DALLAS – It was another day of protests on Thursday at the University of Texas at Austin with pushing and shoving between police and protesters.

Nearly 60 people were arrested Wednesday, including a FOX 7 news photographer.

The arrests, especially of a journalist, raise questions about the right to assemble and freedom of the press.

Voices were raised in chants on the second day of protests at UT Austin.

There were a number of different groups, including some university staff. 

Stewing at how the university and law enforcement responded to protests over the Israel-Hamas war Wednesday, some faculty members are now seeking a recall vote of UT President Jay Hartzell.

The FOX 7 photographer was released from jail Thursday morning as were many others who were arrested for criminal trespass on Wednesday.

Thomas Leatherbury is director of the First Amendment Clinic at SMU. He says journalists should not be jailed for covering public demonstrations.

“I feel particularly pained by the arrest of photographers,” he said. “They’re not protesting; they’re covering the protest. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they caught footage of a disproportionate police response, and that’s why they were arrested.”

Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted Wednesday in defense of his decision to send DPS officers to the campus, saying, “Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled”

The UT president is also defending the use of law enforcement against protest groups he said “tried to deliver on their stated intent to occupy campus.”

But Thursday, the Travis County district attorney dropped all charges against the FOX 7 photographer and others, writing, “We individually reviewed each case that was presented… There were deficiencies in the probable cause affidavits. The court affirmed and ordered the release of those individuals.”

“I’m not surprised. That’s what District Attorney Creuzot did to the vast majority, if not all, of the criminal charges that were filed in Dallas after the murder of George Floyd, and I think that’s the right thing to do,” Leatherbury said. “Unless you have specific evidence that an individual was engaging in violent conduct, then I think err on the side of protecting protests and certainly err on the side of protecting peaceful protests.”

Colleges and universities do have the right to set reasonable time, place, manner and restrictions on peaceful public protests, and state officials can enforce criminal laws if the laws are applicable.

“It’s going to be a real fact-intensive exercise to see, was the police response disproportionate to what was going on? Was there unprotected speech that was happening?” Leatherbury wondered. “For example, was it peaceful or was there true threats to Jewish students or true threats to Pro-Palestinian students?”

Leatherbury pointed out that even if the protests crossed the line into hate speech, that is still legally protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The news photographer now has outside private counsel and was advised to not talk about his arrest or night in jail.

AUSTIN, Texas — State officials and University of Texas at Austin faculty and student organizations have taken to social media to react to Wednesday’s demonstrations protesting the Israel-Hamas war. 

The protests were organized by the Palestinian Solidarity Committee of Austin to show solidarity with other pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses around the country. The group said that the goal of the demonstration was to demand a ceasefire in Gaza and ask that the university divest from companies funding Israel’s military. 

The demonstrators were met with a heavy police presence, which, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety, was at the request of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. 

Abbott said on X, formerly Twitter, that the demonstrations were antisemitic and the protesters “belong in jail.”

“Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled,” Abbott said. 

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also called the protests “antisemitic” and applauded the police response. 

“I’m glad that UT Police & Texas DPS are responding to this situation with the seriousness it deserves,” Cruz said in a post on X. 

Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin, said on X that peaceful assembly and free speech are “basic constitutional rights.”

“Student protesters — whether you agree with them or not — have a right to safety and fairness. Responding to peaceful demonstrations with weapons and riot gear escalates tensions and makes everyone less safe,” Casar said. 

At the local level, Austin City Council member Zo Qadri released a statement about the campus protests. He called the response by state law enforcement a “wasteful show of force.” 

The Palestinian Solidarity Committee of Austin posted on Instagram that they were joining another walk out Thursday afternoon to “stand with” the protesters arrested Wednesday and with the people of Gaza. The post also called for the resignation of UT Austin President Jay Hartzell.

Hartzell sent a letter to the campus community Wednesday evening thanking staff members and law enforcement for their response to the event. 

Hartzell said that while “peaceful protests” are acceptable on campus, the group leading the protest on Wednesday “was going to violate Institutional Rules.”

“Our University will not be occupied,” Hartzell said. “The protesters tried to deliver on their stated intent to occupy campus. People not affiliated with UT joined them, and many ignored University officials’ continual pleas for restraint and to immediately disperse.”

A group of UT Austin faculty members released a statement Wednesday night condemning Hartzell and the police response to the protest. 

“Instead of allowing our students to go ahead with their peaceful planned action, our leaders turned our campus into a militarized zone,” the statement said. 

The faculty members said that they are concerned with students’ safety and that some of the faculty witnessed police “violently arresting students.”

“There can be no business as usual when our campus is occupied by city police and state troopers who are preventing our students from engaging in a peaceful demonstration of their First Amendment rights,” the statement said. “By bringing militarized and armed forces onto our campus, and refusing to call them off even with ample evidence of police abuse and endangerment of students, you have made our entire campus community unsafe.”

The faculty members behind the statement said they were planning to gather with the students at 12:15 p.m. Thursday to join the Texas State Employees Union’s rally against the university’s firing of more than 60 staff members because of the state’s new law banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on college campuses.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, 34 people were arrested in connection to the UT Austin demonstration Wednesday. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Travis County Sheriff’s Office told the Austin American-Statesman that 57 people were booked into the Travis County Jail in connection to the protest, and their charges have all been disposed. 

One of the people detained was a photographer for Fox 7 Austin, who was covering the demonstration. The Associated Press reported that the photographer “was in the push-and-pull when an officer yanked him backward to the ground, video shows.”

A student told the AP that he believed the police presence was an “overreaction.”

“Because of all the arrests, I think a lot more (demonstrations) are going to happen,” Dane Urquhart told the AP.  

Protests have popped up all around the country at colleges and universities this week, inspired by an encampment established by students at Columbia University last week that is still underway.

UT Austin isn’t the only Texas university to host demonstrations. Multiple other college campuses in Dallas, San Antonio and Houston saw student-led protests to support Palestinians. 

Rice University saw a two-day encampment on Tuesday and Wednesday put on by the Rice Students for Justice in Palestine. According to an Instagram post from the group, the goal was to establish a “Liberated Zone” on campus to show solidarity with the pro-Palestinian student movement across the country. 

At the University of Texas at San Antonio, students marched through campus Wednesday to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. UTSA officials warned on social media of increased law enforcement presence on campus Wednesday morning ahead of the expected protest.

According to the Dallas Morning News, a sit-in was staged at the University of Texas at Dallas on Tuesday, with about 100 students occupying the administration building for a few hours. 

The Dallas Morning News also reported a walk-out at the University of Texas at Arlington on Wednesday.