🚨 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 🇵🇸
At the University of Texas at Austin, dozens of local police and state troopers formed a line to prevent students from marching through the campus, eventually clashing with the protesters and detaining multiple people.
And at the University of Southern California, police removed several tents, then got into a back-and-forth tugging match with protesters over tents before falling back.
"By Crom, serve me a large Savage pie with spinach, garlic, a side of pepperoni rolls, and a cask of mead, or be driven before me as I hear the lamentations of your women!": Conan's Pizza of Austin, Texas, established in 1976 and adorned inside and out with Frank Frazetta art. It's like the Hyborian Afterlife as imagined by Bill & Ted.
Maybe next summer we could come back here for like a couple weeks […]. We could walk through Austin holding hands and it won't even matter if anyone sees us. ✨❤️🤍💙