by editors, November 10, 2024, 2:25 ///
Timeline:
- Sept 25. Civil Rights complaint against uchicago.
- Oct 11. Week of Rage protest + police brutality.
- Oct 16. Gaza Solidarity Sukkah.
- Oct 18. MECHA Die-In.
- Oct 21. UChicago evicts Arab, pro-Palestine student, forces leave of absence.
- Oct 29. Protestors deliver the petition demanding admin reverse the eviction.
- Oct 30. EJTF action against greenwashing.
- Oct 31. Cop-watching on Halloween.
Sept 25: Palestine Legal and UCUP filed a federal civil rights complaint against uchicago with the Office of Civil Rights + uchicago announces new protest policies
The complaint demands an investigation of uchicago’s discrimination against Palestinian, Muslim and Arab students, as well as students associated with Palestine. The 105-page complaint describing discrimination including: profiling of people on the quad, the raid on the encampment, racist comments by Rabbi Brackman; unending and unfounded disciplinary proceedings including the withholding of degrees; failure to act to protect from doxxing; failure to acknowledge Palestine or provide equal resources for Palestinian students; defacing memorials; discriminatory enforcement of posting and protest policies; sanctions restricting the speech of the National Lawyers Guild at uchicago, and more.
The same week the complaint was announced (Sept 25, 2024), uchicago released “revised” protest policies that are fucked up. They…
- Created a ban of encampments and staying on campus overnight
- cracks down on amplified sound
- Cracks down on “postings” around campus such as anything on windows, poles, fencing, or buildings etc.
- Create a new quad reservation form process which has led to groups either never getting a response or only getting approved the day before.
- Stricter building access rules to prevent nonstudents accessing Uchicago buildings
The new policy:
Oct 11: Week of Rage Action & Police Brutality
In response to the zionist entity’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and massacres in Lebanon, protestors locked the main gate of uchicago shut before hanging a banner reading “FREE PALESTINE – HANDS OFF LEBANON.” Protestors then marched to the nuclear bomb statue (which is designed to look like the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion and the shape + eye sockets of a skull) and painted it red. Tags reading FREE GAZA, FUCK THE BOMBS, KEEP ESCALATING proliferated, and balloons full of paint were thrown at the statue. As the crowd began marching north to disperse, CPD took the opportunity to attack them.
20+UCPD and 30+CPD attacked protestors. The crowd moved to protect each other from the attack, and multiple dearrests occurred. When cops singled out a protestor and put them in a squad car, protestors surrounded the car and refused to leave. A 20-minute standoff between the cops and the protestors ensued. Then Sgt. Grays (well-known for stopping ppl and arresting them around hyde park and for being a brutal piece of shit, as well as for his impressively well-groomed beard) ordered the squad car to “just drive”, reflecting his long-held desire to murder protestors. The cops then accelerated the car into the crowd, which refused to yield. Grays and at least 2 other UCPD cops then began to repeatedly pepper spray upwards of 20 protestors plus a CPD captain and at least one other CPD officer—the cops were really hitting anyone in the vicinity, as even if they wanted to aim, that was, it seems, not within their abilities. A UCPD cop was hit by some of Sgt. Grays’ pepper spray, and took out his frustration on dispersing protestors, first by shoving them, then pepper spraying others. Meanwhile, CPD was beating protestors with batons—one later remarked, “that was fun for a little while.” In the midst of this police onslaught, protestors continued to protect each other, and some helped with eye-washes.
Meanwhile, the tags and paint on the statue were up for days, and some of the other tags in the surrounding area are still visible. The university hired an outside company to “restore” the nuclear bomb statue (a costly process).
The cop attack on protestors was a substantial escalation relative to protest repression on campus last year. UCPD have been increasing their attacks on protestors since the encampment and the IOP occupation, as we saw at graduation last year where pepper spray was used, and this attack showed that graduation was not an outlier, but rather part of an escalating trajectory by UCPD. Also, UCPD has had an increased + violent presence (with increased stops and arrests) throughout Hyde Park (see report back on copwatching during Halloween). For CPD meanwhile, their response is in line with CPD’s intensified attacks on protestors since the DNC (Chicago got 75 million from the DOJ for DNC security funds and nearly half went to CPD including overtime, personnel, supplies and equipment).
On Oct 11, protestors chose to defend each other, confronting the cops, rather than abandoning people to capture. When facing police violence, at other actions we’ve witnessed protestors abandon, isolate, or simply standby immobile as comrades are captured. Such isolation and abandonment is reprehensible and is symptomatic of the liberalization of “struggle” into (often authoritarian) organizations that strictly limit what constitutes sanctioned actions, who wish to control and channel protestors solely into their (exclusively civil) tactics (most often, parades), and when people act differently, leave them to the cops (or hand them over). We cannot control the fucked up shit cops do, but we can choose to do what we can to protect each other, and we can refuse to accept the limitations on actions that the “u.s.” government has long inculcated to diminish and crush resistance and militancy. Right now, as the Zionist entity escalates its ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza, as people look away even as the genocide intensifies daily—right now more than ever we cannot afford to fail at the call for strategic escalation, to act for liberation by every means.
The week of rage marked a year into the current genocide of Palestinians in Gaza by the zionist entity, a year of resistance, and 75+ years of colonization and ethnic cleansing. Here in the “u.s.”, whether at the university, in the city, or in the street, the Palestine movement has to recognize and confront its enemies: the university, the police, “u.s.” civil society, and the state, all of which collaborate to facilitate dispossession, land theft, and occupation at home and abroad. On Oct 11, protestors targeted uchicago’s property, interrupting business as usual at uchicago, whose financial and institutional ties with the Zionist entity mirror its objective role as a colonial purpose on Chicago’s South Side. Locking the gate hit back at a university which refuses to even acknowledge the destruction of Gazan universities and the ongoing genocide. Targeting the nuclear bomb statue rejects the alleged “neutrality” of research and development programs which directly abet the slaughter in Gaza and Lebanon. And the spontaneous decision to surround a squad car, defend each other against two police departments, and not back down was a moment of political clarity in the face of pepper spray and batons: the police are an occupying force, and the movement for a free Palestine will have to go through them.
Main gate locked, banner saying “FREE PALESTINE, HANDS OFF LEBANON” hung on gate.
Cops in a highly intelligent state of shock behind the gate after protestors won the struggle to lock it. From left to right, the second cop is Sgt Grays. Both Grays and the cop farthest to the left pepper sprayed people. (let us know who the cop on the left of the photo is if you know!)
Tags say FUCK THE BOMBS, FREE GAZA, KEEP ESCALATING, FREE GAZA. The tag on the truck was still up as of Oct 31.
Oct 16 – Oct 27: Gaza Solidarity Sukkah
UChicago Jews for a Free Palestine set up a Gaza Solidarity Sukkah on the quad by Swift. The Gaza Solidarity Sukkah at uchicago was part of a national movement of anti-Zionist Jewish students constructing solidarity sukkahs across campuses—and many of those sukkahs were dismantled by police. The sukkah here was able to stay up due to permission from one of the schools (though not from the broader university which is currently pursuing a practice of ignoring quad requests). Because the sukkah stayed up, it became a powerful place of community, prayer, and protest with interfaith services, art, and song.
UChicago Jews for a Free Palestine provided this description of the sukkah on Oct 16 on Insta:
Sukkot commemorates the time after the exodus from Egypt when Jews are commanded to erect sukkot–temporary booths–with roofs made from natural materials. Through this festival, we remember the 40 years the Israelites spent displaced from their homes, wandering in the desert and living in temporary structures after their flight from Egypt, as well as God’s providence in sustaining them.
As we begin a festival where we construct temporary housing, we cannot look away from the genocide happening in Gaza, Palestine and Lebanon right now. Our sukkah is meant to express our solidarity with all victims of Zionism, especially those suffering in Gaza, Lebanon and beyond. As we set up temporary huts, our hearts are with those in Gaza, where 90% of the population has been displaced from their homes. During this harvest holiday, many continue to die from starvation due to Israel’s blockade. They have suffered unbearable horrors and continue to fear for their lives.
Throughout Sukkot, we will continue to fundraise for Mahmoud Alhaj and the Alhaj family, who are currently living in Nuseirat refugee camp and suffer from frequent threats to their lives. They are fundraising for eventual evacuation to Egypt. Consider donating at bit.ly/Help4Mahmoud.
We continue to demand that the University of Chicago divest from genocide, occupation and settler-colonialism and we are committed to building Jewish spaces on campus free from Zionism. To us, the impermanence of the sukkah tells us that we make our home where we are, among community, not within the fixed boundaries of nationalism.
Oct 18: MECHA Die-In
On October 18th, MECHA gave a teach-in on Latin American and Palestinian interconnected struggles against genocide and for liberation. The teach-in highlighted the zionist entity’s relationships and support of right-wing groups and regimes across Latin America; the zionist entity’s involvement (alongside the “u.s.” of course) arming the Guatemalan genocide of indigenous people, training death squads in El Salvador, supporting the military dictatorship in Argentina, and supplying weapons to the Contras. Then protestors participated in a die-in at the center of the quad, refusing business as usual while uchicago remains complicit in genocide.
See https://www.instagram.com/p/DBZSSG_S8ZP/.
Oct 21: Eviction
On Oct. 21, 2 Deans and 2 UCPD cops showed up at student A.’s door. They gave him just minutes to packs backpack before evicting him from his dorm, leaving him homeless. They put him on an indefinite leave of absence, cut off access to his meal plan, and informed him that if he returns to campus he will be arrested. Admin’s decision violates both uchicago’s own disciplinary procedures and Illinois housing law.
The Deans and UCPD told A. that these sanctions—imposed without any procedures or proof—were because of his participation in the Oct 11 pro-Palestine protest at uchicago, during which the police pepper-sprayed protestors, beat protestors with batons, and rove a squad car into the crowd. Oct 11 was A.’s first time going to a protest at uchicago. Now he’s barred from campus on threat of arrest, evicted from his housing, and forced on an indefinite leave of absence.
An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us, and we won’t stand for this eviction. We demand that UChicago lift this forced leave of absence and let this student return to his housing and education immediately! Sign the petition, call admin, and email admin at this link: linktr.ee/no_evict_uofc.
Oct 29: approx. 50 protestors delivered the petition to the Dean of Students’ office inside Harper. At that time, there were over 1,500 signatories to petition. Protestors began by rallying outside Harper, before marching to the Dean’s suite, and delivering the petition to a representative of the Dean of Students in the College, posting it on the board by the Dean of Students Office, and chanting in the office suite before dispersing.
While uchicago chose to target and evict this student, they protect white supremacists like undergrad Daniel Schmidt and cops like Nicholas Twardak. Daniel Schmidt posted vitriolic, racist tweets this past summer and, last year, tweeted the photo and email of an instructor planning a class called “The Problem with Whiteness”—he used his twitter following to incite violence and hate speech against the instructor, leading to her receiving death threats and mass media attention. Twardak, a UCPD cop, shot Charles Soji Thomas, a UChicago student of color experiencing a mental health crisis, on the quad in 2018. Then, in 2022, Twardak shot Rhysheen Wilson 5 times during a mental health crisis. Uchicago not only didn’t penalize Twardak—they gave Twardak a fully funded master’s degree at Harris School of Public Policy. He graduated in 2024.
Oct 30: EJTF action
On October 30, 2024, the Environmental Justice Task Force held a rally and an art build outside of uchicago’s climate frontier event. The university’s premier greenwashing event was awash in hypocrisy, claiming the university’s alleged commitment to the alleged “scale and breadth of the University’s activities on energy and climate change”. Dozens of students, recognizing the sheer hypocrisy of this event, put on by an institution that received the lowest possible score in the Amnesty International endowment score – a 0/40.
Dozens of students worked together to create a banner stating “UChicago Invests in Death, DIVEST NOW.” Students simultaneously wrote statements such as “UChicago Invests in Death”, “Divest Now”, and “Fuck the Board of Trustees” outside of the David Rubenstein Forum. Students also handed out fliers, pictured below, describing the university’s hypocrisy surrounding climate action. As per the flier, despite claiming to be an institution dedicated to fighting the climate crisis, uchicago invests in fossil fuel companies like BP, Shell, and Phillips 66, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, as well as investing heavily in weapons contractors, directly contributing to death, displacement, and increased fossil fuel emissions. Uchicago has also failed to decrease emissions due to buying up more and more property on the South Side, as it is far more dedicated to displacing Black folks than to solving the climate crisis. Speakers from EJTF, CNC, UCAD, and SJP further spoke to the many pillars of uchicago’s hypocrisy, including their investments in the israeli genocide, which has put more pollutants in the atmosphere than every other global conflict in the past 20 years combined, and their continued practices of violent displacement on the South Side.
Oct 31: CNC copwatching + ramping up
This Halloween, CPD and UCPD took the streets to once again brutalize Black and Brown teenagers on 53rd street. Care not Cops continued our annual copwatching in collaboration with Good Kids Mad City as an attempt to hold cops accountable and keep folks safe in the face of police violence.
While increased cop presence is business as usual for the city of chicago, this year marked a significant ramping up of police violence. As per usual, CPD and UCPD set up their respective bike lines, in front of Virtue and Harper Court respectively. As seen below, dozens of cops stood by their bikes, anticipating the moment where they would have the chance to inflict violence on a crowd of primarily teenagers who were simply celebrating halloween. The university and the city of chicago collaborate to ensure that kids in chicago can’t simply enjoy halloween with their friends. Instead, they have to face walls of cops in both marked and unmarked cars and be subjected to violent detainments and police brutality.
Early into the night, as a crowd was cheering on a brass band performance, cops broke into the crowd and violently detained a teenage girl. CNC copwatchers documented the situation, and folks from GKMC spoke to the cops, eventually ensuring her release after being threatened and aggressed by CPD. Later, as folks gathered near the end of the night grabbing food and hanging out with friends, CPD issued a no loitering order of the area, and when folks didn’t immediately disperse, they grabbed someone from the crowd, threw him to the ground, and surrounded him. Over 20 cops were on the scene, and when asked if the young man was under arrest, they refused to respond and instead played a dispersal order over a loudspeaker.
UCPD and CPD weren’t the only ones on the scene this year. The Chicago Crime Chasers, a group of volunteer pseudo-cops, took to the streets to brutalize and threaten Black and Brown teenagers absolutely for free. They approached a group of kids eating wingstop prior to curfew, telling them that they “couldn’t wait to see them get caught/brutalized/i forget by the cops” once curfew started. These unpaid volunteer cops were thrilled to collaborate with CPD and UCPD, terrorizing teenagers as they attempted to simply enjoy Halloween.
