Austin city council members react to chaotic week at UT Austin

AUSTIN, Texas — The pro -Palestine protest at the University of Texas at Austin made headlines nationwide.

Over 50 people, including a photojournalist, were arrested at Wednesday’s protest, and that was just the beginning of what would be a news-filled week.

It’s been a busy week at UT, to say the least. From protests to arrests to the suspension of a pro-Palestine student group, CBS Austin got a front row seat to it all.

“It was extremely disturbing to see,” said District 9 council member Zo Qadri.

Qadri and other council members weighed in on the protests and how they were handled.

“What we saw was seemingly peaceful protestors, exercising their first amendment rights,” said District 2 council member Vanessa Fuentes.

The order to deploy Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to the protest came from the direction of Governor Greg Abbott.

“For some reason, the governor felt it necessary to call in state troopers in riot gear to quell what seemed to be a very peaceful protest,” said District 5 council member Ryan Alter.

What started at as a peaceful protest organized by the UT student group Palestine Solidarity Committee, would erupt into complete chaos.

Hundreds of members of several law enforcement agencies overtook the campus, and 57 arrests were made, including several UT students, for criminal trespass.

“I still don’t understand why these protestors were met with the response that they were met with; the reception they were met with,” Qadri said. “Why were they met with the type of force they were met with? Why was DPS involved? Why was UTPD, you know, out here? Why was APD involved in the manners they were involved?”

Some of the students arrested spoke to CBS Austin Thursday. One said the zip ties used to restrain her were too tight, injuring her arms. She also said an officer knelt on her back during the arrest, despite her getting on the ground voluntarily and not resisting.

“What we saw was an excessive and flagrant use of force,” Fuentes said.

The same day of the protest, UT President Jay Hartzell released a statement, defending his decision to bring in law enforcement agencies on campus, stating that the Palestine Solidarity Committee had threatened to occupy the campus.

Thursday, all of the protestors arrested were released from the Travis County jail and charges would be dropped.

“That is the system working, right?” Alter said. “I’m very encouraged to see that our county attorney Delia Garza did drop those charges, because they didn’t seem to be appropriate.”

A planned protest at UT on Thursday against the state-mandated diversity, equity, and inclusion ban was canceled and another, albeit much calmer, pro-Palestine protest took place.

Also on Thursday, several faculty members and students called for the removal of Hartzell and noted that they were putting forward a statement of no confidence in UT’s president.

“The UT community needs to decide what should and shouldn’t have happened and figure out what broke down and what quite didn’t meet the public’s expectations,” Alter said. “ The president is ultimately the one who is in charge and responsible, and so it’s my hope that he will use this as a learning lesson.”

Friday, UT suspended the Palestine Solidarity Committee, citing an alleged violation of institutional rules.

The university also handed out a letter stating that anyone who was warned or arrested from criminal trespass could be arrested or re-arrested if they returned to campus, but said it’s an interim action, which means they’d still be allowed on campus for academic reasons and could still access university resources with approval.

The DEI protest that was supposed to take place Thursday is slated to happen on Monday afternoon.