that the protesters were trespassing. Earlier we’d heard the student broke the Henderson laws. I am not sure how either of these things are true, but I am no lawyer. I do know everything was peaceful and non disruptive on campus and that it was the ejecting of students that led to violence.

I wish there had been text and email updates sent to the community. I wish the dispersal order had first come in that fashion. I wish dispersal had not been through a violent bottle neck. I wish none of this had happened.

If I remember more I will add it. I write to understand my own memories. I know everyone present experienced it differently. It is by sharing our experiences that we learn and understand.

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Below updates added 13 May 2025.

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“Officers turned to expelling my male colleagues. I told one officer that a particular colleague was an Israeli citizen. Then that colleague was allowed to stand by me, safe from the mob.” – This colleague believes my words were not the source of the policing decision but his own conversations with the officers which were not based on his nationality. Out of respect for this I’ve moved these words down here as part of the record of what I originally said but no longer part of the narrative as I originally believed to be true. I defer here to his own experience.

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I was not on quad when pink flyers were distributed to protesters. I asked colleagues for documentation of the time they were distributed as many seem to be using my above narrative as a time line of last Thursday. The photo time stamps suggest the distribution was shortly before 3.45 pm. When I arrived on the quad at 5 I was unaware these flyers had been distributed and I suspect many observers were as well.

I only heard about the distribution after the event was over. I’ve heard colleagues ask why only one group of protestors received these fliers. I cannot be certain if this one-sided distribution is true. I’ve likewise heard colleagues voice concerns that student office workers were asked to distribute these to fellow students. Again I cannot confirm this is true only that it is a current topic of conversation.

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I want to be clearer than I was in my above text on a few points:

There was a moment where all the tents were taken down by the protestors themselves. I believe this was after the announcement via a ‘mic check’ by the protestors to the protestors that the college president had delivered their demands to the Chancellor. All of this was after 5 pm as I was not present before that time. It was the belief (mine and others) in this moment of many observers that the protesters was now ending their civil disobedience (the tents) as a response to this ‘win’. It was after this that the NYPD made clear to campus administrators on the the quad and thru them to the protestors that the police would be requiring a full dispersal. Because I had not seen or heard of the pink fliers I did not know in that moment it was a re iteration, not a new statement. I believe the protestors then re erected the tents at this point in response to the news that the police were entering campus regardless. The president’s friday communication to faculty and staff acknowledged the deflation and re erection of the tents but notes that this was not sufficient as the structures (deflated tents) were not moved off campus and the protestors did not disperse.

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