DC mayor orders police to not respond to request from GWU

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D.C. police rejected pleas from George Washington University officials to clear pro-Palestinian demonstrators out of an on-campus encampment early Friday morning, saying they worried about the optics of moving against a small number of peaceful protesters, according to two officials familiar with the talks.

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Officers had assembled around 3 a.m. Friday and were prepared to enter the encampment, but senior leaders in the police chief’s and mayor’s office ordered them to stand down, the officials said. The demonstrators were small in number and largely peaceful, and the city officials told their university counterparts they wanted to avoid images of violent altercations between police and protesters flashing on TV screens across the country. The George Washington campus in downtown Washington, five blocks from the White House.

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A spokeswoman for George Washington University did not answer questions about school officials’ discussions with law enforcement authorities. The school said in a statement, “After demonstrators refused multiple instructions to relocate, GWPD requested additional support from the DC Metropolitan Police to ensure the safety and security of all our community members through a measured and orderly approach.”

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Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, which advises law enforcement agencies on best practices, said it is rare that an agency would turn down a request from a university to clear unwanted demonstrators from its campus, which is private property. At protests over the war in Gaza on other college campuses, police have sometimes sparred with demonstrators as they have sought to make arrests and break up encampments.

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