Emory University calm Saturday after violent arrests
The campus of Emory University in Atlanta was calm Saturday, following the arrest of protesters and at least two Emory professors Thursday in clashes with police.
On Friday, tenured Emory faculty pushed for a "no confidence" vote of Emory President Gregory Fenves in the wake of the violent arrests.
One of the faculty members who had been arrested — Noelle McAfee, chair of Emory’s philosophy department — told CNN that university administrators made the problem worse on Thursday when they called in the police.
She said police told her to step back as she stood near students who were being arrested.
“Here I am — now, not just a professor but a human being — watching this child being pummeled. I said ‘No’ and I stood there. But I stood there in a way that was non-confrontational. I just stood there. And then I’m arrested.”
Fenves said in a letter Friday that ahead of the arrests there were “highly organized, outside protestors” who came to the campus in vans to "construct an encampment, and overtake the Quad."
But students and faculty who participated in the protests recalled events differently, saying the protesters were mostly students and people affiliated with the university.
One such student, Martin Berg, a third-year law student who had been arrested, put it this way: "What I saw was unprovoked and severe brutality exacted by police that Emory University had allowed to come on campus and assault their students. The message that the president of the University sent regarding outside agitators … was a lie."
"The majority of us (in jail) were associated with the university in one way or another," he added.
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