#UT austin

[mysharona1987]

[gorgeousgreymatter-x]

so yeah it turns out at least half the country are disgusting psychopaths who want to see college kids beaten and arrested for peaceful protests. i've never been more disgusted to be american in my life.

[memys-art-stuff]

It is vital that we keep the efforts of so many students across the United States from going to waste. We need to keep the momentum going and ensure that news of the cruelty happening to the people of Palestine is not ignored or suppressed.

Despite what many news outlets may have you believe, what is happening in our world is not minor in the slightest. It is a genocide that is happening before our eyes, day after day. Do not forget the administrative responses these colleges have given to the act of bringing attention this inhumanity. This is history happening now, and these colleges are on the wrong side of it.

These students are calling to divest college funds from Israel. Do not let the media warp their efforts and paint them as an antisemitic mob. Do not let those opposing these demonstrations hide behind claims of antisemitism to justify their actions. This is about stopping human suffering, and to believe anything different is willful ignorance.

[quhere]

something incredibly powerful is how healing these encampments as community spaces have been for so many. I’ve seen undergraduates get tutoring from graduate students, students who are food insecure receive three meals a day, students share their art and exchange gifts…. Seeing students put aside these typical structures of power aside has been incredibly fulfilling to watch. So many different people from many different backgrounds have learned from each other and exchanged their resources. I wish student protestors all over the US the very best. There is so much selflessness and passion in these spaces

[i-am-aprl]

Texas police stormed the campus of UT Austin and arrested 43 students who defied orders to clear away the protest encampment that had been erected in support of Gaza.

The mobilizations in Texas show how solidarity with Palestine is spreading far beyond the traditional bastions of student activism, as well as the absence of so-called “free speech” and “First Amendment” rights in conservative states that claim to champion these values.

Nevertheless, despite the repression and arrests, students continue to protest daily and refuse to abandon the encampments. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has said that “no encampments will be allowed,” yet those encampments remain.

[spitsun]

if you love me then do me a favor and sign this

[saja-star]

I showed up yesterday completely unprepared. No water, no emergency phone numbers, my school backpack on my back with my laptop in it. I thought it would be a small event on the green and the university admin would mostly ignore us. People talked about holding a seder, teaching classes.

I was surprised by the turnout, but the university was not. Over 150 cops showed up, state troopers, APD, university security, and others. They surrounded us on all sides and boxed us in tighter and tighter. Call me a coward, but me and the people with me got out of the box and away from the center at that point. There were a dozen troopers on horseback. They rode through groups of people shouting at them to move or the horse would hurt them. Some on motorcycles. Some with batons forming barriers and pushing people back (except for the moments the students pushed them back).

The governor called for us to be arrested, and I've heard over 79 people were. Indiscriminately: including people tying to disperse the group, including a cameraman for Fox. Students were shoved to the ground, bruising their faces and bloodying their noses. They were dragged by their hair and legs, one of them over a chain link fence. From what I've heard, the charges will likely be dropped, but we're waiting to see what action the university will take internally. If graduate student employees, professors, and staff will lose jobs (they already banned some grad students from TAing, effectively firing them, for implying support for palestine). If undergrads will be expelled (which the university suggested would happen). No idea how an arrest or other reprisals may impact international students who depend on this job/school enrollment for their visas.

The dispersal order said that we'd broken rules by obstructing pathways. The stated plan was to sit on the lawn, but police pushed everyone off the lawn and set up a perimeter around it, forcing them onto the sidewalks where they could be arrested. This protest was smaller than the crowds of people standing around for the eclipse, which the police felt no need to disperse. The university president, in his response, stated that he supports lawful protests, but this one broke the rules. Which rules? Well the university knew about the protest in advance and decided in advance that it wouldn't be allowed, period. So he's pro-protest, but this protest broke the rules of... existing at all.

Last night there was an email from the Dean of Students expressing concern for those "affected" and offering support. She made it very clear who this support was for by saying that if we felt unsafe, we should call the university police. The president's statement suggested that many people at the protest were not from the university, which is blatantly untrue. Every single person I met there was a student, employee, or alumnus.

Today a notice was passed around at the protest laying out a new set of rules, and a matching list was sent to all university staff by the provost. It bans wearing masks, being on the lawns, being at entrances, being on walkways, making any noise, and being out after 10 pm. Organizers were already working around the ridiculous claims that the protest was too noisy and therefore distracting students in class by not using any amplification devices. Instead everything they said was repeated by the people around in waves so that the people at the back could hear.

Today was scheduled for a protest from the state employees' union against the sudden firing of 60 staff associated with DEI, following the state's ban on DEI offices and programs. The union officially ceded the day to protest for Palestine and against the events of yesterday. The DEI protest is rescheduled for Monday.

Today's resumption of the protest wasn't met with violence like yesterday. There was some police presence, but much lighter, and they didn't press us. After two hours, we dispersed peacefully on the organizers' orders. I've heard that there was even more turnout today than yesterday, although I never got a good look at the crowd from a distance either day. I am proud that a number of people from our department were there, from undergrads to tenured professors. I am grateful that as far as I have been able to find out, none of my colleagues or students have been arrested.

Everyone take care. 🇵🇸

[nando161mando]

When the public university administrators call in #police do their dirty work, maybe it’s time to take #FreePalestine #protest to the public streets outside their homes. #UTAustin #Austin

[agnesandhilda]

"we're deploying the police to keep students safe!" they say, as they deploy the police against the students

[mysharona1987]

[twst-charity]

Some updates about the protests and subsequent arrests (plus charges and bookings) at UT Austin.

Initial statement by UT Austin admin:

DPS (Texas state troopers/riot cops, Greg Abbot’s personal army) begins to escalate

Students note that DPS has no problem manhandling and marching on peaceful protestors, unlike that time they sat on their phones and harassed concerned parents while kindergartners were left to bleed out in their classrooms.

DPS - along with their semi-automatics, 200 rounds of rifle ammo, and HORSES - don’t take kindly to that. Abbot continues to forget how to shut the fuck up.

50-75 people are arrested, including a journalist who was initially accused of assaulting an officer when he accidentally nudged the cop with his camera due to the surging of the crowd.

This is illegal btw, thanks to state laws Abbott himsef signed into being.

Thanks, mate.

Faculty and local officials take a stand against the DPS.

And finally, the terrifying protest plans that required the state troopers to come arrest these dangerous terrorists… (/s)

Horrifying, isn’t it?

[catdotjpeg]

🚨 STATE TROOPERS ON THE GROUND IN AUSTIN 🚨 Today, Palestine Solidarity Committee at the University of Texas started their Popular University movement on campus, and were welcomed by massive university and state trooper repression, with at least 16 arrests made so far.

Akin to Columbia, NYU, Harvard, and other universities across the country, UT students sought to host a liberated space on campus to hold programming and demand that their university disclose their investments and divest from Israeli genocide profiteering. University of Texas administration made their intention to repress this movement clear as soon as they caught wind of it, sending a mass email out to UT faculty, claiming that the call to action is from non-student groups, falsely claiming that these encampments call for violence against Jewish students, and using university policy to crack down on our students. Upon beginning their campus initiative, students were welcomed by a draconian police presence, refusing to allow them to use their campus space for political speech. DPS, including horse mounted state troopers, violently handled student protesters, pushing them away from their desired campus space, and demanding dispersal. Students have held steadfast, refusing to heed until their demands are met.

So far, police and state troopers have made at least 16 arrests, with more likely to result as the state cracks down on these brave students. We stand with our students, and remain by their side! FROM COLUMBIA TO AUSTIN TO GAZA, WE STAND TALL 🇵🇸

-- Palestinian Youth Movement, 24 Apr 2024 3:27 PM EDT

[i-am-aprl]

Dozens of students arrested at the University of Texas, Austin for protesting against Israel’s #genocide in #Gaza.

✊🏿Hundreds of anti-war protesters in #Austin, #Texas — in the face of an aggressive police response — chanting "Free, free, free #Palestine"

✊🏿This is spreading despite their best efforts to contain it.

✊🏿Looked like 100+ state troopers, UT police, and APD for a pro-palestine protest on UT Austin campus today.

[bluu3berry]

SPACE CLIYDS!!

I love how this one looks reminds me the fact.. to remind you BLUU IS AN ALIEN AND ISNT JUST A UTMV SONA, THEIR AN ALL AROUND SONA !!!

anyways,,, teheheheh SPACE in ROCKET or some shit, uhh I took the pictures of all the sky pics used!!

Don't repost, reblog encouraged

@anon-coke @scramble-eg @michaelsboring @thelunarsystemwrites @the-second-reason

[wellsbering]

feels poignant that college admins are calling the national guard on their own students just for peacefully protesting as we near the 54th anniversary of the kent state shooting

[rtcpollshowdown]

EMPORIA STATE UNIVERSITY - UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

[photos under cut]