Jim Ryan and University of Virginia administration have been under fire following the events of May 4, 2024, when the University used police force to remove student protestors from a pro-Palestine encampment called the “Liberated Zone 4 Gaza.” The backlash has been swift and relentless as students, alumni, parents, and entire academic departments have publicly expressed their fury that law enforcement, including a SWAT team, was deployed against students whose demonstration – at least until the morning of May 4 – was unproblematic.
On May 7th, Beta Bridge’s “UVA Strong” memorial for the victims of the 2022 shooting was defaced with the words “Genocide Jim” in glaring red. The UVA encampment’s Instagram account made a post on May 4th encouraging community members to flood the inboxes of UVa administration with denunciations of their choice to use police force. The outrage seems to have only been exacerbated by President Ryan’s response to Saturday’s events via email.
“Public universities like ours rely on time, place, and manner policies, which are a way of ensuring that speech is free but does not interfere with the rights of others,” he wrote. “These policies must be applied consistently without regard to the content of expression, whether the protest is peaceful, or whether we agree or disagree with the cause.”
In an effort to discuss and defend their executive decisions, University administration held a virtual “town hall” on May 7th, featuring President Jim Ryan, Provost Ian Baucom, Executive Vice President and C.O.O. Jennifer (J.J.) Wagner Davis, Chief of Police Tim Longo, and Chief Student Affairs Officer Kenyon Bonner. Ryan and Longo began with an explanation of their decision to get the police involved.
The encampment was first erected on Tuesday, April 30, originally with “no apparent signs of aggression or violence.” The protestors were then informed that they were not permitted to have tents as part of a demonstration according to policy SEC-039 (distinct from policy SEC-013, which mandates permits except for “recreational tents for camping”).
However, the following day Longo saw “young people carrying large partially covered items” into the encampment, which they first concealed under a tarp. These items turned out to be wooden construction materials, which have been used at similar demonstrations to construct barriers around the encampments. The protestors were told to remove these materials, which they obeyed.
All was well for the next few days as the demonstrators sang, danced, and held vigils to honor the lives lost in the Gaza strip. Numerous members of the local Charlottesville community stopped by for a time, presenting a safety hazard when the police recognized four individuals unaffiliated with UVa who were “associated with previous historical events that have occurred in our community that caused violence,” clothed in black and wearing helmets.
It rained on Friday night and the tents went up, eventually totaling 22. Bonner informed them that tents were prohibited under the aforementioned policy, but offered to watch the encampment all night so they would not have to sleep outside in the rain. They declined.
Longo says that he told the protestors the following morning that if they did not take down the tents, then Facilities Management would remove them and keep them until the end of the encampment, at which point the students would be welcome to retrieve them. The protestors refused to comply and instead began to block the tents from the UPD with their bodies, at which point they engaged in combative language including the words “fight,” “win,” and “nothing to lose.”
At this point, Longo called in law enforcement to issue no trespass orders and, if necessary, carry out arrests. The police who arrived on the scene formed a perimeter around the encampment area to prevent others from joining, but the demonstrators began to brandish their umbrellas “in an aggressive manner,” with one striking a police officer with a frozen water bottle. At this point the Tactical Field Force (or riot police) were called to the scene and cleared the encampment using their shields following seven separate and distinct warnings to the protestors that force would be used.
In the end, 27 individuals were arrested, including twelve students, four University employees, and eight people unaffiliated with UVa, all of whom have been charged with no trespass orders. There were three minor injuries reported following the event, including a police officer who was struck by a frozen water bottle. Pepper spray (not tear gas, as the rumor is) was deployed against belligerent demonstrators; everyone affected was treated on the scene.
Prior to Saturday’s events, the University administration attempted to engage with the student demonstrators, but they refused direct interaction, opting instead to act via faculty liaisons. They presented their demands (outlined here) to the University, but scrawled “BULLSHIT” in red marker over the printed response they received, even posting proud photos on the encampment Instagram. “We consistently sought compliance and unequivocally offered to allow for peaceful expressive conduct to continue,” says Longo. Unfortunately, the protestors appeared less interested in a resolution.
The public was permitted to ask questions to the administration during the town hall. As expected, the already notorious question of UVa tent policy was raised. The wording of policy SEC-013 was edited on the morning of May 4th, removing a clause permitting tents for recreational camping, which many believe to have been the University’s shady attempt to find a reason to disband the encampment. Ryan attributes this editing of the to a member of his staff trying to clear up confusion about the policy, saying “I’m not sure that this was the right judgment.”
However, this was never the policy that rendered the encampment’s tent use unlawful; UVa has a separate policy system (SEC-039) that outlines what is and is not permitted at protests and demonstrations, stating that these activities “may not involve placement of tents or other temporary structures.” The UVa Encampment for Gaza violated this rule from the beginning, as well as further rules of SEC-013 which prohibit tents placed less than 20 feet from UVa buildings, 20 feet from other tents, and under trees.
Still, the UVa administration regrets that police involvement ever became necessary. “This is far from the resolution I or any of my colleagues had hoped for,” Ryan admits. “These were very hard calls [to make], excruciatingly hard. But we tried to make the best decisions we could under very difficult and volatile conditions, and we made those decisions with an eye toward the safety of our entire community.”
The recording of the town hall can be viewed here.
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